On September 26, 1991 eight people walked into a strange looking building outside of Tucson known as Biosphere II and locked the air-tight door behind them.  Thus began an experiment to see if humans could build a completely closed and self-sustaining ecological system that could support humans without any inputs from the outside world (Biosphere I).  The final design was an engineering marvel that included miniature versions of many of earth's systems such as agricultural land, tropical rainforests, deserts, and grasslands.  It even had its own ocean complete with a coral reef.  The price tag wasn't cheap: construction alone cost over $150 million. After the doors were sealed, however, it quickly became clear that this intricate and expensive system was having problems.  Oxygen, perhaps the most immediately critical service provided by biosphere II, began to get scarce. Living in biosphere II soon became like living in the thin air atop a 14,000 foot peak.  The experiment ended sixteen months after it started when project managers were forced to pump in some badly needed fresh air.  What had gone wrong?  The culprit it seems, where tiny soil organisms such as bacteria that were busily eating away at all the rich soil that the designers had used to grow the plants.  Just like us these microorganisms consume oxygen, and this soil feeding frenzy had inadvertently caused the oxygen crash.

One of the lessons of the ill fated biosphere II experiment is that replicating earth's life support functions is not an easy task.  Disconcertingly we seem to be degrading the ability of the earth to provide these functions.  In 2005 a United Nations sponsored study called the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment concluded that about 60 percent of the life supporting goods and services provided by earth's ecosystems are being substantially degraded or are being used unsustainably.  Thankfully, there are things that we can do to reverse this trend. One important area where we can make a big improvement is in the way we construct and manage our urbanized landscapes.  Our urbanized landscapes such as back yards, city parks, and golf courses provide some obvious services such as recreation and esthetic enjoyment.  In addition, because these landscapes are living systems they have the potential to provide a wider range of ecosystem services as well (see box).  Historically we haven't paid much attention to these broader services when we design and manage these landscapes.  Things are changing, however.

A growing number of people want landscapes that provide enhanced ecosystem value in addition to the more traditional requirements of looking good, meeting functional requirements, and being economical to maintain.  For instance, many municipalities are planting trees specifically to reduce air pollution or for the cooling cost savings their shade will provide.  Los Angeles recently announced that it would replace diseased or dead palm trees with shade trees partly because of this cooling benefit.  In addition shade trees store more carbon in the form of wood than palm trees thus helping to offset some of the greenhouse gas emissions produced on LA's legendary freeway system. Municipalities are also using specifically designed plant systems such as bioswales and green roofs to help mitigate urban pollution problems.  Portland has become a world leader in this area.  A number of buildings in downtown Portland have rooftop plantings designed to help reduce stormwater runoff.  These green roofs also help reduce urban heating and provide wildlife habitat. 

The movement toward ecosystem service management is not just restricted to large municipalities with big land use decisions to make.  Individual homeowners and businesses are also increasingly requesting more ecologically focused landscapes.  In some cases the decision is based on a desire to be more ecologically responsible.  In others the decision is purely economical.  In dry regions such as central Oregon, xeriscapes that incorporate native or other arid adapted plants are becoming increasingly popular because they reduce the need for expensive irrigation water.  Other landscapes are being designed to function as integrated ecological systems.  The natural ecological processes that develop in these landscapes provide their own life supporting services, thus reducing the need for expensive inputs such as water, fertilizer and pesticides.  These landscapes are also ideal habitat for native wildlife such as birds. Bend is lucky to be the home of Rick and Karen Martinson; their Winter Creek Restoration is a leader in the design and construction of these ecological landscapes.

All of these efforts to enhance the ecosystem services provided by our managed landscapes are encouraging.  As the case of biosphere II demonstrates, it's far easier to help out the service provider we already have than to construct a brand new one from scratch.