An ecosystem is defined as place having unique physical features, encompassing air, water, and land, and habitats supporting plant and animal life. EPA supports environmental planning that addresses all the factors, both natural and human, affecting an ecosystems of a given region. An example of protecting an ecosystem is the watershed approach in which all pollution sources and habitat conditions in a watershed are considered in developing strategies for restoring and maintaining a healthy ecosystem. EPA protects ecosystems that support plant, animal, and aquatic life through a combination of regulatory and voluntary programs designed to reduce the amount of pollutants entering their environmen

Recommended EPA Web pages

• Community Based Environmental Protection
  CBEP integrates environmental management with human needs, considers long-term ecosystem health and highlights the positive correlations between economic prosperity and environmental well-being.
• Global Warming
  Site gives information and links to information on global warming.
• Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds
  Features information on wetlands, oceans, coasts, estuaries, watersheds, tmdls, rivers, water quality, monitoring, polluted runoff.