Restoration

Ecosystem Restoration

Ecosystem restoration entails returning an ecosystem to its previous healthy state. Humankind has historically disrupted ecosystems by logging, clearing land for agricultural purposes, and altering water levels and flows by draining swamps and constructing dams and dikes. There has been a recent increased appreciation for the “free services” that ecosystems provide, with a resulting increase in laws facilitating restoration. An early realization involved lost diversity through native prairie destruction. The first major prairie restoration was in 1934 at University of Wisconsin–Madison's arboretum.

Site of a Staten Island Salt Marsh Restoration project. In 1990, nearly 600,000 gallons of fuel oil discharged from a ruptured Exxon pipeline on the bottom of the Arthur Kill waterway, killing much of the marsh vegetation and a variety of intertidal organisms

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Restoration Center, Northeast Region

Federal aid to states was provided as early as 1937 by the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. However, it and other laws were aimed at restoring wildlife, sometimes actually leading to habitat modification rather than ecosystem restoration. The Estuary Protection Act of 1968 provided means for restoration, but also required balancing restoration with development for economic purposes—an underlying theme of several other acts. The policy goal of “no overall net loss” of wetlands, established by the Water Resources Development Act of 1990, served to dramatically expand implementation of restoration activities mitigating the destruction of wetlands through development and highway construction.

[Page 429]The Coastal Wetlands Planning Protection and Restoration Act from the same year provided for federal grant funding. Finally, The Estuaries and Clean Water Act of 2000 established an Estuary Habitat and Restoration Council, charged with producing a national restoration strategy.

Not all restoration has been based on good scientific knowledge, and outcomes are difficult to predict. Consequently, there have been increasing calls for ecologically grounded ecosystem restoration. Proponents suggest that successful ecosystem restoration should entail clearly stated goals and a design stemming from ecological principles. Restorationists should gather and utilize quantitative data about the way the ecosystem functions and its reaction to change, and an analysis of results must guide future actions.

An ecosystem might need to be restored because of radical alteration due to either intentional or unintentional introduction of nonnative species. For example, saltcedar—an invasive deciduous small tree—was introduced to the United States in the 1800s as an ornamental species. As early as 1850, it rapidly spread through riparian habitat and replaced native plant life. The plant has a long natural life (50–100 years), absorbs an excess of water (a larger tree is capable of absorbing 200 gallons of water per day), can withstand cutting, burning, cold temperatures, droughts, and floods, and changes the salinity of the surrounding soil by excreting salt from its leaves. Thus, restoration efforts could aim for the eradication of the saltcedar. However, questions are raised when considering species eradication from an ecosystem: is it right to eliminate a species once it has settled into an ecosystem? What constitutes an invasive species and after how long, if ever, would it be considered native? In relation to wildlife, these ethical questions are often more poignant. Another question, more difficult to answer, is what a specific ecosystem should be like. In a warming world, should attempts be made to restore an area to its historical condition? Or should the character of the ecosystem be changed to one that is sustainable in a warmer climate regime? How and to what state we restore ecosystems is largely a reflection of our communal values.

...