The value of a property owner's healthy ecosystem -- her pure water, clean air, active pollinators, and other "ecosystem services" -- is hard to quantify. But a new report from the U.S. Forest Service suggests that to conserve our natural resources, we'll need to figure out how to do that -- and then develop a market that financially rewards people for protecting their land. "Ecosystem services are the benefits that nature provides, outside of things like timber and food, which already have a market value," says Gina LaRocco, a conservation associate at Defenders of Wildlife and a coauthor of the report. To discourage deforestation, for example, the government of Costa Rica compensates property owners simply for refraining from planting crops or grazing animals on their land.

The 2008 Farm Bill established an Office of Environmental Markets, charged with creating an ecosystem market in this country. Robert Deal, LaRocco's coauthor, looks forward to that becoming a reality. Financial pressure often pushes landowners toward development, he says, and "incentives can be the difference between keeping the land and selling it off."