Restoration Ecology - History

History

Land managers, laypeople, and stewards have been practicing ecological restoration or ecological management for many hundreds, if not thousands of years, yet the scientific field of "restoration ecology" was only first formally identified and coined in the late 1980s, by John Aber and William Jordan when they were at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They held the first international meetings on the topic in Madison during which attendees visited the UW's Arboretum -- the oldest restoration ecology project made famous by Professor Aldo Leopold. The study of restoration ecology has only become a robust and independent scientific discipline over the last two decades, and the commercial applications of ecological restoration have also increased rapidly in recent years.