The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems: A Piece of the Sustainability Puzzle

on the state of the nation’s environment (Executive Office of the President 1997). The intent was to create something with broad political credibility—something that would not be viewed as the voice of one particular sector, interest group, or political camp. Rather, the goal was to provide decision makers and the public with periodic, non-partisan reports, focusing on aspects of ecosystem condition that are valued by society as a whole, and describing them in ways that are as objective and free from policy bias as possible. Scientific credibility was also viewed as crucial to such an undertaking: while such reports would need to be understandable to a general audience, its more scientifically-versed readers should find it substantively correct and well-documented. Developing such reports clearly would require close interaction with the myriad monitoring programs that currently provide extremely valuable data on environmental conditions across the country. Indeed, the process of developing such a report would provide an excellent opportunity for pointing out gaps in the overall coverage of these extremely important programs. Finally, just as it took years to establish the suite of economic indicators as an American institution during the first half of last century, it will take several iterations and perhaps many years to develop and refine to maturity a succinct, yet powerful suite of indicators of ecosystem condition and use. Ultimately, the goal is to move environmental debates beyond arguments over whose data are better, to more productive conversations about what changes are needed given the current state of affairs, and how we, as a society, might attain these goals