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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