Note that the data published in the 2002 State of the Nation’s Ecosystems Report as well as the 2003 and 2005 Web-Only Updates have been superseded by the 2008 Report and thus should be used with caution. For the most recent data, purchase the 2008 Report from Island Press.

Origin, Principles, and Process

Late in 1995, as part of its review of federal environmental monitoring efforts, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) asked The Heinz Center to create a nonpartisan, scientifically grounded report on the state of the nation’s environment. Acknowledging the relatively sophisticated reporting that already existed on many physical and chemical components of the environment (e.g., air quality, stream flows), OSTP proposed that The Heinz Center focus on ecosystems—that is, on the nation’s living resources and the landscapes and waters they inhabit. In undertaking this effort, The Heinz Center and its collaborators were guided by a fundamental conviction that, to be useful, The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems must

• Be scientifically credible. Too many earlier efforts were disregarded because they were perceived as willing to accept any data available, or because their conclusions were not based in sound science. The report’s content must benefit from input and review from a wide range of scientific and technical experts.
• Be nonpartisan, both in content and in process. Too many previous reporting efforts failed because they were perceived to be politicized or because they seemed to promote the perspectives of particular interests. Any hope for greater success requires that this effort be seen as fair and unbiased by a broad cross section of political interests.
• Engage the expertise and experience of the nation’s environmental monitoring programs and professionals. Any attempt to characterize the state of the nation’s ecosystems will fail without the cooperation of those who are engaged full time in the exacting and important profession of ecosystem monitoring and reporting.
• Benefit from experimentation and learning. No effort as ambitious as this could be expected to get everything right the first time around. Any hope for success depends on the ability to learn from the inevitable mistakes and to incorporate new data and understanding as they become available.

To implement these principles, the Center developed a funding strategy that depended upon joint support from government, industry, and private foundations. It assembled a small in-house staff and a large team of part-time collaborators drawn from government, the private sector, environmental organizations, and academia. A Design Committee, with members drawn from all of these groups, oversaw the entire project and made crucial decisions regarding approach, indicator selection, content, tone, and format of the overall document. Technical Work Groups, also representing a cross section of societal perspectives, were assembled to provide expertise in particular ecosystems. Their members identified the indicators included in this report, selected and assessed the data sources we relied upon, and drafted much of the descriptions and technical materials. Finally, a group of senior advisors and the Center’s own Board of Trustees reviewed the project’s strategic directions, with special attention to ensuring broad and balanced representation. Overall, nearly 150 individuals have participated in the project as committee and group members, with many more involved as contributors, reviewers, and advisors. (See the participants pages for a listing of committee members and additional acknowledgments.)

The Heinz Center established its working committees and began working intensively in late 1997. The project reached a key milestone with the release in late 1999 of a prototype report for public comment, covering three ecosystems: forests, farmlands, and coasts and oceans. This prototype was revised significantly in response to comments, and three additional ecosystems (fresh waters, grasslands and shrublands, and urban and suburban areas) were added. The process concluded with an extensive external review of a draft version of the present text in late 2001. Nearly 100 sets of comments were received from reviewers in business, environmental, government, and academic institutions. The end result of these steps—the first full report on The State of the Nation’s Ecosystems—is presented in the chapters that follow.