"Practitioners of ecological restoration in North America aim to restore communities to their natural state. But what is meant by "natural"? Does it mean the state of the community before industrialization? Before Europeans came to the New World? Before any people laid eyes on the community?
"Let's say Native Americans altered a forest community 8,000 years ago by burning the underbrush regularly to improve hunting, and continued doing so until Europeans arrived 400 years ago and cut the forest for farming. Today the area's inhabitants want to restore the land to its "natural" forested state. Should restorationists try to recreate the forest of the Native Americans, or the forest that existed before Native Americans arrived? What values do you think underlie the desire for restoration?"
Some studies have argued in favor of complete restoration; i.e., retuning big cats and elephant-like creatures to the Great Plains of the Midwest. Good idea? Bad idea?
Natural is anything that is produced by nature. So to put something back to its natural state would mean before homosapiens started to make things out of unnatural items. I believe that humans are part of the natural state. The natural state would have to be before industrialization began. If we still lived like the caveman, would our environment still be like in the natural state? I believe that it would.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure if it would be a good idea or a bad idea to bring elephants back to the United States. We are not equiped to handle an overpopulation of these animals. A lot of the animals that are no longer here in the United States are not here for a reason. We would really have to do a lot of research on how these animals affect the environment. Would the advantages outwiegh the disadvantages or vice versa? We would need to look at the parasites that these animals would bring with them. Or the lack of parasites in our environment that helps with population control. It is definitely something worth looking into especially if it helps our eco systems.
The concept of "natural" can have many different meanings. I find that the Society for Ecoclogical Restoration has taken a reasonable approach in stating that The return of an ecosystem to an open, parklike woodland or grassland, occupied and utilized in the traditional tribal manner, qualifies as ecological restoration (page 5, www.ser.org/content/ecological_restoration_primer.asp). The society also says that perhaps all natural ecosystems are influenced by humans in at the least some small manner and in reality merits acknowlegdement in the process of restoration. The worlds climate has change and most of the plants and animals have evolved fer past the days of sabre toothed cats and mastadons. These animals and their food sources could not survive.
ReplyDeleteTina, I just recieved my copy of "News from Jackson Community College. I enjoyed reading about your family and your educational plans. It is a nice article. Godd luck with your future plans.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree as well that I do not think that now would be a good time to bring back big cats and elephant-like creatures to the mid-west. I think that we are so evolved and that having such large creatures it would make it really hard to control. I think that then they used to be here I have to agree with Tina that that was cavemen time when we never had to worry about our houses or our big business. I just think that it would also be hard for them to make it. I think that the climate is so much more different now that it would be hard for them.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion "natural" is taking things back to the way it was before we started altering things to suit our specific needs. Realistically some of the things that we have altered have been out of necessity but others have not. I do not believe that complete restoration is logical or possible at this time mainly because a lot has been destroyed and cannot be replaced. I do agree that restoration to some degree has to happen in order for the resources to be available for the future but I do not think that complete restoration of big cats or elephant-like creatures is realistic and eventually these animals would be destroyed.
ReplyDeleteAl, I agree with the quote "all natural ecosystems are influenced by humans in at the least some small manner" but I believe that the ecosystems are influenced by humans on a larger scale than just a small manner. I believe that humans have had a major impact on all aspects of the ecosystems and restoration of certain things is our responsibility if we expect the future generation to have any kind of resources available.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you Laura. If we don't do something soon the human race will become extinct or even mutate in to whatever the ecosystem happens to force us for survival
ReplyDeleteI believe that total restoration should take place. There is a limit to this, someone already commented on the fact that the environment has changed,we would have to take this into consideration before bringing animals and plants back into there so called "natural" environment. I do believe that it is a good idea to go as far as we can back to the natural state. We need to remember that we are part of the natural state. We belong to this planet as much as any other animal. If people wanted to live in the restored or restoring land they would have to live all natural like Muir so as to put as little pollutants into the restored community. When you think about it though is it really possible to restore it completely? WIth all the pollutants already in the environment they dont stay in one place. So even if there were no pollutants being omitted into that particular commmunity other pollutants from other communities would travel there. With that in mind I think it would be best to restore as completely as possible because based on outside factors it would be impossible to restore completely unless a bubble was built around it and how natural is that?
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely Al. We do not live in the ice age anymore so restoring communities back to there original state (before humans were there) is in my opinion also very unrealistic. I also agree with the fact that we as the human race have AT LEAST a small impact on all ecological systems some much more than others obviously.
ReplyDeleteTina, I agree somewhat with your statement "...to put something back to its natural state would be before homosapiens started to make things out of unatural items." My Question is what is an unnatural item? We can only make things from stuff that already exists on this planet so therefore should everything be considered natural?
ReplyDeleteI believe when we start industrializing and using chemicals that messes with the ecosystem is when it becomes unnatural.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you are saying about chemicals and how they are making the environment unnatural. Every other day you hear about oil spills, or gas explosions that are affecting the ecosystem. It is sad and makes me wonder how much more the ecosystems can handle.
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