The disturbance, degradation, and destruction of ecosystems from anthropogenic impacts is a global challenge. Recognizing this crisis, the United Nations declared this decade (2021-2030) the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration. In this course, we will explore the principles of ecology that are fundamental to the goal of ecosystem restoration, including restoring ecological function and structure to degraded lands. We will discuss these concepts across multiple ecosystem types (e.g. wetlands, coasts, forests, deserts), scales (e.g. parcels, regions, continents), and landscape contexts (e.g. urban, agricultural, landfills, mines). In doing so, we will address a series of interrelated questions that will help determine how we implement ecosystem restoration and what we restore these landscapes to:  What are the ecological processes of functioning communities, both plants and animals, that can be reinstated on degraded lands? What are the constraints to restoring natural communities (soil, species availability, interactions among species, changed physical environments)? How can restored habitats be integrated into landscape architecture and urban planning? What social and political hurdles must be overcome to advance an ecosystem restoration agenda?

The course will be structured through lectures, case studies, and class discussion. Throughout the semester we will invite ecologists and practitioners to share their insight from restoring ecosystems worldwide. There will be field trips to local restoration sites, hosted by regional restoration agencies. A series of assignments will be completed through which each student will develop a restoration plan for a site of their choosing. Through these assignments and class activities, students will be provided with the understanding and tools to support, design, and monitor ecosystem restoration through their discipline. The course will be open to students from the GSD and Organismic Biology. The readings, lectures, and discussion will integrate the perspectives of both ecology and design. This course is suited for students with interest in the natural component of landscape architecture, environmental management, conservation, and/or ecological engineering. Students should have some course background (at Harvard or elsewhere) in modern ecology (e.g. ETT-III).

Field learning is essential to learning about ecological restoration. Four field trips are scheduled for this term. All field trips that require bus travel will be scheduled to depart between 8:00 and 8:30 AM to assure that the class returns to Gund Hall before 12:00 PM. The field trip to Tidmarsh Wildlife Sanctuary on Friday, April 10th is scheduled from 8:00 AM-1:00 PM and will be made optional to all students.