Discerning modes of design in ecological restoration

Abstract

Ecological restoration is an art and science that offers a practical approach to repairing and caring for relationships in living systems. Restorationists, a community of multiple epis-temic cultures, most often frame their work as a practice of ecology. Ecology provides a systems-oriented approach to natural and life sciences that can be applied to restore and repair. Yet, the word design also frequently appears in the work of ecological restoration. What do restorationists mean when they refer to design? In this paper, I introduce ecological restoration to a design audience and frame restoration as a repair practice that advances designed interventions in socio-ecological systems. Through three case studies from the United States context, I identify three different ways that design appears in the work of ecological restoration: planning, technology, and transitions. As these case studies show, approaching restoration as designing can make restoration processes more transformative, more inclusive of multiple worldviews, and more critical of environmental injustices. Yet, design approaches can also depoliticize ecological restoration by oversimplifying it, or by normalizing an overly technological approach that seeks quick fixes to complex problems. By bringing ecological restoration and design into deeper conversation, this piece highlights the impacts of various design postures that are brought to the work of restoring ecosystems.