Semicultural Landscapes and Ecosystems
Thus far, we have said little about the trajectories of ecosystems prior to their impairment, other than that they were once biophysically and functionally intact in the past. Some readers may assume that those intact states were essentially manifestation
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Semicultural Landscapes and Ecosystems
Thus far, we have said little about the trajectories of ecosystems prior to their impairment, other than that they were once biophysically and functionally intact in the past. Some readers may assume that those intact states were essentially manifestations of Nature, devoid of human artifice. This chapter dispels that misconception. Humans have influenced the entire biosphere, and all ecosystems bear the marks of artifice. In some ecosystems, evidences of human influences are grossly apparent. In others, it takes a thorough knowledge of local natural history before the lingering imprint of human activity comes into focus. When we restore, we commonly incorporate ecological legacies derived from human pursuits that were acquired in the creation of a semicultural ecosystem. The making of a semicultural ecosystem or landscape is not at all idyllic. The anthropological literature is filled with tales of environmental degradation and consequent collapse of tribes and societies (Diamond 2005; Mann 2011). Tribal people who were living off the land were concerned about survival and their next meal and not about the romantic fiction of living in peaceful harmony with the environment. When a human population size reaches the carrying capacity of the land, people are already contributing to its degradation. Migration was (and still is) a common solution, if famine, disease, and warfare had not already defused the problem. Although ecotopia, as described in chapter 2, remains an overarching goal of humanity, it will remain elusive until people learn to live within their environmental budgets. In the meantime, practitioners of ecological restoration will continue to clean up the ecological wreckage from human enterprise until we learn to respect the biosphere and each other. Humans are wide-ranging creatures who roam across entire landscapes and sometimes much more widely. Landscapes heavily influenced by human activi-
A.F. Clewell and J. Aronson, Ecological Restoration: Principles, Values, and Structure of an Emerging Profession, The Science and Practice of Ecological Restoration, DOI 10.5822/978-1-59726-323-8_6, © 2013 Andre F. Clewell and James Aronson
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ecological restoration: principles, values, and structure of an emerging profession
ties can be called cultural landscapes. However, nearly all landscapes bear at least a few marks of cultural influence and, for that reason, cultural landscapes and natural landscapes should be seen as occurring along a continuum. A landscape that was entirely transformed to production systems or reallocated for other purposes would certainly merit being called cultural or socioeconomic. At the other end of the spectrum are landscapes that are organized by natural, nonhumanmediated processes. Between these extremes are rural areas that display both natural and cultural influences and can conveniently be called semicultural landscapes. Component ecosystems that display both natural and cultural influences we designate as semicultural ecosyste
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