Why Nature Matters

Our lives depend upon the natural world. We can’t eat, breath, or drink without it. Yet, humanity has been fairly cavalier about keeping that natural world functioning. We’ve polluted the air and water, altered 95% of habitat, and consumed a vast amount of non-renewable resources over the ages as humans have come to dominate the earth. Global warming is being caused by human activity at a rate unprecedented in the history of the planet. We have reached a critical juncture, where it is time to modify our treatment of the natural world or face terrible consequences.

We must reel in our consumption of resources, stop polluting the air and water, and restore habitat sufficiently to sustain the web of life and the efficient functioning of natural services. No longer can we afford to disregard the environmental impact of our actions. The lives of future generations depend upon the natural world remaining intact; in order to continue to provide us with clean water, food and air we can breathe. We must learn to live sustainably—consuming no more than can be reasonably provided without destroying the natural services that sustain life on earth.

The landscape industry is in a unique position to contribute to the restoration of the natural world. We have the opportunity to position ourselves as part of the solution to restoring the full functioning of natural services or we can stand as an obstacle to that restoration. We can lead the way, establishing our profession as experts in the stewardship of precious resources, or we can drag our feet—providing roadblock after roadblock, until society legislates our industry out of existence.

One of the biggest ironies of our industry is that the current process of creating built landscape destroys the natural world. We take complex ecosystems that provide efficient services we depend upon and modify them into simplistic environments that actually tax those services. Where multi-faceted, intact natural landscapes filter precipitation, process waste, manufacture oxygen and nitrogen, sequester carbon, moderate temperature, and provide habitat for the majority of species in this world; simplistic, built landscapes contribute much less toward these functions and provide habitat for only a handful of species. Instead, we create landscapes that require constant input of resources—water, fertilizer, chemicals, and labor to keep them from reverting to their natural state.

Elsewhere, in this world, we wouldn’t tolerate such inefficiency. Businesses don’t succeed if there’s more going out than coming in. It’s time we hold landscapes up to a higher standard—requiring them to sustain plants and wildlife that in turn provide us with air to breath, water to drink, and food to drink.