Maintenance and Stewardship - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 178

Box 11-1. Creative Solution: Encouraging Public Involvement
A community organization worked with city planners and engineers to daylight a section
of an urban stream that had been buried in a pipe for half a century. Following excavation
and removal of the pipe, native plants were installed along the protected stream bank
of the “restored” stream channel. Because this project was located in the middle of an
urban population, there was concern that the plantings could be damaged or removed by
young, naive people. The city hired local teenagers to assist in the restoration efforts by
watering and monitoring the progress of the plants. These “citizen restorationists” looked
after the plants and educated their peers as to the importance of this project for beautify-
ing their community. Vandalism was not a problem at this project site.
The project manager and implementing agency learned that recruiting a local
workforce for site maintenance can help educate the public about restoration projects
and can limit vandalism.
or controlled into atypical patterns by human intervention. Among the most common of these
processes is fire. Restoration of the prairies of the North American plains and management of the
conifer forests and scrublands of the southwestern and southeastern United States both involve the
use of fire in addition to standard methods of vegetation management. In Great Britain, controlled
burning or swailing is commonly used in managing the heathlands, in addition to grazing and
mowing.
Fire suppression is one of the most notable interruptions of a natural process in the world's
many pyrogenic ecosystems. Returning fire into a system will alter the fuel load of a site, change
microhabitats, and promote changes in vegetation types. However, fire in the urban context would
normally not be feasible for various societal and economic reasons. What can substitute for fire,
and how can other actions replace the effects that fire would normally create? For some ecosys-
tems, mowing or grazing will approximate the general physical effect of fire, with the exception of
the nutrient cycling; however, studies have shown that burning is more effective in restoring de-
sired conditions (Weekley et al. 2011). Using a surrogate management strategy may not completely
replace all of the effects obtained by the original function.
In some ecosystems, the most prevalent cause of change is the occurrence or nonoccurrence
of waters: flooding or long-lasting drought (box 11-2). Many systems that once relied on flooding
have become isolated from the typical flooding regime due to the construction of dams and levees
and because of channel realignment and channel incision. Sometimes, it is possible to simulate
flooding through releasing water from reservoirs or diverting from existing watercourses no longer
capable of flooding the site.
Historically, many of the landmasses had large herds of grazing animals. Not only did these
grazing animals change the physical state of the vegetation, but they also trampled the soil with
their sharp hooves and promoted the vertical redistribution of soil nutrients (fig. 11-1). Grazing is
a significant strategy in maintaining the anthropogenic heathlands of Great Britain as well as the