What do You Want to Know about Nature? The National Nature Assessment

We often hear of the plight of the polar bear or how monarch butterflies are dwindling. These changes are important, but just a small part of what’s happening with nature in America. Imagine if we had a full picture of nature in our nation—and what nature provides to our lives. And imagine if that picture was at the center of governmental decision-making. Sound utopian? Well, perhaps not. The first ever National Nature Assessment (NNA) is currently underway to better understand how nature is faring in the United States and what it means to all our lives. That’s the focus of our discussion in Season 5, Episode 3, of the Engineering With Nature® Podcast. Host Sarah Thorne and Todd Bridges, National Lead of the EWN Program, are pleased to welcome back Heather Tallis, the Assistant Director for Biodiversity and Conservation Sciences in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Heather joined us in Season 5, Episode 2 to talk about her role in the development of Opportunities to Accelerate Nature Based Solutions. Heather is also the Acting Director for the National Nature Assessment with the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), the subject of this episode. President Biden’s Executive Order 14072, Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities and Local Economies, establishes a number of objectives related to nature-based solutions and EWN. One of the many elements of that Executive Order is a commitment to conduct a National Nature Assessment. Heather’s role as the Acting Director of the NNA is to work with the representatives of the 13 agencies that comprise the USGCRP to produce an assessment that gives a full picture of the state of nature in the United States and how nature matters to people’s lives. The assessment of the lands, waters, and wildlife across the nation will explore questions such as: What does nature mean to our economy? How is nature interacting with our physical and mental health? And, what do changes in nature mean for our national security and for environmental justice? Todd and his colleague Kyle McKay are representing the Department of Defense on the Federal Steering Committee. As Todd notes, “The Department of Defense has about 5,000 installations or so across the country and around the world that occupy 25 million acres of land and water—that’s a lot of nature. DoD has many programs and makes many investments in natural resource conservation and is now focused on how nature-based solutions can be deployed to enable comprehensive resilience at their facilities and in the surrounding communities.” Developing the NNA is a big task that will take place over several years and starts with listening. Heather stresses the importance of the process being open, inclusive, and actionable. An open public comment period is currently underway to gather input from individuals and organizations about what nature means to them. As Heather says, “We truly want to hear from everyone as much as possible. We know there are many different ways to experience nature. Everyone comes from a different way of thinking about nature, different perspectives, and we’d like to hear them all.” Heather encourages people to sign up for USGCRP’s newsletter for updates and to provide input to the NNA. The current public comment period is open through March of 2023. For more information and resource links, please visit the EWN Podcast page on the EWN website at https://www.engineeringwithnature.org/ Related Links

• Todd Bridges at LinkedIn
• Heather Tallis at LinkedIn