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Restoring Disturbed Landscapes: Putting Principles into Practice David J. Tongway and John A. Ludwig . Island Press , Washington DC, 2011 . xxi + 189 pp. ISBN 9781597265812. Price AUD$35 (paperback).

Restoring Disturbed Landscapes: Putting Principles into Practice David J. Tongway and John A.... There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and ongoing demand for ecological restoration. Climate change is delivering a boost in funding for ecological restoration. For example, the Australian Government recently committed nearly AUD$1 billion to ecological restoration over the next six years through its Biodiversity Fund. This twentieth book in The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration Series from the Society for Ecological Restoration International is therefore a timely addition to the restoration literature. This book is a synopsis of the vast experience of David Tongway and John Ludwig. It is focused on their conceptual framework for landscapes developed originally for Australia's rangelands. That is, rainfall events trigger responses, including the transfer of resources which, in functional landscapes, build up reserves of moisture that enable pulses of growth by plants and animals, some of which are captured as gains to the system and some of which are lost due to offtakes from the system. Throughout the book, they apply this conceptual framework in practice using a five‐step procedure: set goals, define and analyse the problem, design solutions to the problem, select and apply technologies and monitor and evaluate trends. These five steps are applied within an adaptive learning loop. This conceptual framework and five‐step adaptive procedure are demonstrated and reinforced in case studies from mined and grazed landscapes. Other restoration problems are illustrated using scenarios spanning mining, rangeland grazing, tree planting, urban open space and road construction. Although theoretical, these scenarios draw on real data to illustrate outcomes. In my view, this approach has been employed wonderfully to illustrate and reinforce the principles introduced in the early chapters. The last part of the book describes field techniques that guide appropriate restoration treatments and assess the effectiveness of these. Not surprisingly, this section is essentially a description of Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) – a technique developed by these authors. However, the reader is directed to a series of Web sites for detail underpinning LFA. I would have liked more of this detail within the book. Although the authors have extended LFA for use in monitoring habitat for fauna, the authors are clearly not comfortable in this space: the fauna they choose to illustrate the values of restoration (Crimson Rosella, Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Short‐beaked Echidna, Common Wombat, Tasmanian Devil and Rainbow Lorikeet) are species for which habitat restoration actions are not a priority; restoration of connectivity is given a cursory mention only (p. 110); and in recognition of limitations of their approach, this chapter concludes with the statement ‘it is often easier and less costly for RPs [restoration practitioners] to directly survey the presence and abundance of the fauna of interest rather than modify the habitat complexity index’. Throughout the book, there are charts that demonstrate the progress of restored sites relative to a reference state (defined by the authors as comparable sites in a functional or desirable state). Despite being a critical part of their approach, little space is dedicated to identifying appropriate reference states, particularly given the challenges presented by climate change. It is curious that the authors do not also advocate the use of control sites, that is, sites with comparable disturbance on which all or some restoration treatments have not occurred. While the inclusion of control sites complicates monitoring (and may sometimes be difficult logistically), without controls, the restoration practitioner must assume that the treatment they have employed is solely responsible for any observed changes through time. This could lead to unnecessary (and costly) restoration treatments and can slow adaptive learning. Some discussion of this would have been useful. In the last section of the book – dedicated to monitoring – the authors mention the importance of replication within individual plots or gradsects. However, throughout the book, there is no discussion of replication, or dealing with variation between plots or gradsects. That is, where examples are drawn from real data, variation is not illustrated within treated sites nor reference sites thereby undermining confidence in these data. The book is pitched squarely at restoration practitioners, so do not expect an exhaustive review of the literature or theory underpinning ecological restoration. The limitations of restoration are not reviewed. The book is also focused only on the conceptual model and techniques developed by the authors, so do not expect an examination of alternative, complementary or competing concepts such as assembly rules, state and transition models or succession. That said the authors have succeeded in communicating their restoration concepts in a clear and concise way. Practitioners do not have to wade through the whole book to find scenarios relevant to them. The illustrations are excellent. The book is not long. With me, the authors succeeded in their objective. That is, to make the reader think more about function or process and less about the simple presence or abundance of species and life forms as measures of restoration success. Review by Philip Gibbons, Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Email: Philip.Gibbons@anu.edu.au http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Ecological Management & Restoration Wiley

Restoring Disturbed Landscapes: Putting Principles into Practice David J. Tongway and John A. Ludwig . Island Press , Washington DC, 2011 . xxi + 189 pp. ISBN 9781597265812. Price AUD$35 (paperback).

