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The Historical Ecology Handbook: A Restorationist's Guide to Reference Ecosystems
The Historical Ecology Handbook makes essential connections between past and future ecosystems, bringing together leading experts to offer a much-needed introduction to the field of historical ecology and its practical application by on-the-ground restorationists.
Chapters present individual techniques focusing on both culturally derived evidence and biological records, with each chapter offering essential background, tools, and resources needed for using the technique in a restoration effort. The book ends with four in-depth case studies that demonstrate how various combinations of techniques have been used in restoration projects.
The Historical Ecology Handbook is a unique and groundbreaking guide to determining historic reference conditions of a landscape. It offers an invaluable compendium of tools and techniques, and will be essential reading for anyone working in the field of ecological restoration.
Chapters present individual techniques focusing on both culturally derived evidence and biological records, with each chapter offering essential background, tools, and resources needed for using the technique in a restoration effort. The book ends with four in-depth case studies that demonstrate how various combinations of techniques have been used in restoration projects.
The Historical Ecology Handbook is a unique and groundbreaking guide to determining historic reference conditions of a landscape. It offers an invaluable compendium of tools and techniques, and will be essential reading for anyone working in the field of ecological restoration.
488 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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February 9, 2014
You know that a book that opens up with a David Abram quote isn't going to be an ordinary academic text. In a sense, HEH dives into the real complexities that Abram invokes with such magic; it proves his point by starting us on the journey of really getting to know a place.
HEH is a tremendously good tool to explore the history of a place. Not only does it clue you in to aspects of historical data you would never have thought of--from historical soil surveys to plant phytoliths--nearly each chapter provides bibliographic references on where to start looking for relevant studies and records for each region of the country. The unique strengths and limitations of each technique are fleshed out, and the book ends with case studies that explain how they can be used in synergy.
Since I'm not using the book right now, what I got out of it (beyond knowing that I should come back to it when I do have a place/project) is a reinforcement of the complexity of ecological history. Restoration ecology is often critiqued for attempting to halt natural change and inhibit ecosystem dynamism by restoring an idealized historical state. Everything in the book makes it quite clear that that is impossible; each technique described produces a picture at a different resolution and timescale, and together they at best reveal several interacting change drivers acting at different rates. Rather than providing a fixed and static picture of what an ecosystem "should" look like in its natural state, historical ecology shows us a place as a character: defined by its responses to changing conditions.
This is something permaculture practitioners could stand to learn in greater detail. It's quite true that Anthropocene ecosystems must be vastly different from those of the Holocene, but historical ecology doesn't just describe what was. It tells us what could be. On a larger scale, its findings will likely be key to informing restoration ecology theory--things like threshold dynamics as functions of climate, vegetation composition, and disturbance rates--which would necessarily be (as I see it) a key underpinning of an effective Anthropocene (agro)ecosystem plan.
HEH is a tremendously good tool to explore the history of a place. Not only does it clue you in to aspects of historical data you would never have thought of--from historical soil surveys to plant phytoliths--nearly each chapter provides bibliographic references on where to start looking for relevant studies and records for each region of the country. The unique strengths and limitations of each technique are fleshed out, and the book ends with case studies that explain how they can be used in synergy.
Since I'm not using the book right now, what I got out of it (beyond knowing that I should come back to it when I do have a place/project) is a reinforcement of the complexity of ecological history. Restoration ecology is often critiqued for attempting to halt natural change and inhibit ecosystem dynamism by restoring an idealized historical state. Everything in the book makes it quite clear that that is impossible; each technique described produces a picture at a different resolution and timescale, and together they at best reveal several interacting change drivers acting at different rates. Rather than providing a fixed and static picture of what an ecosystem "should" look like in its natural state, historical ecology shows us a place as a character: defined by its responses to changing conditions.
This is something permaculture practitioners could stand to learn in greater detail. It's quite true that Anthropocene ecosystems must be vastly different from those of the Holocene, but historical ecology doesn't just describe what was. It tells us what could be. On a larger scale, its findings will likely be key to informing restoration ecology theory--things like threshold dynamics as functions of climate, vegetation composition, and disturbance rates--which would necessarily be (as I see it) a key underpinning of an effective Anthropocene (agro)ecosystem plan.
Displaying 1 of 1 review