Do or do not. There is no try in restoration ecology

Abstract

Change is a fundamental component of contemporary restoration ecology. The environment, the research, and the ideas in this discipline are rapidly evolving and changing. The California Society for Ecological Restoration annual meeting was an inclusive, diverse meeting that significantly advanced new thinking in the field and provided an exemplar of the value of scientific discourse at meetings. The restoration work in this region also amplified and identified trends in the scientific community at large. A total of three future‐oriented strategic issues emerged from the discourse at this meeting. (1) Restoration ecologists need to consider alternative definitions of local for interventions within a region. (2) Restoration is never complete and must always incorporate people. (3) Indirect outcomes and the process of restoration have merit despite challenges of immediate identification of benefits. The science presented served as a platform for these advanced strategic issue examinations, and the grandest of challenges for restoration ecology necessarily includes people in every equation and embraces values and perceptions over longer time frames.

A comment on the protect–manage–then‐restore workflow

“…judgments) between competing options or the assessment of relatively likelihood for a desired outcome associated with each option (Elliott 2019). The environmental grand challenges we face demand that we must decide between threats and solutions because there are both many to address and limited resources (McCarthy et al 2010; Acocella 2015; Lortie et al 2019). Most, if not all, are arguably legitimate and critical (Vitousek 1994; Heller & Zavaleta 2009; Sage 2020).…”

Improving outcomes and delivering multiple benefits in ecological restoration

“…Research into aspects of the science and practice of restoration ecology, such as testing and advancing ecological theory, social-ecological interactions, and biodiversityecosystem function relationships, is steadily increasing and evolving (Perring et al, 2015;Wainwright et al, 2018;Lortie et al, 2019). As a result, restoration tools and methods are improving (Hobbs, 2017).…”