Restoring Nature in Protected Areas

• Author: Gordon Steinhoff
• Pages: 155-180

155

Chapter 8

Restoring Nature in

Protected Areas

Although ecological restoration has come to play an essential role in

ecosystem management, it is still a contentious issue how “ecologi-

cal restoration” should be conceived. What exactly are we doing as

we “restore” a damaged ecosystem? In the literature, there is no standard

account. According to the traditional view, ecological restoration is the

attempt to return a damaged ecosystem to some historic state.1 is view is

problematic for several reasons. Recently, however, ecological restoration has

been characterized in a vague fashion that does not require a return to his-

toric or natural conditions. e Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), for

example, has dened “ecological restoration” as “the process of assist ing the

recovery of a n ecosystem that has been degraded, damaged, or destroyed.”2

“Recovery” is a vague term. Restoration expert s William Jordan and George

Lubick state that this denition is purposefully broad, inclusive, even lenient,

allowing “a wide ra nge of land management practices to claim the rubric of

‘restoration’.”3 In their restoration text, Jelte van A ndel and James A ronson

accept the SER denition, and they informally cha racterize “ecological res-

toration” simply as “aiming at the repair of damage.”4 David Tongway and

John Ludwig characterize “ecological restoration” as (essentially) “repairing

damaged functions.”5

1. See, e.g., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Restoration Dened, http://water.epa.gov/

type/watersheds/archives/chap1.cfm.

2. S  E R, SER I P  E R-

 (2004), a vailable at http://www.ser.org/resou rces/resources-detail-vie w/ser-international-

primer-on-ecological-restoration#3.

3. W R. J III  G M. L, M N W: A H  E

R 215 (2011).

4. J  A  J A ., R E: T N F 7 (2d ed.

2012) [hereinafter R E 2012]. See also id. at 10 and 307.

5. D J. T  J A. L, R D L 1 (2011).

Note: is chapter is adapted from Restoring Nature in Protected Areas, 5 A. J.

E. L.  P’ 302 (Fall 2014).

156 Naturalness and Biodiversity

e restoration of damaged ecosystems is v ital for ma intaining native

biodiversity in national parks, wilderness, and other protected a reas. In t his

chapter, I will examine U.S. federa l agency policies concerning restoration

within protected area s, as well as actual restoration projects. I will argue

that ecological restoration within protected areas is not, and should not be,

conceived as an attempt to return an ecosystem to the past. Also, restora-

tion in these area s should not be conceived in the open-ended ways recently

advocated by restoration experts, such as “aiming at the repair of damage.”

Federal protected area policies are properly strict concerning restoration,

reecting legislative mandates to maintain natural conditions and native bio-

diversity. Consistent with federal agency policies and actual practice, “eco-

logical restoration” within protected areas should be understood as returning

a damaged ecosystem to a close approximation of its natural conditions and

processes. e standard that must be met within protected area s is quite

high. A “restored” ecosystem within these areas must closely mimic natural,

not historic, conditions.

Conceptions of Restoration

“Ecological restoration” has been characterized in various ways. e U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has dened “[ecological] restora-

tion” as “the proce ss of returning a d amaged ecosystem to its condition

prior to disturbance.”6 is is the trad itional understandi ng, a nd it is still

accepted by restorat ion experts. Jordan and Lubick claim that ecological

restoration (“ecocentric restoration”) is “focused on the literal re-creation

of a previously ex isting ec osystem, including not just some but all of its

parts and processes.”7 Margaret Palmer and others wr ite, “Strictly speaking,

ecological restoration is an attempt to retur n a system to some historical

state.”8 According to Dave Egan and Evelyn Howell, “A fundamental aspect

of ecosystem restoration is learning how to rediscover the past and bring it

forward into the pre sent. . ..”9 Anthony Bradshaw writes that ecological

restoration is properly understood as “returning [a system] to an original

state and to a state th at is perfect and hea lthy.”10 Such an understanding of

6. U.S. EPA, supra note 1, at ¶3.

7. J  L, supra note 3, at 2.

8. Margaret A. Palmer et al., Ecological eory and Restoration Ecology, in F  R

E 1, 1 (Donald A. Falk et al. eds., Island Press 2d ed. 2006).

9. D E  E A. H ., T H E H: A R’

G  R E 1 (2001).

10. Anthony D. Bradshaw, Underlying Principles of Restoration, 53 (Suppl. 1) C J. F 

A S. 3, 3 (1996).