Nature by Design: People, Natural Process, and Ecological Restoration / Edition 1

by Eric Higgs

Overview

Ecological restoration is the process of repairing human damage to ecosystems. It involves reintroducing missing plants and animals, rebuilding soils, eliminating hazardous substances, ripping up roads, and returning natural processes such as fire and flooding to places that thrive on their regular occurrence. Thousands of restoration projects take place in North America every year. In Nature by Design, Eric Higgs argues that profound philosophical and cultural shifts accompany these projects. He explores the ethical and philosophical bases of restoration and the question of what constitutes good ecological restoration.

Higgs explains how and why the restoration movement came about, where it fits into the array of approaches to human relationships with the land, and how it might be used to secure a sustainable future. Some environmental philosophers and activists worry that restoration will dilute preservation and conservation efforts and lead to an even deeper technological attitude toward nature. They ask whether even well-conceived restoration projects are in fact just expressions of human will. Higgs prefaces his responses to such concerns by distinguishing among several types of ecological restoration. He also describes a growing gulf between professionals and amateurs. Higgs finds much merit in criticism about technological restoration projects, which can cause more damage than they undo. These projects often ignore the fact that changing one thing in a complex system can change the whole system. For restoration projects to be successful, Higgs argues, people at the community level must be engaged. These focal restorations bring communities together, helping volunteers develop a dedication to place and encouraging democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262582261
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	04/25/2003
Series:	The MIT Press
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	358
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Eric Higgs is Director of the School of Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, Canada. He is Chair of the Board of Directors of the Society for Ecological Restoration.

What People are Saying About This

David W. Orr

Nature by Design is a wonderful book—an eloquent, wise, and useful guide to the potentials and ambiguities of ecological restoration. By connecting nature, community, memory, and intention so artfully, Eric Higgs has redefined the field.

Max Oelschlaeger

Nature by Design is a figurative compass indicating a direction that leads towards altered, healing relations between humankind and the larger, older, and increasingly fragile natural world. As Higgs notes, to dare set out on that course is as much a calling as a profession.

Lawrence Buell

If you are looking for an up-to-date vision of environmental restoration that is both principled and pragmatic, read this book. Higgs's interweave of case studies and thoughtfully informed, multidisciplinary argument is all the stronger for its avoidance of easy answers.

Endorsement

Nature by Design is a figurative compass indicating a direction that leads towards altered, healing relations between humankind and the larger, older, and increasingly fragile natural world. As Higgs notes, to dare set out on that course is as much a calling as a profession.

—Max Oelschlaeger, F.B. McAllister Endowed Chair in Community, Culture, and Environment, Northern Arizona University, author of The Idea of Wilderness

From the Publisher

If you are looking for an up-to-date vision of environmental restoration that is both principled and pragmatic, read this book. Higgs's interweave of case studies and thoughtfully informed, multidisciplinary argument is all the stronger for its avoidance of easy answers.

—Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, author of The Environmental Imagination and Writing for an Endangered World

Nature by Design is a wonderful book—an eloquent, wise, and useful guide to the potentials and ambiguities of ecological restoration. By connecting nature, community, memory, and intention so artfully, Eric Higgs has redefined the field.

—David W. Orr, Environmental Studies Program, Oberlin College

Nicholsen gives us an honest and creative account of the challenges we face as members of an ecologically dysfunctional society and the opportunities to heal ourselves and the world. Especially useful for instructors who've learned that ecological realism too often disempowers students instead of building capacities for personal and societal transformation.

—Max Oelschlaeger, F.B. McAllister Endowed Chair in Community, Culture, and Environment, Northern Arizona University, author of The Idea of Wilderness

Nature by Design is a figurative compass indicating a direction that leads towards altered, healing relations between humankind and the larger, older, and increasingly fragile natural world. As Higgs notes, to dare set out on that course is as much a calling as a profession.

—Max Oelschlaeger, F.B. McAllister Endowed Chair in Community, Culture, and Environment, Northern Arizona University, author of The Idea of Wilderness