Earth Economics

09/02/2026

Mitigation banking is a market-based conservation tool to restore, enhance, and permanently protect streams and wetlands. The Tennessee Ecological Restoration Association (TERA) promotes the responsible use and development of mitigation banking and other restoration tools to advance conservation, economic development, and the long-term stewardship of the state’s natural resources.

We partnered with TERA to quantify the broad ecosystem services benefits from mitigation banking and ILF projects. We found that 68 projects protect nearly 7,700 acres of wetlands and streams, generating more than $30.5 million in annual ecosystem service benefits for Tennessee communities, from flood mitigation and water quality improvements, to groundwater recharge.

Mitigation banking is a market-based conservation tool that restores, enhances, and permanently protects streams and wetlands—and we quantified the benefits they bring.

08/31/2026

New research from the Center for Ecosystem Management at the University of Guelph shows evidence that greater ecological biodiversity is not only better at adjusting to disturbance than less-complex systems, but tends to be more productive even under stable conditions.

A new study finds biodiversity acts like natural insurance, helping ecosystems withstand climate change, habitat loss, and other threats.

08/26/2026

Earlier this month, Canada launched a Taskforce on Natural Capital Accounting and Nature Financing, intended to promote public and private investment in conservation. This builds on a recent $3.8B (CAN) investment to protect and restore Canadian ecosystems.

The Taskforce will focus on promoting natural capital accounting to include nature’s value in public and private decision-making, consulting with First Nations to ensure that native sovereignty and values are respected.

https://ow.ly/t36M50ZFJzH

08/24/2026

Beavers are primarily freshwater species, but research on Puget Sound beavers has highlighted their ecological value, including building habitat that traps receding tidal waters, in pools deep enough to protect salmon from predation by black bears and coyotes.

Scientists have long overlooked beavers in the intertidal zone. Now they’re counting on the freshwater rodents to restore Washington’s coastal ecosystems.

08/21/2026

Overfishing, climate change, and other impacts have caused salmon populations in Alaska to crash.

Tribes that co-evolved with salmon over the millennia now face a loss of cultural identity and widespread diabetes. Restoring traditional diets can be critical for both physical and mental health.

A dietary staple, salmon had — until recently — been the main source of protein for Indigenous people who live along the Interior Alaska river systems.

08/19/2026

As humanity’s only source of water, food, and breathable air, nature is priceless. Unfortunately, when the value provided by ecosystems is not quantified, decision makers and investors often treat them as having zero value.

To the degree that nature directly and indirectly supports our wellbeing, it is often possible to provide some measure of that value, by identifying avoided costs (including the price of substitutes, where available), contribution to market value, and social preferences.

Each dollar invested to restore forests and protect wetlands can avoid to $7 in disaster losses. Protecting the natural sources of freshwater is ten times cheaper than treatment costs. Trees generate community benefits worth five times what it costs to plant and maintain them.

What's nature worth? It's both priceless and worth trillions. Here's how it props up our lives and economies, and what we can do to help it.

08/17/2026

Though often associated with freshwater streams and wetlands, new research has shown that beavers help to bring saltwater inland from estuaries and tidal marshes.

Beaver dams in tidal streams trap water at low tides, providing an important refuges for fish, including Chinook and coho salmon.

Beavers are well-known residents of rivers, lakes and streams across North America. New research finds they are also far more common in estuaries and tidal wetlands than was previously understood. The study suggests the rodents are critical ecosystem engineers in a habitat where twice-daily tides ra...

08/14/2026

In 2026, solar is expected to produce 78B kWh, compared to just 60B kWh for coal. Combined, wind and solar began outproducing coal in 2024. The federal Energy Information Agency expects solar to grow by 27% next year.

https://ow.ly/AYOu50Zt8fy

08/12/2026

The Bezos Earth Fund is investing $100M urban greenspaces as part of its Greening America’s Cities program. These grants will help to fund community-designed parks and large-scale greenspaces that incorporate native plants and trees to blend community values with ecological function. This is the 2nd round of funding towards a goal of investing $400M to center greenspace as essential infrastructure.

The Bezos Earth Fund is a $10bn commitment to protect and restore the natural world through innovative projects across the planet.

08/10/2026

Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage believe in direct action. Donning diving gear and gloves, they clean about 20 ponds every year; they estimate that they have removed over 6K pounds of trash from the ponds along Cape Cod since they were founded in 2018.

“The joy that we feel in bringing it out of the water and knowing it is no longer there, as I always say, the turtles and the fish, they’re all clapping … there’s no better feeling.” — Diane Hammer, 70

The Old Ladies Against Underwater Garbage estimate they’ve removed 6,000 pounds of refuse from ponds on Cape Cod. “There’s no better feeling,” one said.