Ecological Restoration Principles

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Ecological Restoration Principles

• Dave Huffman, Ph.D.
• Ecological Restoration Institute
• February 2006

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Modern Timeline

• 1934 Aldo Leopold, University of Wisconsin
• 1988 Society for Ecological Restoration founded
• 1990s Began to work its way into public land
  management strategies
• 2004 Sally Collins (Assoc. Chief) Today, I
  believe we are in a new perioda period of
  ecological restoration and outdoor recreation
• SERI 2300 members, 37 countries
• IUCN (World Conservation Union)
• Restoration element in Ecosystem Management
  Program

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Defining Ecological Restoration

• Process of assisting the recovery of an
  ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or
  destroyed (SERI 2004)

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Defining Ecological Restoration

• Sensu stricto
• Intentional alteration of a site to establish a
  defined indigenous, historic ecosystem
• Reassemble defined species inventory
• Sensu lato
• Halt degradation and redirect toward a trajectory
  resembling that presumed to have prevailed prior
  to changes
• Conserve indigenous biodiversity and ecosystem
  structure and dynamics

(Aronson et al. 1993)
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Activities Related to Ecological Restoration

• Rehabilitation
• Repair structure and function, reference
  historical conditions
• May not include reestablishment of pre-existing
  biota
• Reclamation
• Stabilization, aesthetic improvement, return
  useful function
• Mitigation
• Compensate for environmental damage
• May or may not qualify as restoration
• Reallocation (Creation)
• Installation of completely different ecosystem
• Engineering
• Manipulation of natural materials to solve a
  technical problem

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Defining Ecological Restoration

• Passive Restoration
• Degrading agent or process is removed ecosystem
  allowed to recover without external inputs.
• Active Restoration
• Degrading agent or process is removed
  management techniques (weeding, planting,
  burning, thinning, etc.) are implemented with a
  desired structure or composition as an objective.

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Discussion

• Are definitions important?
• Is restoration different than other ecosystem
  management pursuits?
• How do we know if an ecosystem has been degraded?

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Reference Conditions

• Allow evaluations to be made concerning ecosystem
  state and degree of degradation
• Provide guide for development of restoration
  goals and objectives
• Provide baseline for against which to assess
  restoration progress

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Reference Conditions

• Historical Range of Variability (HRV)
• Contemporary characteristics of unaffected sites
• Desired future conditions/expert and local
  knowledge/models

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Historical Range of Variability (HRV)

• fluctuations in ecosystem conditions or
  processes over time (Morgan et al.1994).
• variations in these conditions within a period
  of time and geographical area appropriate to an
  expressed goal (Landres 1999) .

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Historical Range of Variability

• Temporal as well as spatial parameters
• Scale dependent
• Specific to ecosystem attributes
• Structural, compositional, functional, etc.

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Assumptions of HRV Concept

• Represents conditions under which species have
  evolved (i.e., evolutionary environment)

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Evolutionary Environment Concept

• Evolutionary environment (Moore et al. 1999)
• The environment in which species or groups of
  species evolved, i.e., the environment of
  speciation
• Species not only adapt to their EE, but they may
  also come to depend on it for their survival
• Loss of evolutionary habitats is the greatest
  threat to biodiversity

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Discussion

• How might one determine historical ranges of
  variability?
• What are some difficulties that might be
  encountered?
• How much information do you need to pursue
  ecological restoration?

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Modeling the System
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Modeling the System
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Goal Setting

• No single paradigm or context for all
  restorations
• Appropriate for each project
• Scope
• Reasons for project

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Conservation Biology (25) Endangered
species Endangered communities
Wetland Management (18) Ecosystem
functions Ecosystem services
Restoration Ecology
Geography/Landscape Ecology (30) Watersheds Eco
system management
Rehabilitation (15) Vegetative cover Natural
community
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Goal Setting

• Determined by
• Economic
• Social
• Political
• Ecological

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Modeling the System
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Aronson 1996
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Sensu Stricto Sensu Lato Rehabilitation Real
location
Difficulties
Possibilities
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Discussion

• What are some of the most significant ecological
  challenges to restoration?
• What situations or conditions do you think are
  most appropriate for engaging in restoration?
• How do you know if you are meeting your goals?

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Measuring Progress

• Implementation Success
• Were the treatments implemented correctly?
• Functional Success
• Did the treatments have the desired ecological
  effect?

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Measuring Progress

• Functional success is judged against explicit
  goals set a priori
• Direct comparison
• Attribute analysis
• Trend analysis

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Monitoring

• Repeated measurement of variables over time
• Less intensive
• Qualitative descriptions
• Limited number of variables
• More intensive
• Quantitative measurements
• Larger number of variables

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Discussion

• What are some ways to effectively monitor, given
  the high costs in time and money?
• How do we know when we have succeeded or failed?

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Adaptive Management

• Activities are systematically adjusted to reflect
  new information and values
• Learning by doing

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SCIENCE
PUBLIC
LAND MANAGEMENT
NGOs
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Summary

• Ecological restoration has a long history and
  modern urgency
• Defined as assisting ecosystem recovery
• Strong reliance on reference conditions
• Conceptual models inform goals
• Monitoring, documenting, reporting, and adaptive
  management key elements