Conservation Biology​​​ in the Boreal
HOW DOES NEWFOUNDLAND and LABRADOR COMPARE??​
International Restoration Projects
International restoration efforts have done an incredible amount of work in terms of restoring biodiversity and have saved unique ecological areas from existing only in human memory. Just a quick Google search yields hundreds of restoration projects and proposals. Some countries are, as expected, doing bigger and better work than others like the United States, but even some of the smaller nations like the Galapagos Islands are doing phenomenal work to restore their natural landscape and bring back the biodiversity that once thrived there. Here we have outlined but a few of the many success stories from around the world; for more info see our links and references!
Australia:
Jarrah Forest Restoration
Southwestern Australia like so many places in the world, was once subjected to heavy mining operations that negatively impacted the natural environment in the area. That being said even while mining operations were still ongoing back in the 1960's efforts to restore the jarrah forest were already taking place (Christie et al. 2011 8). Recent studies in the past decade have shown that these restored areas look much like the unmined forest in the surrounding area and have flourished with continued rehabilitation likely. By the time mining operations in the area were done more than 12,000 Ha of forest had been cleared, but with careful and continued rehabilitation efforts more than 10,000 Ha have been revegatated, though the price was not cheap and annual costs of 13 million dollars is spent on research, planning, environmental operations and restoration activities (Seiser, 2001 9). It is a complex task to restore a mined area and several techniques are used to try to blend the mined area back into the surrounding pristine forest through such methods as altering the landscape, ie. Reducing the slopes from the mining pits to a more natural incline, tree plantings etc. Restoration in this area has a long history and as such many of the techniques have evolved and changed over time to be more efficient and bring an even greater positive impact to the recovering landscape (Seiser, 2001 9). For more on this success story click on the jarrah forest below!
Galapagos islands:
Project Pinta, is a restoration effort focusing on the re-establishment of a reproductive population of Galapagos giant tortoises (Chelonoidis nigra) to restore the islands natural ecosystem functions (Gardener et al. 2010 10). It has been broken down into three main phases, as seen below: ​
Phase I: introduction of 39 non-reproductive individuals in may 2010 to catalyze a more balanced restoration. Heavy monitoring followed​
Phase II: Continued observation of the introduced tortoises to see how their presence will impact the area.​
Phase III: Still in progress, will involve introducing reproductive individuals to the island Decisions will be made in the coming months as to whether the islands will be repopulated with young saddle-backed tortoises from another Galapagos tortoise species, or if the future offspring of cross-bred Pinta hybrids will repopulate the island several years down the line 11. ​
​For videos and more info click on the tortoise below!
Louisiana Barrier Reef
Here's another great success story from south of our borders, way down south in fact in Louisiana. NOAA Fisheries has documented the rebuilding of a 19-mile stretch of the Barataria Bay barrier island chain. This particular area was devastated back in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina and has been losing wetlands at an alarming rate. The Barataria Bay has been under heavy assault in recent years; natural subsidence coupled with climate change has seen some of the highest documented rises in sea-level in the entirety of the United States. Increased storm activity has also had a negative impact in terms of erosion of the coastal areas and islands. To combat this rapid onset of habitat degradation restoration efforts began shortly after Katrina. In 2006 the Pass la Mer to Pass Chaland project was built and in 2009 the Pass Chaland to Grand Bayou was built. Both projects involved dredging sand and sediment offshore and pumping it along the shoreline. In addition fencing and vegetative plants were introduced to stabilize the newly rebuilt dunes and beaches. Since their completion both projects have restorted over 900 acres of dune and marshland habitat 12.
United States:
Virginia Eastern Shore Seagrass Restoration:
In terms of Marine restoration NOAA has made invaluable contributions. Another success story from down south involves the return of bay scallops (Argopecten irradians) to Virginia's eastern shore – after they'd been extinct from the area for almost 75 years! The bay scallops supported a lucrative fishery during the 1930's, however disease and an unfortunate hurricane wiped out the seagrass that these scallops so heavily depend on and both the population of bay scallops ( and the fishery collapsed. Along with the Nature Conservancy, the Virginia Coastal Zone Management Program and the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, NOAA planted millions of seagrass seeds. The effort was a resounding success and now 5,000 acres of seagrass has been restored. After the seagrass restoration 100,000 juvenile bay scallops were introduced to the area and current estimations say that the population could grow enough to support a recreational fishery within 10 years 12.
