Restoration in a Landscape Context

Current restoration activities often focus narrowly on sites actively being restored. The success of these restorations, however, will often depend on their position in the landscape, relative to the condition, land use, and community composition of land in the surrounding area. Restoration ecologists have often discussed landscape-level processes in general. Nonetheless, theory has rarely led to recommendations that are put to use on the ground. We propose to address the process of the exchange of information from academic theory to applied management in the following ways. First we will synthesize what has been written about landscape-level processes that affect restoration, and about statistical and modeling tools that can be used to judge restoration success. Then we will use the synthesis to address two landscape-level restoration projects - one population-focused habitat restoration and the second a community-focused ecosystem restoration. We will develop new quantitative methods to prioritize what landscape-level concerns will significantly affect the success of restoration efforts in these and other projects. The purpose of this working group will be to move beyond broad generalizations and ask how we can apply relevant ecological knowledge to large-scale restoration activities.