Ecological Management & Restoration , Volume 14 (2) – May 1, 2013
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Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2013 Ecological Society of Australia
ISSN
1442-7001
eISSN
1442-8903
DOI
10.1111/emr.12045
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

There are three certainties in life: death, taxes and ongoing demand for ecological restoration. Climate change is delivering a boost in funding for ecological restoration. For example, the Australian Government recently committed nearly AUD$1 billion to ecological restoration over the next six years through its Biodiversity Fund. This twentieth book in The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration Series from the Society for Ecological Restoration International is therefore a timely addition to the restoration literature. This book is a synopsis of the vast experience of David Tongway and John Ludwig. It is focused on their conceptual framework for landscapes developed originally for Australia's rangelands. That is, rainfall events trigger responses, including the transfer of resources which, in functional landscapes, build up reserves of moisture that enable pulses of growth by plants and animals, some of which are captured as gains to the system and some of which are lost due to offtakes from the system. Throughout the book, they apply this conceptual framework in practice using a five‐step procedure: set goals, define and analyse the problem, design solutions to the problem, select and apply technologies and monitor and evaluate trends. These five steps are applied within an adaptive learning loop. This conceptual framework and five‐step adaptive procedure are demonstrated and reinforced in case studies from mined and grazed landscapes. Other restoration problems are illustrated using scenarios spanning mining, rangeland grazing, tree planting, urban open space and road construction. Although theoretical, these scenarios draw on real data to illustrate outcomes. In my view, this approach has been employed wonderfully to illustrate and reinforce the principles introduced in the early chapters. The last part of the book describes field techniques that guide appropriate restoration treatments and assess the effectiveness of these. Not surprisingly, this section is essentially a description of Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) – a technique developed by these authors. However, the reader is directed to a series of Web sites for detail underpinning LFA. I would have liked more of this detail within the book. Although the authors have extended LFA for use in monitoring habitat for fauna, the authors are clearly not comfortable in this space: the fauna they choose to illustrate the values of restoration (Crimson Rosella, Eastern Grey Kangaroo, Short‐beaked Echidna, Common Wombat, Tasmanian Devil and Rainbow Lorikeet) are species for which habitat restoration actions are not a priority; restoration of connectivity is given a cursory mention only (p. 110); and in recognition of limitations of their approach, this chapter concludes with the statement ‘it is often easier and less costly for RPs [restoration practitioners] to directly survey the presence and abundance of the fauna of interest rather than modify the habitat complexity index’. Throughout the book, there are charts that demonstrate the progress of restored sites relative to a reference state (defined by the authors as comparable sites in a functional or desirable state). Despite being a critical part of their approach, little space is dedicated to identifying appropriate reference states, particularly given the challenges presented by climate change. It is curious that the authors do not also advocate the use of control sites, that is, sites with comparable disturbance on which all or some restoration treatments have not occurred. While the inclusion of control sites complicates monitoring (and may sometimes be difficult logistically), without controls, the restoration practitioner must assume that the treatment they have employed is solely responsible for any observed changes through time. This could lead to unnecessary (and costly) restoration treatments and can slow adaptive learning. Some discussion of this would have been useful. In the last section of the book – dedicated to monitoring – the authors mention the importance of replication within individual plots or gradsects. However, throughout the book, there is no discussion of replication, or dealing with variation between plots or gradsects. That is, where examples are drawn from real data, variation is not illustrated within treated sites nor reference sites thereby undermining confidence in these data. The book is pitched squarely at restoration practitioners, so do not expect an exhaustive review of the literature or theory underpinning ecological restoration. The limitations of restoration are not reviewed. The book is also focused only on the conceptual model and techniques developed by the authors, so do not expect an examination of alternative, complementary or competing concepts such as assembly rules, state and transition models or succession. That said the authors have succeeded in communicating their restoration concepts in a clear and concise way. Practitioners do not have to wade through the whole book to find scenarios relevant to them. The illustrations are excellent. The book is not long. With me, the authors succeeded in their objective. That is, to make the reader think more about function or process and less about the simple presence or abundance of species and life forms as measures of restoration success. Review by Philip Gibbons, Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. Email: Philip.Gibbons@anu.edu.au

Journal

Ecological Management & Restoration – Wiley

Published: May 1, 2013

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