Design Approach - Project Planning and Management for Ecological Restoration - page 74

FIGURE 5-3. Once farmland, now a Scots pine forest restoration project (see box 4-2). Carrifran Glen
watershed, Moffat, Scotland. (Photo by John Rieger.)
gardless of the specific site, historical reconstruction has a defined target as described from the his-
torical research, and although the details may be lacking, the general goals have been formulated.
Sources of information to describe the historical condition include photographs, diaries, oral
histories, maps, and expedition journals. In many instances, knowing the distributional history of
plant species can tell you whether they would have been present.
In Israel, the reconstruction of Neot Kedumim, an ancient community from biblical times,
has been accomplished by using scriptures as the primary source in defining target communities
(Naveh 1989) and integrating many values and uses of the historic ecological community and its
plants and animals (box 5-2).
Use of the historical reconstruction approach for developing a reference model need not be
geared to a time period several centuries in the past. In many cases, this is not even possible. A
regional park comprising natural canyon lands and a historic ranch from the early days of San Di-
ego has as its historical target the period 1862-1872, the time the ranch was in operation (chapter
14). Using numerous records and sketches, and some photographs, of the ranch, we identified a
missing component of the riparian system, Fremont's cottonwood ( Populus fremontii ), long absent
due to having been eliminated for firewood and water conservation.