Natural resources serve as a foundation of Oregon’s economy as well as providing important social and environmental benefits. Our diverse forests ecosystems and comprehensive waterways help supply oxygen, store carbon, moderate temperatures and support innumerable plant and animal species; they provide building materials for homes, and opportunities for jobs; and, they provide a place for recreation and relaxation. Oregon’s natural resources are the fabric of our past and heritage for the future. Because we depend on these resources and because we face a future of increasingly more complex natural resource issues it is crucial that students understand the interrelationship between our environment, society, and economy. By using natural resources as a context for teaching, student learning is extended beyond the classroom to the natural world that surrounds them.