You are here:
ALTERNATIVE FUTURES AS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR RIPARIAN RESTORATION OF LARGE RIVERS
Citation:
Hulse, D. W. AND S. V. Gregory. ALTERNATIVE FUTURES AS AN INTEGRATIVE FRAMEWORK FOR RIPARIAN RESTORATION OF LARGE RIVERS. Chapter 9, V.H. Dale and R.A. Haeuber (ed.), Applying Ecological Principles to Land Management. Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, , 194-212, (2004).
Description:
In many ways, planning landscapes with restoration goals in mind is like solving a spatial jigsaw puzzle. The choice of which piece to restore first will influence later choices, because the characteristics of remaining pieces assist the decision make in creating an emerging picture that is both recognizable and desired. All we ask of jigsaw puzzles is that they entertain and challenge us. People ask a great deal more from their landscapes. Fulfilling people's demand for food, water, fiber, recreation, and shelter often leads to significant changes on the land, changes that leave legacies that, in turn, affect future choices. This chapter describes an approach for choosing among future possibilities of riparian forest restoration in large river systems. In doing so it offers an example of how ecological principles and guidelines, such as those put forward by the Ecological Society of America (ESA) (see Chapter 1), may be applied within the particular realities of local landscapes. This approach is focused on rivers and the restoration of floodplain forests. Its conception predates our awareness of ESA's Principles and Guidelines for Managing the Use of Land, but like ESA's guidelines, it asserts that the thoughtful planning of desired future landscapes requires an understanding of how past processes and choices have led to present conditions. It builds this understanding from four different disciplinary perspectives (ecology, hydrogeomorphology, demography/planning, economics) and then applies these perspectives to the task of choosing where, at three different spatial extents with the river system as a whole, to invest in restoring desired future patterns and processes. Our thesis is that the prospects for success improve as restoration projects explicitly address the connections between ecological dynamics and the local demographic, economic, and institutional dynamics in which restoration efforts are implemented.