Description
Book SynopsisAddresses challenges inherent in landscape restoration from a broadly interdisciplinary perspective. The theory of preservation assumes humans are different from and opposed to the rest of nature. This book argues that humans are entwined with nature and have an effect on the entire ecosystem.
Table of ContentsDo1 The first book to address the challenges inherent in landscape D restoration from a broadly interdisciplinary perspective. . The theory of preservation assumes that humans are different from and opposed to the rest of nature. The contributors to 'Beyond preservation', on the other hand, explore their belief that humans are inextricably entwined with nature and therefore have an unavoidable impact on the entire ecosystem. The comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach employed by the editors addresses the possibilities of and problems with the restoration of damaged landscapes and even the invention of now ones. William R. Jordan III, a botanist by training, is committed to ecological restoration, and in the keynote essay he advocates the premises on which his theory is based. Post and essayist Frederick Turner is fascinated with the construction o f now landscapes and proposes a more rather than less ambitious human effort to shape nature. Turner contributes an essay that, together with Jordan's, serves as a cornerstone of the volume. Both Turner and Jordan urge us to use our intelligence and our creative faculties to manage nature by restoring damaged landscapes and creating mutually beneficial relationships among all species. The lead essays are followed by a series of broadly interdisciplinary critiques that confront a host of contemporary issues having to do with our attempts to preserve or restore landscapes. Individual assays address the theoretical issues entailed in restoration; examine case studies of the application of restoration / reclamation / preservation theory and techniques; and finally, reflect on the implications and consequences of environmental restoration. Taken together, these essays are as important for the questions they raise as for the ir individual assessments of Jordan's and Turner's programmatic statements.
