Over the last year we've really looked at ecosystem services programs trying to figure out what is our policy on them and under what principles would we now support a program. One of the big things was that it needs to be locally driven, so at the municipal level.
However, when talking to these numerous organizations that have been trying to get up and running, I've asked, “What would have helped you to get up and running? What were your biggest obstacles?” Lots of them said that just the start-up of getting people in the room, getting a staff person on board, all these sorts of things, and having somebody to lean on for expertise.
That's where our recommendation comes from, for creating a seed fund that these regional programs could apply for. They might need, sort of, $60,000 to get up and running. Then after that they would be on their own in bringing the right partners together. We think that it could be a really effective use of government dollars to get things started on the right track.