Nature's academy: The importance of conserving campus wild spaces

Everyone recognizes the overarching importance of the outdoor environment in creating the sensory experience and particular sense of place that a university campus evokes.  The value of outdoor spaces to recruitment, retention and campus life is easily communicated and readily shared.  Less obvious is the value of campus wild places to campus life.  Making a compelling case for these lands as place of study, source of inspiration, and legacy for the future, is essential to their conservation.  Ecologists can help with this effort by staying involved with campus planning, and framing their arguments in terms of the broader institutional mission.