![Drip Torch Photo courtesy of the USFWS](images/events/driptorch_FWS.jpg)
Photo of prescribed burning on the Patuxent Research Refuge in Maryland. Photo credit: Catherine J. Hibbard, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Visit the Tall Timbers 25th Fire Ecology conference website for more information.
The economic value of services provided by nature
![Red Hills Region](https://webarchive.library.unt.edu/web/20130317225306im_/http://www.talltimbers.org/webeditor_images/image/Feb13/Aucilla-River-Richard-Bryant_web.jpg)
Aucilla River, photo by Richard Bryant |
By Neil Fleckenstein,
TTLC Planning Coordinator
Turn on the tap, out comes the water. Fresh, clean, and seemingly endless. Over the years, I’ve often asked groups visiting Tall Timbers Research Station & Land Conservancy where our drinking water comes from. “The faucet” is a common response. Prodded further, there is often a surprising range of responses that accompany the correct answer – groundwater.
Basic questions like “Where does our drinking water come from?” are important because they force us to think about things we often overlook. For example, the value of certain indispensable ecosystem services in our lives. These services are the natural processes we take for granted that support our lives on earth: water purification, drinking water recharge, climate regulation, and many others. Read more...