Can anyone please help me correct my essay, the grade depends on me graduating. thank you

Clackamas County, a county split by the arcade ranges a complete opposite West to the East. The significant differences start with temperature; the west is rather warmer and receives double precipitation than the East. It is also split in its population, most of the rivers and cities are in the western side closer to the pacific ocean so most people reside there in contrast to the East were its less densely populated: most are employees that work on the farms. As we all know where there are people there is economy and people follow money, the main source of economy for the West is focused more on that of the service industry, whereas that of the East is more of farming and lumbering. Now I will go far in depth in analyzing the information I researched and found the differences between the West and East in Clackamas’s environmental characteristics, its population and its economy compacted all into clearly seeing the main differences in the rich west and the poor east that the arcade range split has caused.
Clackamas is located in North Oregon, 19 miles South of Portland and 43 miles N of Salem; Oregon’s Capital. Oregon is Near Washington State to the north, Idaho to the east, California to the south and the Pacific Ocean to the west.
Clackamas County is fortunate to be the wealthiest county in Oregon State according to co.clackamas.or.us, since the median household income in 2007 was $61,000 per person a year, compared to the national average currently at $50,000 so it is higher and by more than 11,000 this makes a big difference. Since the information I researched gives me only the information for the overall county then I did some extra research to find out the real differences in the economy between the populated, urban West and the forested, mountainous east. According to quickfacts.com Lake Oswego which is one of Clackamas’ largest city with a population of 36,350 <co.Clackamas.or.us> it is located in the west portion of the arcade range, has a median household income of $94,587 as of 1999 which extremely high as the national is only $50,000. In contrast Estacada which is a small town with only 2,371 people <co.Clackamas.or.us> in the less urban east has a median household income of $46,445. This is not as low as the national average but compared to the income in Lake Oswego it has decreased by half and all of this change occurs in 2 cities less than 42 miles apart according to maps.google.com.

Also the Per Capita Income is higher than the national average, Clackamas PCM is $25,973. Alongside with the high Median Household Money Income and a high Per Rate Capita income, comes the very low poverty rate taken into account in 2007 which was at 9.2%, this is lower than the national and state, both at 13%. This helps make Clackamas county one of the wealthiest county in Oregon, meaning less poor people and this could also mean lower unemployment rate, so I did some extra research and found another interesting split from the West and East. In Lake Oswego which is in the western part, the unemployment rate is 5.34% and in Estacada that is in the eastern part, the unemployment rate is 10.30% according to bestplaces.net, this ties in with the low median household income and low population in Estacada. Not many people want to live far away from the job or the cities; this creates an increase in the West urban part of the county where houses are closer to jobs and transportation.

The low poverty rate also has to do with the personal current transfer receipts such as income maintenance, unemployment and retirement which only make up 10.5% of the total income which is 4 percentage points less than the national percent average. This could also be due to the low percentage of older people in the county; so they need less help of the government and retirement benefits. An estimated 380,576 people currently reside in Clackamas County: It has grown slowly but steady, its population grew only 50,000 in the 1^st 60 years of the 1900s, and after 1950 until 2000 it grew faster at about 175,000. This fits the pattern of a suburban location that grew rather slow before the 1960s but grew rapidly after that time when agriculture was not as important, since there is not much space or fertile soil to use because of the many mountains and forests, but the soils that are usable are being taken advantage to its fullest as I will tell you later on.

Even though the county as a whole has grown, the western part is the one that has grown the most and has become far more urbanized than the east. An example of this is from co.clackamas.or.us I will use the same 2 cities to show this split, in Lake Oswego the population in 1990 was 20,576 and in 2000 its population had increased to 36,350, this is all in just 10 years. I think this growth is due to the nearness to Portland city which is one of the biggest cities in all of Oregon and Washington State; Lake Oswego is only about 19 miles from Portland so it is very fast to commute to work and still leave in Clackamas county. Also many people enjoy the Coast Marine ecoregion, they have mild summers and winters with temperatures of 75F in the summer and 46 F in the winter, the temperature does not change much from season to season. They also receive precipitation of about 88.3 inches a year because of their proximity to the Pacific Ocean. This is also a great place for adults’ just starting college or just finishing college. This also came up during my research: the greatest percentages of the population are people in the ages of 18-26. This could be due to the great climate that many are looking for when they head off to college and then stay for the nearness to large cities where jobs are, such as Portland as I said previously. Clackamas County has 4 colleges so many students probably reside there to be close to the college; this also explains the large percentage of 18-26 year olds. In contrast Estacada’s population in 1990 was 2,016 and in 2000 it had only increased to 2,371; this is a growth of only 355 people in 10 years. This is due to the low employment rate; the distance to be able to travel to work, since it is a small town and there aren’t many jobs so most people have to travel to the western part of the county were most big cities and jobs are. But transportation is very difficult since you have to cross the arcade ranges and there aren’t many roads in the eastern side.

Most Eastern side is dependent on agriculture and lumbering, hence the rich soils and forests. The highest crop is forage at 24,715 along side with cut Christmas trees at 23,295, lumbering is easily due to the many trees since most of the eastern is forest. The rich soils, stable seasons and great weather with not too much precipitation but just enough to grow crops; at about 45 inches of rain a year compared to that of the west with 80 inches, this amount make it great for farming. The highest LQ is for farm employment: 2.30, there is a 3.6% farm employment whereas in the United States it is only 1.6%. This also follows the pattern as we saw in class, that the region that Clackamas is located in is diversified farming, therefore Floriculture is ranked the highest commodity group <floriculture is the culture of flowers>. This also came up in the discussions we had in little groups during class and all diversified farming counties had floriculture in their top 10.
In terms of the economy for the western part it is mostly in the service industry. Retail trade is the highest employer at 11.3%, Health care and social assistance at 9.5%. Since most people live in the Western part of the county and most big cities are located there than most jobs are concentrated there as well. And where there are jobs there has to be transportation, Interstate 26 runs through the county and highway 20 goes along the middle of the county providing ways of transportation all throughout the western part of the county. The most significant is interstate 5 since it goes from the Northern tip to the Southern tip passing Oregon city, West Lynn and Wilsonville, the 3 most populated and important cities in Clackamas. The Western part of Clackamas County has many rivers and fishing is also a great source of its income. The largest river is the Willamette which lies along the western border of the county, Sandy River, Bull Run and the most significant is the Clackamas River; which goes along the middle of the county splitting the North and the South.

I hope you have seen the main differences the split of the arcade range has created between the west and east in its environment: temperature, precipitation which can also lead to its economy, such as farming, lumbering in the east and service industries in the west. And could also see how cities in the east are less populated and have a falling economy in contrast to the populated and well developed west.