Research Focus Group on History and Ecological
Restoration
Conveners
Anita Guerrini, Professor, History & Environmental
Studies, guerrini@history.ucsb.edu
Jenifer Dugan, Associate Research Biologist, Marine
Science Institute, j_dugan@lifesci.ucsb.edu
This Research Focus Group will continue to explore issues
raised by the NEH-funded research project “Historicizing
Ecological Restoration.” This collaborative project,
involving scholars in public history, history and philosophy
of science, and ecology, aims to reassess the role of
human history in the theory and practice of ecological
restoration. By means of a case study of the UCSB West
Campus, this project will provide a theoretical and
practical basis for the integration of historical questions,
methods, and approaches with the process of ecological
restoration. This project addresses issues that have
become increasingly prominent in many areas of history,
including environmental history, cultural history, and
public history, as well as in ecology and environmental
ethics. These issues include the relationship between
historical and cultural preservation and ecological
restoration; the role and value of human history in
the creation of the present environment; and the very
definition of ecological restoration. Central to this
project is the interdisciplinary integration of values
and concepts.
Ecological restoration is a contested field of inquiry,
in which values, ethics, and the very concept of restoration
have been subject to wide disagreements. Restoration
implies restoring a landscape to some previous state,
but there is little agreement about what that state
might be, or how to find out about it. Politics and
values, as well as science, have significant impacts
on restoration policies, and wide differences of opinion
exist among those involved in restoration. These range
from the view that restoration is a human construct
and therefore ethically untenable to the view that restoration
is virtually synonymous with preservation. While the
definition of ecological restoration declared by the
Society for Ecological Restoration in 1996 mentions
“regional and historical context” as important
factors, historians are not usually involved in the
process of ecological restoration. Restoration ecologists
acknowledge that their field lacks a theoretical base,
but many remain wedded to a scientific point of view
that admits little if any historical perspective. The
conveners of this RFG contend that the basis of ecological
restoration is fundamentally a historical question,
but history, as it is practiced by historians, figures
very little in the literature of restoration ecology.
The RFG will continue to bring together individuals
who have already been involved with this project as
well as others in public history, history of science,
ecology, anthropology, and other disciplines to talk
about the meaning of “restoration” in the
specific context of the West Campus area and in the
more general sense. The conveners are Anita Guerrini,
Professor of Environmental Studies and History, and
Jenifer Dugan, Associate Research Biologist with the
Marine Science Institute. Other faculty who will participate
are Randy Bergstrom (History) and Michael Glassow (Anthropology).
We will also ask Milton Love (EEMB), Jim Reichman (NCEAS),
Bruce Kendall (Bren), and Michael McGinnis (Bren) to
participate, as well as Michael Williams and Cristina
Sandoval of the UC Natural Reserve System. Postgraduate
researchers Beverly Schwartzberg and Peter Neushul (both
of History), senior museum scientist David Hubbard (EEMB)
and administrator Lindsey Reed (Public History) will
also participate. Graduate students who will participate
are Dustin McKenzie of Anthropology, Karinna Hurley
of Education, and Donald Burnette, Jill Jensen, and
Peter Cortelyou of History. Public History undergraduate
Deborah Bahn will also participate; she will enter the
Public History graduate program in 2005.
Activities for the year will include regular monthly
meetings (on Monday afternoons) in which the group will
convene to discuss issues relevant to the theme, including
aspects of their own research. At least some of these
meetings will include assigned reading on topics in
history, restoration, and ecology. The new volume Public
History and the Environment ed. Scalapino and Melosi
provides an excellent jumping-off point for the group
and the plan is for members of the group to propose
readings in their own disciplines that would be relevant
to the project. Invitations to speak will be issued
to David Foster, director of the Harvard Forest, co-author
of the recent book Forests in Time; Carla D’Antonio,
conservation biologist and incoming Schuyler Chair in
Environmental Studies; Mike Williams of the Sedgwick
Reserve; and Howard Wittausch, a local consultant on
historical architecture and preservation.
Group activities to date:
Our group held monthly meetings on teh first Monday
of each month starting in October 2004 in the IHC conference
room. After the first organizational meeting held in
October of 2004, each meeting consisted of a n update
on ongoing research components for the West Campus study
an in many cases a review or discussion of a paper or
text. A list of the activities, presentations and materials
discussed follows.
Activities:
A field trip to visit the historical structures and
landscapes of the Campbell Ranch is being scheduled
for May 2005 meeting.
Presentations:
Guerrini, A. High Society and Chicken Ranching: the
Campbell Ranch in the 1920's
McGinnis, M. Bioregionalism. Planned for June 2005
Materials read and discussed in meetings:
The SER International Primer on Ecological Restoration
produced by the Society for Ecological Restoration International
Science & Policy Working Group (October 2004)
Watt, L. A., L. Raymond, and M. L. Eschen 2004. Reflections:
On Preserving Ecological and Cultural Landscapes. Environmental
History Vol 9, No. 4.
McGinnis, M. 1999. Bioregionalism-selected chapters
