ENWC201 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Restoration Ecology, Endangered Species, Adaptive Management
18 May 2018
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Ecological Restoration
● The process of intentionally altering a site to est a define, indigenous, historic
ecosystem
○ Restoring to original
● Ecological restoration terms
○ Rehabilitation - improve the habitat from a degraded state
○ Reclamation - often undertaken on lands that were mined. Prioritize the
stabilization of the terrain, removal of pollutants, on-vegetation, aesthetic
improvement and assurance of public safety
○ Recreation - return a habitat to a particular history condition
■ Not exactly original form
○ Replacement - Specifies a community type to be created on a site, but this
community was most likely not present previous to human disturbance
○ enhancement/augmentation - aims only to add or increase one or a few
ecosystem functions, not to return all ecosystem functions to a specified
level
○ Any of these can happen at any scale
● Cost of restoration
○ As much as 3$ per sq ft
○ $130,000 acres
○ An ecological meaningful scale?? A lot of $$
● False promises of ecological restoration projects
● So we STRESS
○ Ecological restoration is a complement to protection of intact ecosystems,
Not a replacement
● Steps of Ecological Restoration
○ Site assessment
■ What is there
■ What was there
■ What could be there
● “Regional reference”
● Looks nearby at undisturbed and degraded areas
○ Setting goals
■ Inherently subjective
■ Will differ based on cultural values
■ Restore wetlands to provide the best possible duck habitat
■ Restore wetlands to provide a broad variety of ecosystem functions
(water storage,sediment storage, wildlife habitat, etc.)
○ Design
Document Summary
The process of intentionally altering a site to est a define, indigenous, historic ecosystem. Rehabilitation - improve the habitat from a degraded state. Reclamation - often undertaken on lands that were mined. Prioritize the stabilization of the terrain, removal of pollutants, on-vegetation, aesthetic improvement and assurance of public safety. Recreation - return a habitat to a particular history condition. Replacement - specifies a community type to be created on a site, but this community was most likely not present previous to human disturbance. Enhancement/augmentation - aims only to add or increase one or a few ecosystem functions, not to return all ecosystem functions to a specified level. Any of these can happen at any scale. As much as 3$ per sq ft. Ecological restoration is a complement to protection of intact ecosystems, Looks nearby at undisturbed and degraded areas. Restore wetlands to provide the best possible duck habitat.
