ANDREA ERICKSON QUIROZ

Perspective

It's an early lesson kids learn using a piggy-bank: save now for what you may need later.

These days, when our personal financial performance amounts to bad news left in unopened envelopes, nature seems like a low priority. How can we afford conservation when our pocketbooks feel so empty?

But as we begin a New Year, I'd say now more than ever our wild spaces and working places are Wyoming's best investment. We can't afford not to invest in our natural heritage, because it's not just a legacy: it's our future. Wyoming's long-term wealth is in our agricultural lands, forests, rivers, mountain landscapes, scenic views and recreational opportunities.

True, many people don't think about ecosystems - clean water, air, open space - as investments with a financial value. It's hard to put a price tag on the air you breathe or that favorite hunting spot your grandfather took you to as a kid.

But the idea of attaching prices to our natural assets might be the biggest idea in conservation during the last decade. Wyoming's natural capital - our wildlife, recreational opportunities, and family farms and ranches - should have the same economic value as the many commodities we produce each year. They are our best long-term investments when the fate of other exports in the state, such as natural gas and coal, swing wildly up and down.

And thanks to gains made by a number of people and agencies across the state, Wyoming is seeing gains in our conservation portfolio. Take the state's Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, a fund the Wyoming Legislature established in 2005 to support projects designed to improve wildlife habitat. This past year, the Trust invested in 56 new projects across the state. For every $1 in project support, the Trust has generated more than $6.50 in on-the-ground habitat improvements. Even in a tough year like this, our legislature should support further investments in the Trust and be confident that the returns will be high.

Everyday people in Wyoming are also making important contributions to Wyoming's natural capital account. One example is the Sheahan family, longtime ranchers in Goshen County who worked with the Nature Conservancy in 2008 to preserve 1,408 acres of important grasslands habitat. The project, located just north of Cheyenne near Hawk Springs, safeguards private agricultural lands that are increasingly being subdivided and fragmented into housing developments. We can all be thankful for landowner investments like these.

So this year, even when things feel tight, I encourage all Wyomingites to remember that we are tremendously wealthy in one very important aspect: We still have healthy lands, waters and wildlife that have been lost elsewhere in the U.S.

These will be the commodities that hold their value over time. These will be the investments that, more than anything, will pay future dividends for our children and grandchildren. And that peace of mind is something we can take to the bank.

Andrea Erickson Quiroz is the state director for the Nature Conservancy in Wyoming.