Due to ever-increasing demands many of our wildland ecosystems have been degraded and are no longer able to provide the level of goods and services to society that they once were capable of. The overall objective of this course is to provide an in-depth overview of the field of restoration ecology as an approach to repair/restore damaged wildland ecosystems. We will evaluate the appropriateness of this approach where restoration goals call for low-input, sustainable vegetation managed for biological diversity, wildlife habitat, forest or rangeland productivity and watershed considerations. It is not the intent of this course to describe all possible repair strategies but rather to establish the foundation for a comprehensive approach toward designing situation-specific wildland restoration strategies.  We will draw upon ecological theories about succession, disturbance, ecological processes, and hierarchies of time and space, as well as evaluate the different theories of restoration ecology.  We will examine case studies of restoration projects arid land, forestland and riparian settings. Restoration (as defined by the Society for Ecological Restoration in 1993) is the process of reestablishing to the extent possible the structure, function, and integrity of indigenous ecosystems and the sustaining habitats they provide. In drastically altered ecosystems this process may take hundreds if not thousands of years to recreate these pre-disturbed conditions. It may not be possible to completely recreate such a community and, certainly not in a short time.  We can, however, begin the process by educating ourselves about what may have been present before the land was altered and then developing a long-term plan to restore the land, as much as possible, to its former natural condition.  Since nature is dynamic, the most we can ever do is establish the conditions for natural processes to work.

This course is divided into seven lessons with two to three modules per lesson (see lessons under menu).  Specific objectives and instructions are specified for each lesson and module within the lesson. The format for this course will be entirely computer basedon-line via the World Wide Web.  On this web site you will find the syllabus, schedule, lessons and other activities and resources for the class. 
 

Text 2: A Sand County Almanac. By Aldo Leopold.1949.