Environmental Restoration
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Environmental restoration is closely allied with (or perhaps sometimes used interchangeably with)
ecological restoration Restoration ecology is the scientific study supporting the practice of ecological restoration, which is the practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human interrupt ...
or environmental remediation. In the U.S., remediation is the term used more in the realms of industry, public policy, and civil services. Environmental restoration is a term common in the citizens’
environmental movement The environmental movement (sometimes referred to as the ecology movement), also including conservation and green politics, is a diverse philosophical, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues. Environmentalists a ...
. In the 1987 edition of his book ''Restoring the Earth: How Americans are Working to Renew our Damaged Environment'', scientific editor and writer John J. Berger defined environmental restoration (or “natural resource restoration”) as follows: ''"… A process in which a damaged resource is renewed. Biologically. Structurally. Functionally."''


Natural environment

The ongoing growth of the human population in the world and its associated impacts, mean that the need for ecological restoration has become increasingly clear. The old adage "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" points to the fact that ecological restoration is not always successful (or only over long spans of time) and, when feasible, is often difficult and expensive. Environmental restoration is often neglected, either being overlooked or being deemed inexpedient or of a low priority. However, in much of the industrialized world, it has been increasingly demanded by the public, at least since the early 1970s if not before. The interest and activity in environmental restoration have given rise to a new branch of research and applied techniques within biology, restoration ecology. Environmental restoration has been applied in aquatic situations
lake environmental restoration
stream A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

environmental restoration
river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

environmental restoration
wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

environmental restoration
etc.) and terrestrial ones (grasslands,
forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
s,
desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...
s, flatlands, hill country, mountain slopes, etc.).


Approaches

Environmental restoration involves many different approaches and technologies depending on the requirements of the situation. It can involve
heavy equipment Heavy equipment or heavy machinery refers to heavy-duty vehicles specially designed to execute construction tasks, most frequently involving earthwork operations or other large construction tasks. ''Heavy equipment'' usually comprises five e ...
like cranes,
grader A grader, also commonly referred to as a road grader, motor grader, or simply a blade, is a form of heavy equipment with a long blade used to create a flat surface during grading. Although the earliest models were towed behind horses, and lat ...
s,
bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large, motorized machine equipped with a metal blade to the front for pushing material: soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous track ...
s, or
excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...
s, and also hand processes like the planting of trees and other vegetation. It can involve high-tech processes such as those applied in the careful environmental control required in fish-hatchery procedures. Today, computerized regulation is often being utilized in these processes. Computer-based mapping has also become an important dimension of restorative work, as has
computer modelling Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be det ...
. In some situations, environmental restorative work is handled entirely by professionals working with skilled operators and technicians. In others, ordinary local community members may do much of the work, acquiring skills as the project proceeds. An example of this approach can be seen in Project Maitai where the Nelson City Council, New Zealand, has worked with community groups, such as Friends of the Maitai and local schools, to restore the
Maitai River The Maitai River (also known as the Mahitahi River) is the largest river in the city of Nelson, in the north of New Zealand's South Island. The river stretches from the Bryant Range, situated to the east (inland) of Nelson, where it flows toward ...
and its tributaries.


Ecological restoration markets

Although the international field of restoration is driven primarily by the non-profit, government and academic sectors, in the U.S and certain other countries (e.g. Australia, which has a robust mining restoration sector), there are active markets for ecological restoration. The U.S. market blossomed shortly after
Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of a ...
passed the Clean Water Act and the
Environmental Protection Agency A biophysical environment is a biotic and abiotic surrounding of an organism or population, and consequently includes the factors that have an influence in their survival, development, and evolution. A biophysical environment can vary in scale f ...
issued implementing regulations aimed at preventing the loss of streams and wetlands, and in the wake of the passage of the
Endangered Species Act of 1973 The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA or "The Act"; 16 U.S.C. § 1531 et seq.) is the primary law in the United States for protecting imperiled species. Designed to protect critically imperiled species from extinction as a "consequence of ec ...
. The
Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 (SMCRA) is the primary federal law that regulates the environmental effects of coal mining in the United States. SMCRA created two programs: one for regulating active coal mines and a second ...
also created restoration opportunities. When regulations stemming from these laws came online in the mid-1980s, there were few firms that were qualified or experienced in performing large-scale restoration projects. The first estimate of the dollars and jobs in the U.S. was $9.5 billion in annual sales, with 126,000 people employed.


