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A few human generations ago, grasslands were abundant across much of the South; today there are rare. Driving through the region today, one mostly sees agricultural fields, pine plantations, dense and mostly young hardwood forests and swamps, and, increasingly, urban sprawl.

— Reed Noss Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation (2012)

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Endless fascination with nature—nothing more and nothing less—is the key to enlisting people in the fight to save biodiversity.

Forgotten Grasslands of the South: Natural History and Conservation (2012)

Nature no longer entertains us when conserving it becomes inconvenient.

Science, as traditionally defined, is fundamental to conservation biology but does no good if isolated from "softer" issues such as ethics, sociology, and political strategy. Indeed, there is nothing more dangerous than science in an ethical vacuum.

No thoughtful persons could stand beneath one of these immense trees, gaze up into its canopy, and help but think that here is a remarkable organism—so much more than all the board-feet of lumber that men might cleave from it.

Many university departments—especially the traditional resource disciplines such as fisheries, wildlife, range management, and forestry—are closely tied to industry or hook‐and‐bullet recreation and treat conservation biology with anxiety or disdain.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Reed Noss (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.