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CONSERVATION BIOLOGY AND
RESTORATION ECOLOGY
Session Summary
W. Wallace Covington, Chair
Dan Neruy presented the next talk, which concerned the
restoration of degraded soils. Neary discussed the soil as the
foundation of sustainability for ~cosystems and then described
the factors which control soil fertility in various types. He then
followed with factors which lead to soil degradation and closed
with an overview of management techniques designed to restore
degraded soils.
Next, Steve Sackett presented a discussion of ways in which
prescribed burning can be used to reduce heavy fuel
accumulations, thin dense stands of trees, and prepare a seedbed
for tree establishment. He then addressed specific examples of
the use of prescnbed fIre in southwestern ponderosa pine
ecosystems to improve forest health and productivity.
This session closed with a presentation by Victoria Yazzie
Pina in which she described a Navcgo perspective on the
postulates of conservation biology and the principles of
ecological restoration. Pina concluded that the holistic
philosophies inculcated in Navajo culture are consistent with
key concepts of conservation biology and ecological restoration
She closed by describing the Nav~o religious concept of Sa'a
Naghai Bik' e Hozho (walking towanl the sacred way) which
expresses the health, beauty, and harmony of humans with the
land and relating this to the ecosystem approach to land
management.
This session began with a presentation by Wallace Covington
on changes since Euro-American settlement in southwestern
ponderosa pine ecosystems in tlie context of conservation
biology. Drawing on the conservation biology postulate that
outbursts reduce diversity, he related the postsettlement
irruptions of pine populations to decreases in the diversity and
stability of native flora and fauna. He closed with a description
of the field of ecological restoration and proposed treatments for
restoring and maintaining more nearly natural conditions in the
southwestern ponderosa pinelbunchgrass type. Next was a
presentation by Tun Allen entitled, "Towanl a definition of
sustainability. " Allen developed a definition of sustainability
which included human cultures functioning to substitute for
natural processes in stabilizing the landscape. He then took an
historical look at the failures of various cultures in sustaining
their natural resource bases including examples ranging from
the early Greek and Roman times to the present. He closed by
developing a scale-explicit framework for addressing the issues
of sustainability and ecosystem management.
Allen's talk was followed by Tom Bonnicksen who discussed
social and political issues in ecological restoration. In addressing
the question, "Should we attempt to restore ecosystems?",
Bonnicksen stressed the importance of including humans in the
restored landscape. He went on to elaborate on social definition
of a desired condition for a restored landscape and then on to
the politics of ecological restoration
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