[PCA] QUESTION: Origin of "ecological restoration"?

[Native Plant Girl]

If it helps:

    "Theodore M. Sperry was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1907. After
completing a B.S. in 1929 at Butler University in his hometown of
Indianapolis, Indiana, he entered the graduate school of the University of
Illinois, where he earned an M.S. in 1931 and a Ph.D. in Botany in 1933. In
that same year, Ecology published a condensed version of his dissertation
about root systems of prairie plants. At the University of Wisconsin, Aldo
Leopold read the article and arranged for Sperry's transfer to the Civilian
Conservation Corps under the National Park Service in Madison, Wisconsin.
Under the auspices of Leopold, Sperry was given sixty acres of old farm land
near the Madison campus on the University's research land. Sperry and a
small crew were given long-handled shovels and a truck and told to "go make
a prairie." Curtis Prairie became the world's first restored prairie, and
Sperry considered his work and research at Curtis Prairie his greatest
professional achievement.

    -SERNews, The Newsletter of the Society for Ecological Restoration
International Volume 23 No. 3 (October 23 2009)

-----Original Message-----
From: native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org
[mailto:native-plants-bounces at lists.plantconservation.org] On Behalf Of
Peter Rauch
Sent: Wednesday, April 21, 2010 9:33 PM
To: native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
Subject: Re: [PCA] QUESTION: Origin of "ecological restoration"?

Danielle's sense asks whether the term may be closer to a recognized
"origin" in the UW / Leopold era. 

It's kind of hard to sort out the distinction between the general notion of
"restoration" (of landscapes) from the explicit birth of the term
"ecological restoration", both as a concept and as a specific terminology. I
suppose which sense Danielle is interested in knowing about will have to be
clarified by her. "Terms of art" can be very formal and
discipline-constrained, or very general, in their origin/definition.

E.g., see http://uwarboretum.org/news/singlePost.php?id=313&origin=news
where the suggestion is that "restoring lands" and "ecological restoration"
has been a living concept, as in "For 75 years the University of
Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum has been dedicated to restoring the land,
advancing the science and practice of ecological restoration...."

And, no doubt, if one goes back into the past, to various poets',
essayists', naturalists',  writings, the notion of healing the land can be
found as well, even if the literal term "ecological restoration" may not
have been explicitly used.

Peter

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 21:17:28 -0700 (PDT)
>From: steve williams <steelheadwig at yahoo.com>
>To: Olivia Kwong <plant at plantconservation.org>
>Subject: Re: [PCA] QUESTION: Origin of "ecological restoration"?
>
>Wikipedia indicates late 80's, Aber and Jordan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restoration_ecology   S
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: Olivia Kwong <plant at plantconservation.org>
>To: native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
>Sent: Tue, April 20, 2010 3:09:40 PM
>Subject: [PCA] QUESTION: Origin of "ecological restoration"?
>
>
>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2010 15:00:02 -0500
>From: Green.Danielle at epamail.epa.gov
>
>Where did the term of art "ecological restoration" originate?  I have a
>sense that it was coined at the University of Wisconsin Arboretum,
>following on Aldo Leopold's work, but am not sure.
>
>Thanks.
>Danielle
>
>Danielle Green
>U. S. Environmental Protection Agency
>Great Lakes National Program Office
>77 W. Jackson Blvd.  (G-17J)
>Chicago, Il  60604
>(p) 312-886-7594  (f) 312-353-2018
>green.danielle at epa.gov


_______________________________________________
native-plants mailing list
native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org
http://lists.plantconservation.org/mailman/listinfo/native-plants_lists.plan
tconservation.org

Disclaimer
Posts on this list reflect only the opinion of the individual who is posting
the message; they are not official opinions or positions of the Plant
Conservation Alliance.

To unsubscribe, send an e-mail to
native-plants-request at lists.plantconservation.org with the word
"unsubscribe" in the subject line.