Landscape, Ecology, Art and Change
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
9 TIM COLLINS AND REIKO GOTO' Landscape, Ecology, Art and Change INTRODUCTION APPLIED ECOLOGIES Restoration ecology is the emerging para Preservation, conservation, and restoration digmatic relationship of humanity to nature. It ecology has occurred in response to the industrial revo lution and its massive programme utilising Restoration ecology is a logical outcome of the nature as both raw material and sink for projects of conservation and preservation. wastes. Restoration ecology establishes a new Preservation and conservation emerged in the relationship to nature by addressing a range years around the turn of the twentieth century of damaged land and water systems in both in response to growth and development in the urban and rural settings. Restoration ecology is American West. Preservation began with the a community of disciplines, which acts upon aesthetic/scientific interests of botanisers and natural systems through the sciences and engin gardeners in the subject of trees. Organised eering; and upon cultural values through the groups at that time helped to establish Arbor arts and humanities. Day and promoted a plan for national forest If we are going to restore ecosystems, practi preserves. This interest in nature was fuelled tioners must engage nature through primary by the writings of the naturalist/authors experience. Restoration ecology redirects the Emerson, Thoreau and Muir. A popular move concepts of agriculture and gardening, to a pro ment, preservation was soon balanced by a gramme of healing nature. Restoration ecology more practical and scientific voice. The project emerges from a culture that is beginning to of conservation has been described by Samuel recognise its detrimental effect on nature, and Hays (1959: 123) as 'efficiency in the develop is seeking new ways to understand and act ment and use of all natural resources'. Estab upon a range of post-industrial problems. In lished during Theodore Roosevelt's presidency, the following pages, We will explore ideas conservation was defined by Gifford Pinchot of applied and cultural ecologies. We will and others as a rational approach to land conclude with a manifesto, which places art and management. ecology (eco-art) in the midst of the radical Conservation theory was rooted in an engi human ecologies and social-environmental neering approach to applied knowledge. The change. ultimate goal was properly to inventory all natural resources prior to a planned develop ment intended to achieve efficient use and min imise waste. This is still the focus of conservation biologists worldwide who inven tory natural communities and their movements, then manage habitat so that select species I LANDSCAPE, ECOLOGY, ART AND CHANGE 135 (either migratory or indigenous) will prosper. cultural practices. On one end lie the arts and Conservation and preservation are programmes humanities, in the middle are the design pro that are driven by a reaction to human distur fessions, at the other end science and engineer bance of natural systems. Conservation projects ing. Restoration ecology has been touted as a today involve large habitat areas, nesting areas, new relationship to nature, one in which the old and numerous migration areas where land reductionist paradigm is reversed and scientists scapes are managed to the best advantage of a are charged with re-assembling a working single species or groups of similar species. nature from the pieces discovered over the last Preservation and conservation were forged 200 years, taking it apart. While the machine as a binary pair. Preservation was primarily a metaphor was useful in the disassembly and citizen-based cultural programme inspired by analysis of nature, it is less useful when re naturalist authors and artists, while conserva assembling nature. The aesthetic roots of tion was primarily an expert-based scientific restoration ecology can be found in the urban programme. Preservationists supplied the social nature design projects of Frederick Law and nature-aesthetic argument for protection Olmsted (particularly the Fens of Boston, 1881). of national forests as public land while the The roots of its science lie in Aldo Leopold's conservationists inventoried and planned for work restoring the lands of the University of the rational development of public lands. This Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum (1934). binary pair was alternately oppositional and It can be argued that this 'discipline' was collegial in pursuit of their goals. The preserva established in the early 1980s, in part by the tionist rhetoric was about keeping wild areas efforts of William Jordan III (1984), a botan and wildlife from commercial development and ist and journalist who was employed at the use. The conservation policy goals of the era Madison Arboretum and saw the potential of included protecting large tracts of land, water Leopold's ideas in a contemporary setting. sheds and forests, sustained forestry, dams and During the fiftieth anniversary of the Madison water-power, hunting, grazing and mineral Arboretum, he published a seminal text declar mining rights. The Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite ing the import of this area. This was followed Valleys in California are probably the best by a symposium on restoration ecology, which examples of the oppositional outcomes of the brought together some of the key thinkers preservation and conservation movement. worldwide. This resulted in an edited text, Preservation and conservation were a reac Restoration Ecology: A Synthetic Approach tion to the perception of encroaching physical to Ecological Research (Jordan, 1987). In limits within the United States. Preservationists Jordan's original document, he was interpreting believed that wilderness was in a state of grace, restoration ecology as a mixture of cultural and beyond the limits of human habitation. Nature scientific efforts, 'active as a shaper of the land was something to be preserved and contained scape, yet attentive to nature and receptive to for future generations. The conservationist its subtlest secrets and most intricate relation believed that wilderness was a resource bounty ships. The restorationist is in this sense like to be managed and controlled for long-term an artist and a scientist, impelled to look economic benefits. Both of these philosophical closer, drawn into lively curiosity and the most and political positions placed nature (in the intricate relationships' (Jordan, 1987: 24). form of wilderness and land resource) well After Leopold, Jordan is clear that restoration beyond the limits of cities or towns. is about restoring a 'whole natural community, Restoration ecology is a new way of thinking. not taking nature apart and simplifying it, but It links citizens and experts, as well as cities and putting it back together again, bit by bit, plant wilderness, in a broad programme of ecological by plant', concluding, in his own words, 'the awareness and action. It is a community of ecologist version of healing' (Jordan, 1987: 23). disciplines synthesising a continuum of diverse Jordan commented on the import of restoring 136 TIM COLLINS AND REIKO GOTO whole communities in this text, but he also there is a record of the ecosystems' component recognised the import of restoring (reclaiming) parts, or a likely reference ecosystem can be industrial sites (referencing the noted biologist identified, and the soils and hydrology remain Anthony Bradshaw's pioneering work on coal untouched. In urban settings there is little left mining sites in England). Jordan sees the Madi untouched, soils and hydrology are almost son Arboretum as a research laboratory for always affected. The historical model and its work that will be in increasing demand in the expert-defined parameters are the exception future, due to the fact that the industrial revolu rather than the norm. More likely the restora tion has provided humanity with the tools to tionist is faced with conditions which are chal affect nature on a grand scale. The work that lenging: in other words, disturbed soils and a first found its symbolic and intellectual focus as radically changed hydrology. Furthermore, the a result of the anniversary of the Madison work occurs in a social setting where the Arboretum occurs around the world today. perception of nature and its physical manifesta Today there are academic, private industry, tion is quite diverse. In the words of Anthony non-profit and federal government models of Bradshaw (1995: 105), 'The primary goal of restoration practices. In 1988 the Society for restoration is an aesthetic one - to restore the Ecological Restoration was announced at the visible environmental quality of the area.' This Restore the Earth Conference in Berkeley, means that the decision to restore is both California through the efforts of John P. Rieger, cultural and discursive, a mix of science, art and John T. Stanley on the west coast and William democracy. Once the site has lost its soils and Jordan in Wisconsin. There are now two jour hydrology, the expert is seeking to define an nals attending the area, Restoration Ecology: aesthetic target that is relevant to a local The Journal of the Society for Ecological commUnIty.• Restoration, published by Blackwell Science, Philosopher Andrew Light (2000) has writ and Ecological Restoration, published by the ten extensively about the import of the social University of Wisconsin-Madison Arboretum. element in restoration ecology. 'Restoration is Each year, the disciplines of anthropology, art, not inherently