US military and Navy

In 1975, the DOD started cleaning up contaminated military sites under the "Installation Restoration Program" . In 1986, the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act Superfund is a United States federal environmental remediation program established by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency ...
from 1976 was amended to create the "Defense Environmental Restoration Program". In 2001, DoD established the "Military Munitions Response Program" for sites known or suspected to contain unexploded ordnance, discarded military munitions, or munitions constituents. The
Department of the Navy Navy Department or Department of the Navy may refer to: * United States Department of the Navy, * Navy Department (Ministry of Defence), in the United Kingdom, 1964-1997 * Confederate States Department of the Navy, 1861-1865 * Department of the ...
documents its environmental restoration in its administrative record file collections for each facility. As of 2022, these were grouped into 5 US regions, namely Northwest, Hawaii, Southwest, Midatlantic and Southeast.


See also

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Biodegradation Biodegradation is the breakdown of organic matter by microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi. It is generally assumed to be a natural process, which differentiates it from composting. Composting is a human-driven process in which biodegrada ...
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Bioremediation Bioremediation broadly refers to any process wherein a biological system (typically bacteria, microalgae, fungi, and plants), living or dead, is employed for removing environmental pollutants from air, water, soil, flue gasses, industrial effluent ...
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Buffalo Commons The Buffalo Commons is a conceptual proposal to create a vast nature preserve by returning of the drier portion of the Great Plains to native prairie, and by reintroducing the American bison ("buffalo"), that once grazed the shortgrass prairie. ...
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Dutch standards Dutch Standards are environmental pollutant reference values (i.e., concentrations in environmental medium) used in environmental remediation, investigation and cleanup. Barring a few exceptions, the target values are underpinned by an environmen ...
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Industrial nature Industrial Nature is the regeneration of natural vegetation on industrial sites; the invasion of abandoned or disused industrial sites by colonising species; or new plantings on abandoned, disused or remediated industrial sites. The underlying princ ...
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List of environment topics The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, includes all living and non-living things occurring naturally on Earth. The natural environment includes complete ecological units that function as natural systems without m ...
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Natural attenuation In physics, attenuation (in some contexts, extinction) is the gradual loss of flux intensity through a medium. For instance, dark glasses attenuate sunlight, lead attenuates X-rays, and water and air attenuate both light and sound at variable a ...
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Phytoremediation Phytoremediation technologies use living plants to clean up soil, air and water contaminated with hazardous contaminants. It is defined as "the use of green plants and the associated microorganisms, along with proper soil amendments and agronom ...
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Richard St. Barbe Baker Richard St. Barbe Baker , Hon. LL.D. F.I.A.L., For.Dip.Cantab., ACF (9 October 1889 – 9 June 1982) was an English biologist and botanist, environmental activist and author, who contributed greatly to worldwide reforestation efforts. As a ...
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Stream restoration Stream restoration or river restoration, also sometimes referred to as river reclamation, is work conducted to improve the environmental health of a river or stream, in support of biodiversity, recreation, flood management and/or landscape developm ...


References


External links

{{commons category multi, Environmental restoration, Restoration of habitats
Society for Ecological RestorationRestore the Earth siteArid Lands and Desert Restoration

Sustainable Ecological Restoration
.
American Society of Professional Wetland Engineers (ASPWE)

EEMP
- a non-profit 501 (c) 3 organization dedicated to communicate the lessons of rehabilitation through media around the world.