Ecosystem restoration in policy and practice: restore, develop, adapt

RESTORE project leader Christer Nilsson is one of the co-editors of a special feature on Ecological Restoration in the Northern Regions in the journal Ecology and Society. The special feature includes two contributions by RESTORE team members that are now available online:

Jørgensen, D. and B. Malm Renöfält. 2012. Damned If You Do, Dammed If You Don’t: Debates on Dam Removal in the Swedish Media. Ecology and Society 18(1): 18. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss1/art18/

Baker, S., and K. Eckerberg. 2013. A policy analysis perspective on ecological restoration. Ecology and Society 18(2): 17.  [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss2/art17/

The RESTORE team had a productive and enjoyable 3 day meeting in Uppsala, 6-8 May 2013. The Umeå team members were joined by international guests, Rebecca Lave (USA), Þórunn Pétursdóttir (Iceland), and David Finger (Switzerland), and a guest from Umeå University, Lovisa Lind.

The scientific program focused on oral presentations given by the team members and guests about their own research. The presentations covered a wide range of topics included in the RESTORE project: river restoration challenges (Lina Polvi, Eliza Hasselquist, Lovisa Lind, and Rebecca Lave); forestry restoration practices and policy (Joakim Hjältén, Anouschka Hof,  David Bell, and Katarina Eckerberg);  soil conservation (Þórunn Pétursdóttir); and restoration policy formulation and implementation (Anna Zachrisson, Christer Nilsson, Anders Steinwall, and Dolly Jørgensen).

The post doctoral group of Anna Z., Lina P. and Anouschka H. presented their in-progress joint paper.

The meeting included a full day excursion to see restoration efforts connected with the white-backed woodpecker conservation program. We were led during the site visits by Kristoffer Stighall of Naturskyddsförening, who has worked with restoration of white-backed woodpecker habitat and bird releases for many years. We were also joined by stakeholder representatives Pär-Ole Borgestig from Länsstyrelsen i Uppsala län and Samuel Ståhl from the forestry company Stora Enso.

Kristoffer Stighall gave the Restore group insights about the white-backed woodpecker restoration efforts in Båtfors Nature Reserve

The restoration program in the Båtfors Nature Reserve includes selective cutting of evergreens to make space for deciduous trees, the creation of dead wood to increase food sources for beetles that are woodpecker prey, selective burning to open up the landscape and provide high standing deadwood for nests, and captive-bred juvenile bird releases. Our researchers working specifically on the white-backed woodpecker restoration, David Bell and Anouschka Hof, presented some of their preliminary results during our stop at Söderfors Herrgård between visits to different restoration sites in the area.

On the final day of the meeting, we also had the chance to visit the Linnaeus Museum and Gardens in Uppsala, in many ways the home of our modern taxonomic system, for a group tour and enjoy the fine spring weather.

Dr. Marleen Buizer will be giving a seminar at the Umeå political science department on Thursday 16 May 13.15-15 titled Carbon Politics and the Quandaries of Ecological Restoration in Western Australia. It will be held in Samvetet, 5^th floor in the Social Science Building.

Dr. Buizer is postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodlands and Forest Health at Murdoch University, Perth, Western Australia. She is particularly interested in environmental governance at various scales and societal initiatives in environmental action.

Anna Zachrisson and Katarina Eckerberg will contribute to the upcoming conference “Hydrology days – water in the forest, from academy to practice” (Hydrologidagarna) held at the Swedish University of Agricultural Science, Umeå, 20 March 2013.

Anna will present her research on ecological restoration as water collaboration (Vattensamarbete: Ekologisk restaurering i policy och praktik) and Katarina will convey the special session on forest-water cooperation.

Another new article produced within the framework of RESTORE has been published:

Jørgensen, D. and B. Malm Renöfält. 2012. Damned If You Do, Dammed If You Don’t: Debates on Dam Removal in the Swedish Media. Ecology and Society 18 (1): 18. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol18/iss1/art18/

The article examines the ways in which proponents and opponents of dam removal frame the services provided by two contrasting ecosystems, i.e., an existing dam and the potential stream without a dam, by performing a media discourse analysis of the reasons given for removal and the reasons presented for the dam to remain in place. The source material includes Internet-based newspaper articles and their associated public comments in four dam removal controversies in Sweden. The  analysis indicates that public opposition is not based on knowledge deficiency, where more information will lead to better ecological decision-making, as is sometimes argued in dam removal science; it is instead a case of different understandings and valuation of the environment and the functions it provides.

The article is part of a special feature “Ecological Restoration in Northern Regions” co-edited by RESTORE member Christer Nilsson.

Dolly Jørgensen has published “Pigs and Pollards: Medieval Insights for UK Wood Pasture Restoration” in the journal Sustainability as part of a special feature on Terrestrial Ecosystem Restoration. This work brings together her current work on contemporary restoration policy and practice with her previous research on medieval forestry management.

RESTORE team members had the opportunity to meet Nancy Langston, the 2012-13 King Carl XVI Gustaf Professor in Environmental Science, at the Fall 2012 team meeting. Nancy discussed her project on responses to deforestation and the collapse of fisheries due to the connections between forests and water in North America’s Lake Superior watershed over the last 150 years, including restoration activities.

RESTORE was well represented at the EcoSummit conference in Columbus, Ohio (USA) in October 2012. Paper presentations by RESTORE team members included:

Sara Borgström, Anna Zachrisson, and Katarina Eckerberg, “Ecological restoration – present priorities in Sweden”

Terry Chapin, “Invitation to dialog: Earth stewardship and the Ecological Society of America” and “Resilience of Alaska’s boreal forest as a socio-ecological system”

Katarina Eckerberg and Susan Baker, “A policy analysis perspective on ecological restoration”

Margaret Palmer,”The slippery slope of a paradigm shift: restoring ecosystems vs. restoring ecosystem services” and “The state of knowledge on restoration of ecosystem services in running-waters”

The RESTORE team will have an active presentation schedule in fall 2012.

Anousckha Hof and Dolly Jørgensen will each present posters based on RESTORE research at the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) Europe chapter meeting, 9-14 September 2012, in Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic.

Katarina Eckerberg will give an invited presentation titled “Local nature protection as a means for building sustainable cities – Experiences from Sweden” at the China (Binhai Tianjin) International Eco-City Forum & Expo, 21-23 September 2012.

Katarina Eckerberg and Susan Baker will then present their paper “A Policy Analysis Perspective on Ecological Restoration” at the EcoSummit, 30 September – 5 October 2012, in Columbus, Ohio, USA.

RESTORE member Katarina Eckerberg will give the keynote address at the forum “How do we work together for ecosystem health” organized by the Centre of Excellence for Climate Change, Woodland & Forest Health, Murdoch University, Australia, on 29 March 2012.