Ferns photo: Kevin Schafer

There’s almost no end to the role plants play in the workings of our planet. Plants perform each of the following services, just to name a few:

• Maintain a breathable atmosphere by giving off oxygen
• Keep us cooler by providing shade and releasing moisture through their leaves
• Prevent mud slides and flooding
• Remove the main “greenhouse gas,” carbon dioxide, from the atmosphere

When plant communities are damaged or destroyed, so too are important biological services that people and other living things depend on.