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A growing and sometimes controversial body of literature is the valuation of ecosystem services (ES). ES valuation is a key component in evaluating how human dimensions interact with landscape management and environmental policy decisions. Valuation measures and procedures are evolving but still incomplete. Specifically, the ecological economics literature provides a roadmap to ES valuation (e.g., de Groot et al. 2002). However, it fails to inform about the ecological data and processes that can best result in ES valuation. The resulting information gaps leaves ecosystem research practitioners without a guide for translating and scaling their ecological data into economically relevant terms (e.g. farm level decision making) especially during the research design phase. As a result, valuation becomes a research add-on that may not provide the needed metrics for economic analysis. This paper uncovers a best practice methodology for incorporating ecological data into economic models for ES valuation by reviewing the relevant threads of literature, and motivating these practices via a case study of the Learning from the Land (LFL) rangeland stewardship research project. Identifying a best practice methodology will allow for more effective research design and better research outcomes. LFL is an interdisciplinary research initiative comprised of rangeland and wildlife ecologists, economists, extension personnel and cooperating ranchers. The LFL team characterized ecological site descriptions using ecological data and local knowledge to create rangeland state and transition models (STM). The STMs developed were incorporated into a representative ranch economic model that demonstrates how rancher decision-making affects the provision of ES. ES values for each state within the STM are based on ecosystem monitoring indicators. On-farm ES values are elicited by restricting the ranch model to manage for particular ES and comparing those results to the unrestricted ranch model outcomes.