ABSTRACT
Natural resources possess a unique mix of private and public goods and services, intertwined individual and community networks, and connected personal satisfaction and professional career opportunities. Natural resource professionals usually select their career with a passion for management and protection of the earth’s endowment and desire to work at least part of the time outdoors as land stewards. Natural resources at both the individual tract or local area and at the global scale include both market goods and services, and a host of nonmarket ecosystem and cultural services and collective goods that are not exchanged or allocated well by markets. Natural resource professionals often seek technical careers and satisfaction in nature but spend much their careers managing natural resources by interacting with people and resolving policy debates about how to manage public goods, on public or even private lands. Natural resource leaders must integrate their technical training, personal views, organizational mandates, and public opinion in order to advance the management of land and its commodity and ecosystem benefits for society and for nature conservation.
