Restoration Ecology

1. Restoration Ecology Burning South Prairie – April 2013

2. What are we trying to do in our ecological restorations? • “Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.” (Society for Ecological Restoration Science and Policy Working Group 2002)

3. Another definition Ecological Restoration- the full or partial replacement of biological populations and/or their habitats that have been extinguished or diminished. Ideally the restoration will return normal ecosystem function to an area and hopefully the project will also have social or economic value to humans Restoration Ecology is the study of restoration; ER is the process of restoration

4. A (Very) Brief History of Ecological Restoration

5. Early examples of ecological restoration • 1300s – forest restoration Nurnberger Reichswald • 1660 – John Evelyn – restoration of English landscape • Late 1700s, early 1800s – restoration of Italian and French mountain forests • 1859 – restoration of the Thames River, London • 1878 – restoration of the Back Bay Fens, Boston • Early 1900s – restoration of rangeland in American West • 1936 – Restoration of Curtis Prairie – U. of Wisconsin Arboretum

6. King’s College Chapel, Cambridge

8. The Man Who Planted Trees

9. Environmental Restoration in the American West

10. Restoration in London – after the Great Stink of 1858

11. Response to the Great Stink – Improve Drainage and Restore Streams

12. Improved Drainage Following The Great Stink

13. Improving sewage flow in London – an on-going project – Jan. 2011 proposal

14. Restoration in Boston - 1879

15. Back Bay Fens Today

16. Restoration in the Midwest Nachusa Grasslands

17. Aldo Leopold planting at the Shack - 1936

18. CCC crewman planting Curtis Prairie - 1936

19. CCC crew watering Curtis Prairie – late 1930’s

20. Curtis Prairie – planted 1936-40 Greene Prairie – planted 1943-52 University of Wisconsin Arboretum

21. The Founders of Green Oaks – Henry Green, George Ward, Alvah Green, and Paul Shepard - 1955

22. Green Oaks prior to prairie restoration – South Prairie

23. Early prairie establishment at Green Oaks – late 50’s

24. Pete Schramm burning the Prairie – 1980’s

25. Prairie Fire April 2013

26. Green Oaks from the Air

28. 100 sites monitored for long-term studies of restoration success

29. Plan for Green Network, Chicago Area

30. Restoration Projects Can Be Highly Variable

33. A more complex and typical restoration project

34. Salt marsh restoration plan in Rhode Island

35. Salt marsh restoration plan in Rhode Island

36. Phragmites and Spartina

37. Mine Reclamation – the most difficult restoration project

38. Mine reclamation in progress

39. Mitigation • Mitigation is the alleviation of some process • Compensatory Mitigation is related to restoration - mitigation is sometimes required when a group wants to develop a wild area such as a wetland and thus destroy the wetland

40. Controversies about Mitigation • Often the success rate for mitigation projects is fairly low • Many ecologists fear that if mitigation is seen to be successful we will allow many development projects to proceed with the assumption we can easily recreate nature - however there is some question as to how well we can actually restore what is lost or destroyed

41. Mitigation with Woodrow Wilson Bridge Construction

42. Restoration of Louisiana salt marsh- post BP oil spill mitigation

43. Mitigation of ANWR?

44. 1967 Torrey Canyon Oil spill

46. 1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill

47. 1989 – Exxon Valdez oil spill

48. Exxon Valdez oil spill clean efforts

49. Tony Bradshaw