Ecological Restoration 101: What It Is & Why We Do It

By Keith Williams, Vice President of Engagement & Education

What Is Ecological Restoration?

Ecosystems are communities of plants, animals, and microorganisms that interact with each other and the physical environment. Ecosystem degradation or damage interrupts these interactions and disrupts normal dynamic ecosystem functioning. Sometimes this damage occurs directly from land use or land clearing activities, such as development or agriculture. Other times the damage may be indirect from the introduction of non-native invasive species.

Ecological restoration is the process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has been damaged and tries to initiate or accelerate the recovery of ecosystems after they have been damaged. (Of course, it is critically important that we do all we can to prevent ecosystems from becoming damaged in the first place.)

What Can Restoration Look Like?

Ecological restoration practitioners create the conditions needed for recovery so that the plants, animals, and microorganisms that make up the ecosystem can do the work of recovery themselves. Sometimes these treatments can appear to be extremely destructive in the form of selective harvesting of trees, controlled prescribed fire, or mowing. Other times, the treatments are almost imperceptible in the case of hand removal of invasive plants or the interplanting of native species. Ecological restoration may be as simple as removing invasive species, or as complex as altering hydrology and reintroducing species who were historically part of the ecosystem.

Why Do We Do Ecological Restoration?

Protecting our natural lands is just part of what we do at the Lancaster Conservancy. Once our wild spaces are saved, we believe we also have a responsibility to take care of them, supporting healthy ecosystems where biodiverse plants and wildlife can flourish.

Bee visits Dutchman’s breeches wildflower | Photo by Avery Van Etten

The interactions between plants, animals, microorganisms, and the physical environment provide services on which we humans depend. Clean air, clean water, soil formation, nutrient cycling, decomposition, and food production are all services provided to us, free of charge, by healthy functioning ecosystems. It would cost us an estimated $63 trillion annually if we had to perform the same services ecosystems provide. When ecosystems become damaged or degraded, they no longer provide the services we rely on, but ecological restoration restores these services.

Species depend on intact ecosystems and their relationships with other species and the physical world. We are experiencing the sixth mass extinction crisis in the history of the Earth. This one is human-caused, and we are losing species at a frightening rate. Each species is a thread in the thin tapestry of life that covers the planet. As we lose species, the tapestry becomes threadbare and weak. Humans are part of the biosphere, too – this thin green tapestry – and as it weakens with species loss, our survival as a species becomes more precarious. Biodiversity depends on intact ecosystems. Ecological restoration works to protect and restore biodiversity.

Beyond the services intact ecosystems provide us, we have a moral obligation to pass this world on to future generations in better shape than we found it. Ecological restoration is a way for us to do that, as well.

Learn More About Restoration on Conservancy Preserves:

→ Healthy Forest and Meadows Coming Soon to Donegal Highlands
→ Wizard Ranch Nature Preserve Opens to the Public as Restoration Work Continues
→ Kellys Run Pollinator Park Restoration
→ Conservation Champions: Volunteer Land Stewards