Wanted: a new framework; Polices to rebuild and restore the environment must take the big view: they must take both human and natural systems into account.

In this space last year (Summer 2005) I wrote about the need to take a new look at the mission of AMERICAN FORESTS--not to change it, but to clarify what we mean when we say our mission is to "grow a healthier world with trees." Trees and forests are America's natural capital endowment. They provide homes for wildlife, shade for our cities. They clean our air and water. If we are to be wise investors of this natural trust, we should work to protect the principle: our forests, our wetlands, our rivers, our wild migration corridors. Our proposition is simple: preserve that natural capital endowment and live off the interest--the ecosystems services that these places generate, such as water filtration.

At AMERICAN FORESTS, we have long worked to preserve nature's savings account. We believe that the capital stored in a forest is much more than timber board-feet and tons of fiber. It includes an overarching green infrastructure: forest floors that filter rain and retain storm water, leaves that clean air, shade canopy that protects cities and towns across the country from the extremes of heat and cold.

To make these benefits more tangible, AMERICAN FORESTS has developed computer software to calculate the value of the services that forest cover can provide. Hundreds of cities, towns, schools and government agencies now use this tool.

Our work to document the full value of forest cover has inspired a new awakening for AMERICAN FORESTS. We have come to believe that it's not only natural capital assets that are undervalued. When decisions are made about land use and land development, ecosystem services are also often overlooked, primarily because their value is not well understood.

As a result of these oversights, the root causes of environmental degradation often go unrecognized and unaddressed. This forces those who fight for environmental quality to push for restoration, to try to clean up after the damage has been done.

Forests and open space are under increasing stress. As land development expands ever outward, the size of our natural capital endowment is shrinking. This situation threatens eco-bankruptcy. We can't let that happen.

We dedicate this entire issue of American Forests magazine to addressing the challenge of protecting, restoring and enhancing our natural capital endowment. We hope to take up the challenge of integrating environmental systems within the growing network of human systems.

Human systems for trade, transportation, communication and development have long been considered separate from the environmental systems that surround them. Today it is clear that they are not separate. Human systems and environmental systems interact in ways that are direct, intense and intricate. Accordingly, policies to rebuild and restore the environment must take the big view: They must take both human and natural systems into account.

The articles that follow examine the historic origins of the conservation and environmental movements. They assess the environmental issues we face today in the context of the global systems with which nature interacts. They describe a new way of responding to environmental challenges.

We are calling for a bold new framework that will accommodate both nature and development. We must fully engage business and industry, government and environmental advocates. We must begin thinking of the environment as being all around us all the time, rather than as some separate place "out there."

Federal policy needs to be overhauled. Policy advocacy must be smarter. A new national framework for responding to the environment must be more than the mission of one organization. It must be a movement that engages everyone.

This magazine issue begins the conversation that we hope will help make this new response a reality. Read it, share it, and let us know what you think.

DEBORAH GANGLOFF

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

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