Repairing Damaged Wildlands – a Process Orientated, Landscape-Scale Approach

Habitat restoration has become an accepted tool for the conservation manager. However, it is still controversial and should remain so. The motives and techniques should always be questioned to ensure an ecologically viable and ethically sound project. Whilst the need for restoration has become increasingly accepted, indeed written into the Convention on Biological Diversity, there are few books that guide would be practitioners through the mechanical and practical challenges ahead of them. Whisenant’s book, part of the Biological Conservation, Restoration and Sustainability series from Cambridge University Press, represents a valuable addition to the restoration library. Do not look here for earnest ethical debate, the value of this book is in the innate practicality of the text borne from years of hard lessons in rangeland management. Indeed, some of the techniques may appear brutal to practitioners of small-scale restoration. Whisenant looks at large-scale restoration and reviews the issues of ecosystem damage, soil mechanics, hydrology, species selection and appropriate levels of restoration intervention. The case studies are dominated by temperate grassland and semi-arid habitats but the lessons are relevant to other habitats. Information is clearly presented, particularly good use is made of summarising tables. The focus of the book is on restoring wildlands as functioning ecosystems, accordingly, the links to threatened species reintroductions are not made. The wildlife components of restoration are briefly reviewed, this requires a book in itself. The bibliography is extensive and pulls heavily from the Society for Ecological Restoration journals and relevant agricultural, forestry and engineering sources. Whilst reading this book I found myself on several occasions repeating the phrase ‘Wish I had known that before’. There can be no better commentary for an applied conservation biology manual.