Building The Nature Record Together
Plus a quick guide to reviewing the draft assessment and sharing feedback
To start, I want to extend a warm welcome to our new subscribers. We’re glad you’re here and thank you for being a part of this work.
On that note, last week we opened our draft assessment for comment, and we’d love your input. There are two ways to review the draft and share feedback:
Comment online
Select any chapter to use our online commenting tool.
Download and review offline
Download the chapters as a PDF and submit comments using our spreadsheet template. Each chapter page includes a template with fields to note what your comment refers to. Send completed spreadsheets to feedback@naturerecord.org.
If you have questions or run into any issues, just reply to this email and we’ll help.
Welcoming the Board of Advisors
Today, I’m honored to introduce the Board of Advisors for The Nature Record — an extraordinary group of leaders spanning health, finance, conservation, engineering, education, philanthropy, business, Indigenous stewardship, and youth engagement.
While they come from many places and disciplines, what they share is a commitment to rigor and real-world impact — and a belief that understanding nature is inseparable from caring for people.
The Nature Record exists because, despite everything we know about climate and biodiversity, the United States has never had a truly holistic assessment of nature and its benefits: how lands, waters, wildlife, and ecosystems connect to public health, economic vitality, culture, resilience, and community well-being.
The Secretariat stewards the integrity of this work — guiding process, ensuring scientific rigor, and holding the long arc of the assessment. The Board of Advisors joins them as strategic thought partners — helping us sharpen relevance, expand reach, and ensure that this assessment resonates well beyond the pages of a report. Together, they are shaping a platform for action.
Our Advisors bring deep experience across:
Children’s and community health
Finance, risk, and natural capital
Education and youth leadership
Indigenous knowledge and place-based stewardship
Corporate sustainability and infrastructure
Philanthropy and systems change
They are already offering strategic guidance, sharpening our thinking about audience and impact, and helping us bridge worlds that too often remain separate. (Visit our About page for the complete list of advisors.)
I’m especially grateful for their generosity of time and perspective during our inaugural meetings. The conversations reaffirmed something I’ve felt since the earliest days of this effort: that the future of nature depends not just on better data, but on better collaboration across sectors, disciplines, and worldviews.
With The Nature Record Assessment draft now open for comment, this is a moment for collective stewardship. We hope you’ll read, reflect, and share your insights from wherever you call home.
Please join me in welcoming our Board of Advisors — and in building this assessment together.
Congratulations to you and this top-notch team. Grateful for your courageous, clear-eyed leadership.
The Board of Advisors is impressive! However, as I continue to advocate for a link to management, I'm curious about the absence of management expertise, essential for a connection to management outcomes that bring the desired benefits of environmental and social health and well-being to the people. State or federal agencies or their professional associations would be a good if not essential addition.