Ecological Restoration. 

Maybe you’ve heard that phrase before; perhaps in the news regarding global ecosystem biodiversity, or on information placards along your favorite hiking trail. Perhaps you’ve heard about the need to conserve native prairies, or preserve pollinator habitat, or restore water quality—all adjectives that sit nicely under the umbrella of “Ecological Restoration.” Here at NRP, we identify as an ecological restoration company. But what does that actually mean? What is ecological restoration, and why do we think it matters so much that we built an entire company dedicated to it? Let’s explore.

Ecological restoration as a concept emerged about 40 years ago as a way to describe any attempt to improve or re-create damaged and destroyed natural land. However, like many things in science, original versions of this concept were not sufficient. Scientists fluttered around debating a good definition of ecological restoration until the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) released the following definition in 2002:

“Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.”

This definition took root and spread to become one of the highest referenced definitions of ecological restoration in the world. But what does all that scientific jargon mean? Essentially, ecological restoration means helping animals, plants, and landscapes that have been harmed, changed, or destroyed by human activity. This could mean anything from regrowing a prairie on land that was completely cleared for farming, to planting butterfly-friendly plants along sidewalks. Although often used to describe management activities on large nature reserves and parks, any attempt to return a functioning habitat to a landscape could fall under the banner of ecological restoration.

So what do we mean by “functioning” habitat or ecosystem? Similar to how a functioning body requires healthy, unique organs and internal systems each with their own job, a functioning ecosystem requires a collection of healthy, unique plants, animals, insects, decomposers, and microorganisms each with their own role, working together in a set of environmental conditions. If one of these elements is removed or degraded, or if the environmental conditions change too much, the whole system suffers. Think about when you get a cold, or when you are caught in a storm with no coat—it feels pretty lousy, and your body and brain can’t perform as well because you’re suffering. The same thing can happen with natural ecosystems if internal or external conditions change, or are disrupted by an outside force.

It’s important to recognize that when natural ecosystems decline in this way, it’s not just the plants and critters that are affected. Ecosystems provide multiple services, from purifying water to providing wood products to pollination for our crops to clean air to breath. In fact, in 2011, global ecosystem services were estimated to value $125 trillion per year (Costanza et al., 2014)! That’s 100 trillion more than the 2019 United States GDP total (8 years later). The estimated cost of lost ecosystem services due ecosystem destruction and degradation is also in the trillions of dollars. That’s a lot of zeros (12 zeros in fact); zeros that could be rectified with ecosystem restoration.

But it’s not just the monetary value that we lose from degraded ecosystems. Our livelihoods, histories, cultures, and joy are tied to these landscapes. From the woodlots behind our houses where we spent summers chasing frogs to the lakes where we caught our biggest fish to the hiking trails we cherish like our own—even the backyards of our houses are important landscapes to us.

See, at NRP, we recognize the ecological losses from degraded ecosystems. We realize the loss

of economic services and resources, and we realize the loss of valuable species and habitats. But we also see the loss of our landscapes, our hangouts, and our natural hideaways. We know that to carry our world into the future, we need to protect, preserve, and restore these damaged habitats and ecosystems. This is why we built a company around ecological restoration, because preserving our ecosystems isn’t just important; it’s necessary.

So, to return to our initial question of “what is ecological restoration?”, I think our exploration warrants an amendment to our definition. It’s not just ecosystem recovery that we are aiming for, but a recovery of habitats, histories, resources, natural icons, and places to continue telling our stories. At NRP, ecological restoration is about returning the natural beauty, strength, and resilience of native ecosystems, while preserving our valued lands. I hope you’ll join us in making a commitment to protecting natural habitats, and promoting native landscapes. Together, we can make a difference to preserve our native resources!

Sources:

Costanza, D., de Groot, R., Sutton, P., van der Ploeg, S., Anderson, S.J., Kubiszewski, I., Farber, S., Turner, R.K. (2014). Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change, vol. 26, 152-158. doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.002

Martin, D. (2017). Ecological restoration should be refined for the twenty-first century. Restoration Ecology, vol. 25(5), 668-673. doi.org/10.1111/rec.12554

Society for Ecological Restoration. (2002). What is Ecological Restoration. Online, 2021. www.ser-rrc.org/what-is-ecological-restoration