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Seeing the Forest and the Trees > Executive Summary

Introduction

What types of natural vegetation exist across the landscape? Which types are intrinsically rare or have been severely degraded by human activities? How do we identify the best remaining occurrences of natural communities across their geographic ranges? To direct our limited conservation resources to the specific places where they will have the greatest impact, we must have clear answers to questions such as these—answers that ultimately hinge on how we define and categorize the rich ecological diversity that is one of our nation's greatest treasures.

To answer these questions, NatureServe and The Nature Conservancy have developed a consistent and flexible classification system that can be applied to terrestrial ecological communities throughout the world. The system can be used to classify all types of communities, from verdant wetlands to arid deserts nearly lacking in plant life, and from pristine old-growth forests to cultivated annual crop fields.

Using this system, a team of NatureServe and Nature Conservancy ecologists has now completed a first iteration of the natural vegetation types of the United States. This represents the first time the nation's natural terrestrial communities have been classified using a single system on a scale fine enough to be useful for the conservation of specific sites. Seeing the Forest and the Trees describes the classification and identifies major opportunities for applying it to meet the challenge of conserving our rich natural heritage.

Why Communities?

Attempts to conserve biological diversity can be directed at different biological and ecological levels, ranging from genes to species to communities and ecosystems. Communities are essentially assemblages of species that co-occur and have the ability to interact with one another. Communities, however, are more than the sum of their species; they also represent the myriad biological and environmental interactions that are inherently part of each unique natural system. By describing, tracking, and preserving communities, we can protect a complex suite of organisms, interactions, and processes not easily identified and protected through other means.

How Is the Classification Being Used?

The Conservancy is dedicated to conserving the best, most viable occurrences of all community types, focusing special attention on types that are extremely rare or imminently endangered. Because the classification is standardized across the nation, ecologists can assess and rank each community type based on its relative degree of imperilment on a rangewide basis.

An awareness of the scope of the imperilment problem is one of the most sobering, but potentially useful, insights to emerge from the development of a national community classification. Seeing the Forest and the Trees presents six encouraging examples of how The Nature Conservancy and its partners are using ecological classification to meet the challenge, within the United States and beyond:

• Preserving the rarest communities in the Great Lakes states.
• Preserving habitats and species in North Carolina.
• Creating a blueprint for conservation success in the Intermountain West.
• Detecting gaps in protection in Superior National Forest, Minnesota.
• Meeting our global stewardship responsibilities in Guantanamo Bay Naval Station, Cuba.
• Understanding our national park lands: Scotts Bluff National Monument, Nebraska.

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