Interpret Landscape Changes
In this step we walk through the process of summarizing what you have learned from previous investigations of your land, leading to questions and assumptions about how the ecosystems once functioned and how they have changed. Because you are basing your a
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Interpret Landscape Changes It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan. Eleanor Roosevelt
In this step we walk through the process of summarizing what you have learned from previous investigations of your land, leading to questions and assumptions about how the ecosystems once functioned and how they have changed. Because you are basing your assumptions on interpretation of incomplete historic data, there will be much uncertainty. Everything we think we know is based on assumptions, some with a good basis in facts, but most less so. The more thoroughly you can explore historic information and the more completely you can fill in missing pieces, the more accurate your assumptions will be. These assumptions and the associated questions will be worded as working hypotheses about the ecosystems in your project, how they looked, how they functioned, key species and their distributions and relationships, and so on. Through activities in previous tasks, you have completed the following, as far as possible: • Investigation and mapping of current and historic conditions on the land • Changes in the land and reasons they occurred or continue • Assessment of past and present stressors responsible for the changes
Working Hypotheses Before we begin preparing a restoration plan, we need to develop working hypotheses and principles for the restoration. The assumptions we make about the historic condition and functions of the ecosystems in our project also are key to identifying the endpoints or goals; what do we want our restoration to achieve on the land. This latter point will be addressed later. First, we will focus on the assumptions and hypotheses.
Task 12. Develop Working Hypotheses You can never be certain what ecosystems existed on your land before it became altered by recent humans, or exactly how they functioned. Yet, this prior condition is the basis for developing good restoration plans. Using the insights you have developed, you can begin to make assumptions about prior conditions and how they have changed. These assumptions are working hypotheses, an important step in restoration planning, not just at the beginning, but throughout the years of the project. If your underlying assumptions are not clearly articulated, your goals
S.I. Apfelbaum and A. Haney, The Restoring Ecological Health to Your Land Workbook, The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration, DOI 10.5822/978-1-61091-049-1_3, © 2012 Steven I. Apfelbaum and Alan Haney
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the restoring ecological health to your land workbook
and objectives may be off target and lack a valid context. Also, developing your hypotheses with other stakeholders and sharing them widely with everyone involved in the project helps to keep the project focused. Historic ecosystems were acted upon by stressors that lead to existing conditions. In addition to the historic ecosystems and how they functioned, it also is important to include hypotheses about how stressors historically altered the ecosystems as well as how stressors continue to affect the ecosystems
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