PJ: If you look at where our land is in this country, the vast majority of it is in private hands. In fact, about 70% of the land in the contiguous 48 states is private land. If we're going to look at biological diversity, look at habitat, that's where the habitat is. For over a century now, we've been looking at the public lands as the areas we want to save and to preserve. But if you look at the broad array of life and where it lives, it can't all be put in these sanctuaries, if you will -- the public lands. It's good that we have them. They're very important. But we must work with private landowners, as well, if we're truly to have a geography of hope in this country. Fortunately, there's a lot of good going on on private land today. We produce food and fiber on that land, but we also produce water, we produce wildlife.

Q: Bridges are needed between private and public land. Are these kinds of things happening?

PJ: Yes, there are. There are a number of wonderful organizations working to do that -- the Nature Conservancy comes to mind. You can't put all of nature in a sanctuary, and you've got to provide buffers between our sanctuaries and the working land in America. We're working together with a number of nonprofit organizations -- working together with the fish and game agencies at both the state and federal levels to make sure that we have buffers between intensively used land and those lands that we are trying to keep in a pristine state.

Q: Can you comment on what this means for an urban area like ours?

PJ: Well, New York City is a good example of where you are connected with what goes on on the land further away. Your water comes from the Catskills Mountains area and you're fortunate to have some of the best water in the world. It comes through that land and into your reservoirs, and then into the city, and you're able to drink it even without filtration, up until this point.

If you're going to maintain good water, then you have to work with people who live on the land. In fact, New York City is doing that today. They're working with dairy farmers to try to get them to use the land in a way where it can not only provide milk and meat and farm products, but also the land functions in a way to filter and to partition that water. So when it's delivered to your reservoirs, it comes to the people in New York City in good condition. Eight-eight percent of all the precipitation in this country falls on private lands. If we're going to have clean water, those lands have got to be functioning well.

Q: How do you convince the skeptic?

PJ: You know, about 50 years ago the naturalist Aldo Leopold, in talking to his students in a wildlife biology class, made the statement that we should learn to read the land -- learn to understand the land. And, when we do, he said, he has no fear of what we will do to it.

I think that's really the key -- the key is to understand land in the larger sense. Not just sand, silts and clays that make up soil, but all the living system. And when landowners learns about the land, generally they treat it pretty well. I think very often many of our problems, and much of the skepticism, comes from a lack of knowledge. That's where a museum like this, and the programs that you have, really do pay off.

Q: What are the primary threats to conserving biodiversity?

PJ: One, of course, is population, and the increase in population and the pressure that puts on land. The second is our urge to live so rich and so richly. I think that both with population and consumption we've got to pay far more attention. It's possible for us to live in the land, in a very healthy way. I think that, again, it's very, very important that we continue the educational programs, so that we understand how we are impacting land, and try to adjust our way of living so that we can live in a more sustainable way.

Q: What would we tell the general audience, so they understood what that meant?

PJ: Well, it depends on the audience that you're talking to, of course. One of the most important parts about it would be to get people to take a look at their home place themselves, and to assess where they are. We don't do that very well. How many people in your community really know the status and trends of the resources that are there? The first thing is, again, to understand where we are, where we've been, where we're going, if we continue to live the way we do.

Q: Anything you want to add?

PJ: I usually say to people: Thank you for the good work that you are doing. There are numerous people who own land, who live on that land, who work very hard. We tend to look at the problems; we tend to look at where we're doing things that are not so good. But there's lot of good going on, as well. And to everybody who is out there trying -- whether it be in their suburban backyard, or on a farm or a ranch -- thank you for the work that you are doing.

The American Museum of Natural History is a very important part of this educational process. You have a terrific amount of knowledge here, and you sponsor the continued acquisition of that knowledge. It's very, very important that you not only have your doors open so people can come here to learn about it, but that you go out with it, as well. If you could take that knowledge, and take it out and share it with people -- again, as Aldo Leopold said: I have no fear of what you'll do with your land once you understand it.

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