American Planning Association

Planning for and with Ecosystem Services January 24, 2012 Because all communities benefit from resources and processes supplied by natural ecosystems, ecology can be an important lens for viewing planning and site design. While many planners support and philosophically align with LEED, SITES, and the growing ecological design culture, they may feel ill-equipped to apply scientific findings to planning projects. Jacob Blue from Applied Ecological Services explored how science can inform planning decisions from the planner's and scientist's perspectives and provided planners with basic, practical tools for incorporating ecological decisions into their work.