The shoreline and marine ecosystems of San Juan County provide benefits that would be impractical or even impossible to replace, including water quality, air quality, flood risk reduction, and habitat for threatened and endangered species. Once lost, these services that the county receives for free must be replaced with costly built solutions, which are often less resilient and shorter-lived. Understanding and accounting for ecosystem services reveals the true economic benefits of healthy ecosystems and the true economic damages that pollution events such as oil spills generate for communities like the San Juan County.