Environmental Problems, Their Causes, and Sustainability 1

for designation as wilderness—about 60% of it in thenational forests. For two decades, these areas havebeen protected while they were evaluated for wildernessprotection. Wilderness supporters would like tosee all of these areas protected as part of the wildernesssystem.This is unlikely because of the political strength ofindustries that see these areas as sources of resourcesfor increased profits and short-term economic growth.The political efforts of these industries paid off when,in 2003, the Bush administration ceased protectingareas under consideration for classification as wilderness.This opens up many of these lands to road building,mining, oil drilling, logging, and off-road vehicleuse. Such activities would also disqualify these areasfor wilderness protection in the future.Some wilderness advocates go further and call forcreating wilderness recovery areas. They would do thisby closing and obliterating nonessential roads in largeareas of public lands, restoring wildlife habitats, allowingnatural fires to burn, and reintroducing keyspecies that have been driven from such areas.Some ecologists and conservation biologists call fordevelopment of The Wildlands Project (TWP) to establisha network of protected wildlands and ecosystemsthroughout as much of the United States as possible.Accomplishing this would require cooperative effortsamong government agencies, scientists, conservationgroups, and private owners and users. It is unlikely thatsuch projects will be implemented because of strong oppositionto expansion of wilderness areas.11-9 ECOLOGICAL RESTORATIONHow Can We Rehabilitate and RestoreDamaged Ecosystems? Making Amendsfor Our ActionsScientists have developed a number of techniques forrehabilitating and restoring degraded ecosystems andcreating artificial ecosystems.Bad news. Almost every natural place on the earth hasbeen affected or degraded to some degree by humanactivities. Good news. Much of the environmentaldamage we have inflicted on nature is at least partiallyreversible through ecological restoration: theprocess of repairing damage caused by humans to thebiodiversity and dynamics of natural ecosystems. Examplesinclude replanting forests, restoring grasslands,restoring wetlands, reclaiming urban industrialareas (brownfields), reintroducing native species, removinginvasive species, and freeing river flows byremoving dams.Farmer and philosopher Wendell Berry says weshould try to answer three questions in decidingwhether and how to modify or rehabilitate naturalecosystems. First, what is here? Second, what will naturepermit us to do here? Third, what will nature helpus do here?By studying how natural ecosystems recover, scientistsare learning how to speed up repair operationsusing a variety of approaches. They include thefollowing:■ Restoration: trying to return a particular degradedhabitat or ecosystem to a condition as similar as possibleto its natural state. However, we often lack knowledgeabout the previous composition of a degradedarea and changes in climate, soil, and species compositioncan make it impossible to restore an area to itsearlier state.■ Rehabilitation: attempts to turn a degraded ecosystemback into a functional or useful ecosystemwithout trying to restore it to its original condition.Examples include removing pollutants and replantingareas such as mining sites, landfills, and clear-cutforests to reduce soil erosion.■ Remediation: cleaning up chemical contaminantsfrom a site by physical or chemical methods to protecthuman health and as a first step toward redevelopmentof a site for human use. For example, anabandoned and polluted industrial plant—called abrownfield—may be cleaned up and then redevelopedinto office buildings, apartments, a sports field, or apark.■ Replacement: replacing a degraded ecosystem withanother type of ecosystem. For example, a productivepasture or tree farm may replace a degraded forest.■ Creating artificial ecosystems: Examples are the creationof artificial wetlands.Researchers have suggested five basic sciencebasedprinciples for carrying out ecological restoration.■ Mimic nature and natural processes and ideally letnature do most of the work, usually through secondaryecological succession.■ Recreate important ecological niches that havebeen lost.■ Rely on pioneer species, keystone species, foundationspecies, and natural ecological succession to facilitatethe restoration process.■ Control or remove harmful nonnative species.■ If necessary, reconnect small patches to form largerones and create corridors where existing patches areisolated.Some analysts worry that environmental restorationcould encourage continuing environmental destructionand degradation by suggesting any ecologicalharm we do can be undone. Some go further andsay that we do not understand the incredible complex-220 CHAPTER 11 Sustaining Terrestrial Biodiversity: Managing and Protecting Ecosystems