Juan and Ecolog:
Much as I appreciate compliments, I am not a professor . . . sorry to
disappoint you.
Like Chew (but unlike Chew) I don't know why anyone would think a degraded
ecosystem could be "restored" to its "pristine" or "pure" stage, and I don't
even know what that is . . .
I have, however, "restored" self-sufficient complexes of organisms on several
highly degraded sites, such as highway cuts and fills, pipeline rights-of-way,
disposal fills, "sanitary" landfills, "channelized" riparian habitats, etc.
None of them were duplicates, and none of them "pure" I'm sure, but the
reintroduced indigenous organisms did not require any "gardening" or other
"maintenance" to be permanent ecosystems that improved rather than degraded
with time. The oldest is almost 39 years old and has not had any outside inputs
(maintenance, irrigation, replacement of dead plants, etc.) is all of their
years. So this may not be "restoration" to purists (whatever that means) but
there have been ecologists who could not find them because they presumed they
were "natural." I have found that gardening practices retard the restoration
process, not advance it.
WT
PS: I am happy to hear that someone is taking on the challenge of returning
damaged ecosystems to indigenous assemblages/functioning ecosystems in Brazil.
----- Original Message -----
From: Juan P Alvez
To: Wayne Tyson
Cc: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2011 7:53 PM
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Conservation or just gardening?
Ecologers,
Building on Prof. W. Tyson's comment...
I completely agree. Restoring a degraded ecosystem to its pristine pure stage
is almost impossible, not to mention the costs involved in the mitigation
process.
There were (and still are) successful attempts of regenerating barren and
ultra degraded places in Brazil (i.e. mine sites) by Prof. Ademir Reis and
others. Prof. Reis also committed several mistakes in his attempts until he
figured it out the best ways to achieve some sort of succession and vegetation.
From my humble point of view, important long-term goal and considerations to
have in mind are:
1.. the reestablishment of ecosystem structure (not an easy task!);
2.. the reestablishment of ecosystem functions and processes (consider
yourself lucky when this is accomplished);
3.. Finally, the reestablishment of the flow of ecosystem services.
These events take time and resources but are worth doing.
Just my 2 cts!
Juan P. Alvez
On 1/18/2011 4:04 PM, Wayne Tyson wrote:
Jason and Ecolog:
Many years ago (early 1980's?) I did a "paper" that I think I called "Ecosystem
Restoration and Landscaping: A Comparison." I don't remember the name of the
conference and I'm not sure of the place, but it might have been one of the
early conferences of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), maybe it's
less-formal precursor, "Native Plant Restoration" or something like that, and I
believe it was held in Berkeley, at some big old wooden hotel in the Berkeley
Hills. I was a pretty young upstart, and I don't recall anyone paying much
attention to it. [Note: I looked through some old files and found a folder:
"Restoration and Landscaping: a Comparison." 2nd Native Plant Revegetation
Symposium, 1987, but there was no paper in it. I was close but a bit foggy.
Even it might be wrong; a search revealed other papers which said it was 1987
and the location was San Diego. Maybe a better searcher can find it, or maybe
someone has the Proceedings--however, I can't even be sure tha
t it was published. I wasn't so young as it turns out, but an upstart
nonetheless, I guess.]
Anyway, I hope Jason or others can do a better job than I did in communicating
what I still think is an important--in fact, crucial point: that
landscaping/gardening is a whole different paradigm from ecosystem restoration
and management, and recognizing that crucial distinction is fundamental to a
real understanding of the interplay between Nature and culture.
I spent at least 15 years making the same fundamental mistake over and over
again-using gardening/agronomic/landscaping practices in the attempt to
restore/manage ecosystems. Failure after failure after failure, even though I
had training in ecology and botany-and in
gardening/agronomy/landscaping/landscape architecture. My fundamental error was
letting the latter paradigm contaminate the former; I probably made the same
mistake that remains common-thinking that they were synonymous. I could have
not been more wrong-they are in fundamental opposition to each other.
Not wanting to blather on and one with this post, I'll stop here for now . . .
WT
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jason Hernandez" <jason.hernande...@yahoo.com>
To: <ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU>
Sent: Monday, January 17, 2011 5:08 PM
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Conservation or just gardening?
This question is inspired by a conversation with a former employer. When do our
interventions cease to be conservation and become gardening?
For the sake of argument, I was taking the purist position: that ideally, we
want to be able to put a fence around a natural area and walk away, letting
nature manage it. But as my employer rightly pointed out, that is just not a
realistic expectation in the 21st century, what with invasive species, systemic
pollution, human pressures on surrounding areas, and countless other factors
which will not go away. But of course, she also knew that there is a degree of
intervention which crosses the line from conservation to gardening, that is,
caring for a population that no longer participates in its ecosystem processes.
There is, of course, a continuum of interventions. Removal of invasive
competitors is a relatively light intervention; growing seedlings in a
greenhouse and then planting them out is more intensive; maintaining an in
vitro germplasm collection still more intensive. Are there any recognized
criteria for determining the boundary between conservation and gardening? And
if a species is beyond saving with conservation, how worthwhile is it to save
that species with gardening? Can we determine when a species' only hope is
gardening?
Jason Hernandez
Biological Science Technician, USDA Forest Service
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--
Juan P Alvez
PhD Candidate
Rubenstein School of Environmental and Natural Resources
Gund Institute for Ecological Economics
University of Vermont
802-655-9739
"Me crié pastando cabras, no bien aprendí a caminar. Desde que nací mi mamá
empezó a llevarme en su espalda y así crecí encima de ella escuchando sus
coplas. Y mi padre cantaba acompañado por la guitarra. Por eso salí cantor."
Tomas Lipan (Cantor Purmamarqueno de Jujuy)
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