Hobbs Professor of Environmental Science, Murdoch University

“The more degraded an ecosystem is, and the more fundamentally the basic ecosystem processes have been altered, the more difficult and expensive restoration will be”

“A mix of scientific uncertainty, value-laden decisions, and unrealistic expectations can lead to costly and demoralizing failures”

● A variety of goals in restoration: restoring ecosystem functions, back to “original” state, etc.

● prevention is a more cost effective strategy than restoration after the fact

● based on extrapolations of ecosystem states (what is “original”?)● multifaceted approaches must focus on goal, ecosystem functions,

extent of damage, type of intervention, and reasons motivating restoration

Davis (Professor of Biology) and Slobodkin (Professor of Ecology)

Restoration ecologists need to recognize the role their own values play in setting restoration goals and tend to disguise their own values as science.● e.g. “When someone refers to a healthy ecosystem, what he or she

actually means is that this is a desirable ecosystem, from that individual’s perspective. When we say we want to restore an ecosystem’s health or integrity, we are really saying that we prefer an ecosystem of a particular type.”

Restoration ecologists should define goals based on the future, rather than restricting themselves to “past paradigms.”● Even the name of the field, restoration ecology, implies a strategy of

returning ecosystems to some past condition.

Andrew Wilder, Lark Meiners, Evan Weselmann, Emilee Martell

Lackey - Professor of Poli Sci at Oregon State, 1981-2008 leadership position in EPA

1. Start with a clear restoration goal or policy 2. Have the right tools and techniques

● Number 1 is more important than 2, but the big challenge is figuring out what the public wants.○ “Ultimately the choice of goals should be a

societal one.”● Avoid mixing personal policy preference/value

judgment with scientific information and expression

Halvorson: Professor in School of Renewable Natural Resources, University of Arizona“I believe that restoration ecology alone cannot provide the basis for ecological restoration. We need an integrated program of inventory and monitoring, research, and adaptive management to carry out the complicated and difficult task of ecosystem restoration, especially if we are dealing with more than a few acres”

● Little support for ecosystem restoration since people are more concerned about getting services for humans from the environment

● Points out that there are many different definitions and perspectives on ecological restoration

● We can’t turn an ecosystem exactly back to what it used to be because we don’t know exactly what it used to be

● We need an integrated program of the many perspectives to address ecosystem restoration

Kristen Shruhan, Emily Patterson, Thea Bucherbeam, Lisa Koetke

Throop● professor of philosophy● concerned about using values & anthropocentric

approach○ difference between what humans may value

(cost, aesthetics) vs. biodiversity & what’s most beneficial to ecosystems

● it’s hubristic for humans to view ecology solely through an anthropocentric lens

● strongly advocates for a return to wildness where possible and exercise of “historical fidelity.”