Guiding Principles of Range Maps, Inc.

We all need to breathe, eat and drink. These basic requirements for life connect us with other life forms that also breathe, eat and drink in a complex web of competitive and cooperative interactions. The web further widens when we include the physical and chemical processes that allow us to breathe, eat and drink. A few examples are plants that provide food and oxygen, soil organisms that decompose organic matter to release minerals for growth by other organisms, and plant roots that hold the soil in place against the forces of wind and water so that streams are not choked with silt. Because we are dependent upon processes required by living things, our continued existence depends on good stewardship (or nonintervention) of these processes and the organisms involved. Because we rely on a functioning biosphere, we must not damage it.

However, we all want to make a living for ourselves and our families. We want to create communities that are prosperous and healthy. We want fun, excitement and entertainment. For these things we must consume, manage and interact with the environment. This is often damaging. Our goal should be to minimze and correct the damage we necessarily inflict on the environment by our presence. From a practical point of view, we need the environment to live. Considered from ethical and moral points of view our obligation to minimize and correct harm increases. We must be more than clever in our use of our resources – we should also be wise.

A boy's love of nature.

Environmental conservation is worth teaching and talking about – and doing.

Environmental conservation is about living with the other creatures and plants of the Earth in a way that considers their long term health. We can view this from a practical and selfish standpoint and conclude that as a part of a complex web of life it is in our best interests not to tear the web irreparably. We can view this from an ethical or moral standpoint and conclude that we have no right to detract from the environment of other creatures. We may have the ability, but we don't have the right. We can view this from a aesthetic viewpoint and conclude that the environment provides so much beauty and enriches our lives, apart from the resources it may contain, that we should save it. Each of these viewpoints will have different levels of credibility for each person, but however we look at the subject, the conclusion is that we should conserve.

	A closed  road before a restoration crew starts with seeding, mulching with hay and piling branches and rocks to act as as barrier to both water movement and vehicle traffic.
	After a fun day's work, this area will grow more grass, forbs and trees.  It  will support more wildlife, and slow the runoff of rainfall so that our lakes and streams are not polluted with silt.

Environmental monitoring is worth teaching and talking about – and doing.

Monitoring of the environment is critical because base line information is needed to understand how things have changed from past conditions and to establish a record to compare to future conditions. The first step in establishing a monitoring program is to decide what information to record and the format of this information. For example, you have a 20 acre parcel separated into 4 grazing pastures. Do you want to photograph each of the 5 acre pastures every month or every year, or photograph the 20 acre parcel from several angles? Do you want to keep written or computerized records of the number of animals grazing each pasture during each time period? Your property includes a wetland. Will you photograph this monthly? Will you carry around a notebook in your pocket and record your mammal and bird species observations weekly? The type, amount and format of the information will determine the analysis you can do. Collecting and storing too much information may create a burdensome task that eventually doesn't get done. Collecting too little will not allow you to determine which of your management practices was most effective.

Teaching and talking about monitoring creates more environmentalists and more information. The spread of ideas from person to person, neighbor to neighbor and friend to friend is a powerful, effective and lasting way to effect positive change.

Accurate, publicly available information is good for the environment.

Political decisions are really the process of scaling up and aggregating many individual decisions. When many people contribute to the pool of information available before decisions are made, it is more likely that the decisions will reflect the needs and desires of many. When the information is available to all, it is more difficult to make decisions that benefit only a very few. In practical terms, if all land owners and managers contribute accurate information to a library of land health information, that library can become a powerful tool in land use decisions.

Qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the environment are equally important.

Because of the limitations of science to answer our questions, and the limitations of our ability to interpret good scientific results, we should also use descriptive measures of environmental quality. We can count the number of different species of butterflies we see in an area in a unit of time, but we can't assign a value to the delight in a child's face when a butterfly lands on his finger. We can count the number of times the butterfly lands on a flower but we can't calculate the value of the pollination service that butterfly performs except in very inexact terms. We know that pollination is essential to an ecosystem, but we are unable to quantify the importance of the individual components of the pollination process. Words and phrases in a real estate magazine like, 'looks over a stream', 'breathtakingly beautiful', 'unspoiled beauty' and 'backs to open space' show how important views and open areas are, but it is impossible to quantify the value of a park system to a community. We can make some rough guesses, polling residents and businesses about their willingness to relocate to the area, we could even do a spatial analysis correlating proximity to open space with frequency of mental health services used by a population, but again we're not getting very close to quantifying the value. We appreciate beauty and nature but it is impossible to quantify our sense of appreciation. Pictures and descriptions are valid tools for monitoring land health.

It is difficult, but imperative, that we not take too much of tomorrow's resources to apply toward today's problems.

We have the same practical, ethical and moral obligations to future generations of humans and other creatures that we have to the current generation. Just because they are not standing in front of us does not make them any less real. Using all the forests, soils and fisheries and polluting the air and water faster than the Earth's natural processes can restore them is wrong. It is likely that your granddaughter will love her son as much as you love your son. It is equally likely that your great great great great grandson will love his daughter as much as you love your daughter. Do these imaginary people deserve any less beauty or fewer natural resources than we do? It is not too difficult an imaginary leap to extend this idea from a few generations to hundreds. Humans are clever in developing new technologies to solve problems and extend the use of finite resources and no doubt, we will develop new solutions. However, we owe future generations the use of life sustaining resources and the inspiring and invigorating beauty that we enjoy, and so we should act in a manner that will preserve these.

Future urban wildlife corridor just north of Phoenix, AZ suburbs

Think historically, act today.

Reflect on the lessons of the past, use your own experiences to guide you in your decisions. But, do something today to improve your world for yourself, other generations of humans, wildlife, insects, neighbors, friends, or the noisy bluejays in your yard.