Sometime during this decade, a family will welcome a child who will mark humanity's transformation into an urban species—for the first time, more people will live in cities than in rural areas of the earth. The influence of human civilization is being felt in even the most remote parts of the globe. Yet most ecologists continue to study areas relatively unaffected by human activities. The Center for Urban Restoration Ecology is the first scientific initiative in the U.S. established specifically to study and restore human-dominated lands.