E is for Ecosystem Services

When you look at the dollar value of a forest it is often about the trees and land.  How many board feet or cubic meters of wood there is and what is the ability of the land to produce more trees.  The land also has a development value, how about lots of homes or apartments?

Of course there are other values a forest has, its ecosystem service value, it just isn’t as quantifiable, usually.  That may be changing.  Less than a year ago the Chinese government flew (and paid the rest of the expenses) Dr. Bob Deal of the US Forest Service over to see how they might be able to enhance a forests ability to provide ecosystem services and to begin quantifying their contributions.  Water, cleaner air, carbon sequestration, wildlife habitat, slope stability are just a fraction of the services a forest provides just by its being.  Little trees and big trees, both, at different times, contribute differently.  The wildflowers of a perceived meadow do not bloom (or even exist) under the shade of a dense forest.

Ecosystem services, like the Chinese are recognizing, have a value that will no doubt grow into a market of their own.