Our Once and Future Planet: Restoring the World in the Climate Change Century by Paddy Woodworth (review)

“Our Once and Future Planet” provides a lively and accessible yet in-depth account of restoration ecology’s history, complexity, controversies and conundrums. Author Paddy Woodworth is a journalist who immersed himself in restoration ecology and built a high level of expertise through global site visits and extensive interviews with scientists, practitioners, and local people. A first-person narrative that chronicles these investigations, the book combines thoughtful and thought-provoking explorations of prominent case studies with nuanced consideration of challenges. Little restoration work ends up in the peer-reviewed literature, and this comprehensive and interdisciplinary synthesis provides us with context, perspective, and a restoration travelogue. I recommend it to everyone involved with restoration, to other scientists, to students, and to the interested public. It is a great read.

The meat of the book is the wide-ranging and informative accounts of site visits to restoration projects around the world. The New Zealand chapter, for example, grapples with the killing of large numbers of invasive mammals, traces how introduced species came to outnumber natives, visits sites of extinction and reintroduction with scientists and volunteers, considers the challenge of defining historical restoration targets, and closely examines the history and restoration perspectives of native Maori people.

Obstacles, conflicts, and successes are discussed throughout the book. One recurring message is the value of involving, educating, and if possible benefiting the local community. South Africa’s Working for Water project clears invasive vegetation in order to stem water depletion, restore native ecosystems including the endangered, endemic-rich fynbos, and employ tens of thousands of the impoverished jobless each year. For this ambitious project, challenges include continued expansion of invasions on the landscape, the need to replant natives in some ecosystem types, and diffuse geography of the restoration effort which prioritizes the need for jobs over the level of threat.

Public education and transparency helped overcome resistance to tree removal in Ireland (some beloved non-native beech trees were retained along trails) and in Kings Park in Perth. In contrast, Chicago’s North Branch Restoration Project, which tackled invasive buckthorn and reintroduced native prairie assemblages to urban and suburban preserves, faced community opposition from residents against clearing woody vegetation; Woodworth concludes that with better communication and educational efforts a county-wide ban on restoration might have been avoided.

Limited knowledge about all-important soil emerges as a frequent challenge. Few restoration plans consider local-scale spatial heterogeneity that results from microtopography and history. Soils of some restoration targets in Ireland are too depleted by centuries of agriculture and erosion for tree growth. The Gondwanalink project in Australia seeks to establish corridors between scattered preserves, in a high-endemism biodiversity hotspot; here, the old age and infertility of soil impair return of native vegetation on pastures.

Soil conditions also influence the need for active intervention. In a landscape of abandoned pastures in Costa Rica, where successful efforts led by Dan Janzen and Winnie Hallwachs have protected a swath of critically endangered dry tropical forest, flammable African grasses thrive when grazing is stopped. If fire is eliminated, tropical dry forest recolonizes quickly on volcanic soil but very slowly elsewhere. Meanwhile in adjacent wetter rain forests, a paucity of mycorrhizal fungi and animal-dispersed seeds delays natural reforestation of abandoned pastures. In an interesting and unconventional approach, success was facilitated by planting an invasive tree, Gmelina arborea, to attract animal dispersers and shade out the grasses.

Traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) is also considered. Woodworth challenges the profession’s uncritical acceptance of traditional approaches but also describes successes. A fascinating chapter about Mayan land management in Mexico reports that traditional methods restore rain forest on old pastures where other approaches fail. Another chapter visits Italy’s Cinque Terre region where historical/cultural restoration of picturesque abandoned terraces actually discourages recovery of natural vegetation; if left to revert to a wild state, terraces disintegrate and landslides threaten villages below. [End...