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Ecological Restoration

Regaining Sustainable Landscapes

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• What is restoration?

• What is conservation?

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• Conservation preserves valuable ecosystem types.

• It may involve restoring the habitat of threatened and endangered animal species.

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• Restoration at its most basic is putting plants in the ground, with the intention of creating a desirable vegetation structure.

– In the mitigation process, various kinds of ecosystem functions are measured to determine the success of the restoration.

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• In a societal context, it may be argued that it is our responsibility to safeguard the integrity of historical ecosystems,

• or protect other parts of the living system of which we are one part.

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• Common elements of restoration

– 1. Remove invasives– 2. Modify site– 3. Plant natives– 4. Observe and take care of site

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• A couple of ecological principles

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Likelihood a sitewill restore itself.

Condition of the neighborhood

Natural Modified

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• Succession is driven by the plant community.

• External forces modify succession– By changing:

• Site availability• Species availability• Species performance

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• In restoration, we try to keep a system on a desired successional trajectory by adjusting the three factors.

– Site availability• By designed disturbance

– Species availability• By planting

– Species performance• By species selection and designed disturbance

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• Examples of Restoration– Kelp– Eelgrass– Wetland– Prairie– Forest

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Kelp forest

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Laura Carney Nereocystis

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Elliot Bay Marina

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Eelgrass beds

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(Pickerell et al., 2005)(Pickerell et al., 2005)

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Wetlands

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Gog-le-hi-te

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Prairie

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Forest

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Snag

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Wildlife tree

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Deadfall

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Unthinned ONR

51Thinned ONR

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Regrowth in thinned forest ONR

53Gaps ONR

54Snags and litter ONR

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Gap-driven multi-age forest

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Pit and mound