VIRGINIA
TECH PROFESSOR HELPS CREATE WAY FOR AMERICA
TO MEASURE ECOSYSTEM HEALTH
BLACKSBURG, Oct. 15, 2002 A new environmental
study opens the way for the nation to judge
the health of its ecosystems. Thomas Fox,
Virginia Tech's associate forestry professor
in the College of Natural Resources, served
on the working group which authored the chapter
on forest ecosystems and which also reviewed
the full report.
"The State of the Nation's Ecosystems identifies
what should be measured, counted, and reported
so that decision makers and the public can
understand the changes that are occurring
on the American landscape, set priorities
for action, and see whether we are achieving
our environmental goals," says Fox. The report
identifies major gaps in what is known about
the nation's lands, waters, and living resources,
and proposes periodic reporting of key indicators
that will inform and influence policy decisions
for generations to come.
The
H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics,
and the Environment completed the report after
spending four years examining the current
state of America's natural resources. "The
report is intended to serve as a way of judging
the health of the ecosystems in the United
States in the same manner that leading economic
indicators such as the GDP and unemployment
index are used to judge the health of the
economy," explains Fox.
An
unprecedented collaboration of 150 government,
business, academic, and environmental leaders
produced the study that designed indicators
to measure and report on the condition and
use of the country's natural resources. The
report provides indicators for the nation
as a whole and for its coasts, oceans, forests,
farmlands, fresh waters, grasslands, and shrublands,
as well as for urban and suburban areas. For
each of these systems, the study describes
current conditions and trends, as well as
reports on ten key characteristics of ecosystems
that should be tracked over time.
The
report seeks to answer key questions about
the condition of ecosystems in the United
States, such as how much area does an ecosystem
or land cover type occupy; how much nitrogen,
phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon are found in
different ecosystems; and how is the quality
of key ecosystem products (food, fiber, and
water) changing over time.
Funding for the report was provided by nine
federal agencies and 13 corporations and foundations,
which were commissioned by the White House
Office of Science and Technology Policy. The
report calls for annual updates and a revised
edition every five years. The State of the
Nation's Ecosystems report is available, in
full text, at no charge, at www.heinzctr.org/ecosytems.
