Ecologists have determined that 3-5% of remnant, original habitat has been left undisturbed (Rosenzweig 2003).  In other words, since European settlement and globalization, we have taken or altered 95-97% of land.  This includes the 40-50 million acres of sterile, suburban lawn (NASA 2005) and 35 million acres of non-native, fescue fields (Fribourg et al 2009).  Commercial interests and archaic land use practices have degraded, fragmented, and forever altered the ecosystem functions and biodiversity that quite literally keep us going.  With pressures from introduced, invasive species and a shifting climate, restoring these novel landscapes to pre-settlement conditions is not possible.  The good news is that we are completely capable of improving natural areas and environmental quality with the 60% of privately owned land right here in the United States (US Census Bureau 1991).  Our private lands could be the forefront of the conservation movement as we believe an obligation of land ownership is land stewardship.  Oiko is Greek for “ecology of the home.”  Let this inspire and help preserve a better future for our home and its inhabitants after us.