One of the nation’s leading environmental experts spoke to a group of Iowa State students and faculty Thursday about his research in ecological health.

James Karr, who served on the White House Task Force on the Spotted Owl, returned to his alma mater to present a seminar entitled “Ecological Integrity: Reclaiming Lost Connections.”

Karr, a professor of fisheries and zoology at the University of Washington, discussed the need for ecological considerations in political, economic and social policy.

“It is more important to do this now because the speed of change is high. Avoiding problems costs less than solving them,” Karr said.

Karr’s current research focuses on protecting ecological health through improvements in environmental policy.

Karr explained the differences between ecological integrity and ecological health.

Ecological health, the capability to maintain or support valuable elements of the landscape, is closely linked to sustainability, he said.

“The reality is, with the current world population, we can not get all land back to integrity, but we need to get some land back to integrity,” Karr said. He said sustainability involves environmental, social and economic aspects.

He said people need to balance natural capital and human and moral capital with the traditional definition of capital.

He said it is also important to consider justice and equity issues and increase efficiency of our use of goods.

“I would take issue with the fact that the market is some benevolent force acting in the best interest of humans,” Karr said.

Karr said economists have argued that the economy and market can not stand the added policy constraints of environmental concerns.

Karr pointed out that throughout history economists have issued this same warning, with everything from slavery and child labor in sweatshops to airbags.

Karr said the economic system is deeply embedded in the ecological system.

He said environmental economics create jobs, and markets are now opening for “green” production and “industrial ecology.”

“The economy is only the frosting on the cake, the top layer, with natural resources as the foundation,” Karr said.

Karr said people need to consider values outside of traditional market value, like the value of leaving resources to descendants or use versus non-use values.

Karr said he worries that someday people will not have trees, fertile soil, unspoiled watersheds, wildlife or biological diversity.

“We have a history of moving across this country, leaving a depleted resource base behind us.”

Karr also said it is essential to empower people to allow communities to decide their own future.

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito,” according to Karr’s concluding slide in his presentation.

Karr graduated from ISU in 1965 in fisheries and wildlife biology and then went on to complete graduate work in zoology.

Karr, an author of both scientific and popular publications, served on the Pacific Rivers Council and the Puget Sound Water Quality Authority and served as director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Washington at Seattle.