Restoration of degraded lands in the interior Columbia River basin: passive vs. active approaches

Evidence for success of passive and active restoration is presented for interior conifer forest, sagebrush steppe, and riparian ecosystems, with a focus on the Columbia River basin. Passive restoration, defined as removal of the stresses that cause degradation, may be most appropriate for higher elevation forests, low-order riparian ecosystems, and for sagebrush steppe communities that are only slightly impaired. More active approaches, in which management techniques such as planting, weeding, burning, and thinning are applied, have been successful in forests with excessive fuels and in some riparian systems, and may be necessary in highly degraded sagebrush steppe communities. There is general agreement that true restoration requires not only reestablishment of more desirable structure or composition, but of the processes needed to sustain these for the long term. The challenge for the restorationist is to find a way to restore more desirable conditions within the context of social constraints that limit how processes are allowed to operate, and economic constraints that determine how much effort will be invested in restoration.

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