ABSTRACT
A local living economy requires natural capital in the form of essential ecosystem services if a community’s human necessities are to be met in a sustainable manner. Knowledge of these services will help frame land use planning and thus help to insure that these services are kept intact to serve the community through the generations. These services are both free and essential, a rare combination of traits. It is for this reason, perhaps, that they are often overlooked in processes of valuation-monetary and otherwise.
