Ecological restoration aims to re-establish a self-organizing ecosystem on a trajectory to reach full recovery. While restoration activities can often place a degraded ecosystem on an initial trajectory of recovery relatively quickly, full recovery of the ecosystem can take years, decades, or even hundreds of years.
For example, while we can initiate a forest restoration process by planting trees, for full recovery to be achieved, the site should be a fully functioning forest with mature trees in the age-classes representative of a mature native forest. If there were year-old trees in the forest that was destroyed, then the restoration should logically take hundreds of years to achieve full recovery.
During that recovery period, unforeseen barriers to recovery may be encountered, or additional restoration activities may become possible at later stages of development.
Thus, while individual restoration activities may be completed, in most cases the restoration process continues as the ecosystem recovers and matures. While we can successfully restore biodiversity, structure, and function to a degraded ecosystem, ecological restoration is not a substitute for conservation, nor should the promise of restoration be used to justify destruction or unsustainable use. Commission on Ecosystem Management.
Our work. Medmerry managed realignment at low tide. Photo: UK Environment Agency. Photo: Ben Brown. Prev Next. Foundation Documents SER Primer on Ecological Restoration is a concise statement of restoration principles and includes the most cited definition of what restoration is, how it is planned, conducted, and evaluated, and it integration with related disciplines available in English, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Chinese.
Journals Restoration Ecology is a peer-reviewed journal published by SER since which highlights cutting-edge research on restoration principles and techniques. Restoration Project Showcase This unique photo gallery of before-and-after photos of projects is an effective way to illustrate the important role of ecological restoration.
Papers and publications. Follow us. Fire is necessary for the health of forests, which have evolved to depend on fires to clean out underbrush and maintain biological diversity.
Dead trees serve as important wildlife habitat and contribute to the nutrient cycle, and patches of dead trees allow for forest succession. Even stand-replacing fires have historically occurred at some level in almost every forest type in the West. Unfortunately, the fires of recent years have been burning large areas with relatively high severity, as well as burning into communities.
Get more information on fire and forest management. Get the latest on our work for biodiversity and learn how to help in our free weekly e-newsletter. Contact: Randi Spivak. The Center for Biological Diversity is a c 3 registered charitable organization.
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