5 Restoration Ecology Restoration ecology is a subdiscipline of ecological engineering that has been growing out of the need and desire to add ecological value to ecosystems that have been degraded by human impacts. | 5 Restoration Ecology INTRODUCTION Restoration ecology is a subdiscipline of ecological engineering that has been growing out of the need and desire to add ecological value to ecosystems that have been degraded by human impacts. Projects range in size from less than one hectare for an individual prairie or wetland to the entire Everglades of South Florida. It is a very general field in that any kind of ecosystem can be restored but different actions are required for each ecosystem type. An extensive literature which is a useful guide to future restorations is developing out of the experience of practitioners. Much work is generated by legal requirements such as the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 and the No Net Loss policy for wetlands both from the . Another antecedent to modern restoration ecology was the early efforts to improve industrial landscapes especially in Europe Chadwick and Goodman 1975 Gemmell 1977 Johnson and Bradshaw 1979 Knabe 1965 . Although the field can be viewed as being a recent development as early as 1976 an annotated bibliography of restoration ecology included nearly 600 citations Czapowskyj 1976 . Storm 2002 considers restoration in the . to be the basis for a growth economy because it is attracting investment from businesses communities and government. A relatively large literature involves definitions of restoration and related terms Bradshaw 1997a Higgs 1997 Jackson et al. 1995 Lewis 1990 National Research Council NRC 1994 Pratt 1994 . In general restoration is the term used when a degraded ecosystem is returned to a condition similar to the one that existed before it was altered. However many other related terms are used as is indicated by the titles to books on the subject Recovery Cairns 1980 Cairns et al. 1977 Rehabilitation Cairns 1995b Wali 1992 Repair Gilbert and Anderson 1998 Whisenant 1999 Reconstruction Buckley 1989 and Reclamation Harris et al. 1996 . To some extent the differences in terms relate to
