Juan Alvez is right about having long term goals but leaves out important defining adjectives. Ecosystems structures, functions, processes and services exist regardless of ecosystem condition (even a crack in a paved parking lot is an ecosystem with structure, functions and maybe even some services). So we need to insert adjectives that describes a desired future state -- e.g., 1. Reestablishment of the naturally complex and stable ecosystem structure. 2. Reestablishment of the naturally diverse ecosystem functions and process. 3. Reestablishment of the productive flow of ecosystem services. Of course these modifiers would tend to be site dependent and I'm sure others can come up with better examples. And how about employing principles of adaptive management to make sure our efforts are both effective and informative?
Warren W. Aney Senior Wildlife Ecologist Tigard, OR -----Original Message----- From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Juan P Alvez Sent: Tuesday, 18 January, 2011 19:53 To: [email protected] 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 that 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"<[email protected]> > To:<[email protected]> > 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 > > > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - www.avg.com > Version: 8.5.449 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/3386 - Release Date: 01/17/11 07:34:00 -- 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)
