Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
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And, finally, can ecological restoration serve the same kind of connection
between people and community? Absolutely.
Surveys from Chicago have, for example, found high sources of satisfaction in
restoration that participants based on feelings of undertaking meaningful action; an
increased fascination with nature; a belief in making life better for coming genera-
tions through connecting the past to the future; and an impression that they were
doing the right thing for the larger human community, not just for nature alone
(Light 2004).
So in addition to the goals of repairing the broken bits of nature, the participants
in the restoration of Chicago grasslands were interested in establishing these types
of normative relationships in terms of at least three outcomes: knowledge of local
environmental history, environmental education about local and global environmen-
tal problems, and promotion of a sense of ecological citizenship.
CONCLUSIONS
People are not called to restoration work out of mere propinquity because it is sim-
ply another thing for us to do. People who become involved in restoration see it as
another way of taking responsibility for their relationships with each other, with
future humans, and with other biota in the environment (Light 2004). Restoration,
therefore, becomes something that knits us together in a profound way (Jordan
2003; Light 2007). And the morality of restoration can be best described in terms
of its virtue in building character. Higgs (2003) tried to look at what counts as a
good ecological restoration. Light (2004), in turn, considered that ecological res-
toration can truly help us to define what counts to be a good human. Virtues have
to be captured through actions, so the best restorations are going to simply be
those that we actually do. As a result, there may be no more virtuous endeavor in
the entire controversial arena of activities concerned with Iraq than that of assem-
bling a healing confraternity of restorers to work toward healing an environment
(France 2007c). So the value of ecological restoration is that it has a great demo-
cratic potential by maximizing public participation. In contrast to other environ-
mental activities such as preservation, restorationists can therefore become value
makers (Light 2004).
As France (2007c) describes it, ecological restoration then is a positive process
of offering hope for a better future while at the same time acknowledging a some-
times shameful past. By addressing and correcting the sins of history (as discussed
in chapter 1), restoration becomes an act of reciprocity, important for improving not
only the quality of the outside environment of nature, but also that of the internal
environment of human nature. Therefore, more than simply being a collection of
repaired end products, restoration is a healing process of both ecological spaces
and consciousness (France 2007a), both in obvious need of fixing in Iraq (France
2007c). And given that some practitioners have likened ecological restoration to a
form of therapeutic gardening, what better place to engage in such than in the origi-
nal garden—Eden?
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