Nature by Design: People, Natural Process, and Ecological Restoration

by Eric S. Higgs

Ecological restoration is the process of repairing human damage to ecosystems. It involves reintroducing missing plants and animals, rebuilding soils, eliminating hazardous substances, ripping up roads, and returning natural processes such as fire and flooding to places that thrive on their regular occurrence. Thousands of restoration projects take place in North America every year. In "Nature by Design," Eric Higgs argues that profound philosophical and cultural shifts accompany these projects. He explores the ethical and philosophical bases of restoration and the question of what constitutes good ecological restoration.

Higgs explains how and why the restoration movement came about, where it fits into the array of approaches to human relationships with the land, and how it might be used to secure a sustainable future. Some environmental philosophers and activists worry that restoration will dilute preservation and conservation efforts and lead to an even deeper technological attitude toward nature. They ask whether even well-conceived restoration projects are in fact just expressions of human will. Higgs prefaces his responses to such concerns by distinguishing among several types of ecological restoration. He also describes a growing gulf between professionals and amateurs. Higgs finds much merit in criticism about technological restoration projects, which can cause more damage than they undo. These projects often ignore the fact that changing one thing in a complex system can change the whole system. For restoration projects to be successful, Higgs argues, people at the community level must be engaged. These focal restorations bring communities together, helping volunteers develop a dedication to place and encouraging democracy.

Genres: Environment, Science

358 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2003

Reviews

[JC · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comps reading. A clarifying book about what ecological restoration is about. In my view, ecological restoration in settler colonial countries like Canada would involve the end of colonial occupation, but that is not what this book is about. However, there are obviously parallels. When we speak of ecological restoration some people ask, what baseline are we restoring a landscape to? Some want to restore it to a time before human contact, a point in time that keeps getting pushed back farther and farther in North America, as it becomes evident humans have been living here for a very long time. It would be difficult to adequately retrieve what those landscapes were like, and why would we want to restore it to such a state, when humans would continue to live there? This also is little different that projects of Indigenous dispossession and removal used to create various national parks in the U.S.. Others want to restore landscapes to the early 19th century, when deforestation was still quite minimal and settlers imagine it was a bucolic time (and this is a lot of what heritage conservation is about). And then others have said the baseline should be before colonial contact. Higgs rejects the notion that ecological restoration is about returning a landscape to a previous state or baseline. But he does think there is a central role for the historian and ecological restoration is in many ways a historical project because the two main goals for him are ecological integrity and historical fidelity, where the landscape still has a comprehensible continuity with its past. Then it is not a romantic project that attempts to return to Eden, but it is one that does not erase its past (Higgs likes citing Disney’s Wilderness Lodge as an example for this a lot for some reason lol). I think what becomes evident is that many interventions that fall under the guise of 'ecological restoration', at least ones done on a scale that is of consequence, are done under sanction of a fairly powerful state that has the coercive means to decide questions like the one I raised above.

The book starts in Jasper National Park and with Higgs being questioned why ‘pristine wilderness’ would need restoration. Higgs reminds the reader that humans had been using and living in the area for many thousands of years and that wilderness is an idea that has more to do with our own understanding of nature than what is actually on the ground. He then asks what distinguishes a park like Jasper from Disney’s Wilderness Lodge? (Chapter 1)

Then we have a good overview of the theoretical issues at stake in ecological restoration and as well as issues of praxis (Chapters 2-3). These were the most useful chapters for me and ones I will likely return to. There are some interesting case studies sprinkled through these sections including the Dorney Ecology Garden at the University of Waterloo, which I walked by when visiting a friend last summer who is studying there.

Chapter 4 is also useful for thinking about how restoration is connected with history. I am an aspiring historian and so it was interesting to see the way history relates to both restoration theory and practice, covered in the previous two chapters. I still think some of Higgs commentary on authenticity are unsatisfying. He thinks history is important for establishing the authenticity of restoration projects, but I’m not sure I think authenticity is a concept I fully understand. I don’t have a coherent way to parse through that issue, but I think someone with a philosopher’s patience could do it more justice.

Next, Higgs addresses an important issue, which is the commodification of restoration, which increasingly moves away from ‘focal restoration’ towards technological restoration. Ecosystems are being turned into commodities according to Higgs that are being alienated and divorced from the social and natural processes to which they are deeply connected. I think Rebecca Lave’s book Fields and Streams is an excellent about how this has played out in stream restoration (a book that people into Bourdieu’s field theory would enjoy).

So what does Higgs mean by ‘focal restoration.’ Chapter 6 has got you covered. I think this would be of interest to STS people because this form of restoration is about bringing scientific rigour and clarity into restoration. I think STS theory could significantly revise this perspective.

Finally, we close the book with why Higgs uses the term design. Restoration involves creative interventions that follow ideas that are subject to healthy democratic discussion. Restoration should not be a way of disguising human agency behind justifications that appeal to ecology but is “always about people working with and within natural process”. Higgs describes this intentionality as ‘wild design’ which is the last pillar that accompanies the other keystones of ecological integrity, historical fidelity, and focal practices.

Though I diverge from a lot of what Higgs says, I think this book is a useful way into understanding the theoretical and academic landscape of ecological restoration, and some of the key issues at stake.

[Emma Kiefer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Full disclosure I had to read this for a graduate class but good lord was this a frustrating read. The entire structure of the text is super confusing and Higgs uses the passive tense way too much. He gives us such sentences as “rarity is the condition of scarcity, where something develops additional value because it is unusual” and “implicit in history is the concept of time” and “the future is only imagined in the present”. Just trying to sound super deep when the sentences barely mean anything beyond maybe a definition.

Additionally, Higgs raises so many different questions and tangents that each question could easily constitute its own dissertation. You can’t expect anyone from the general public to understand this stuff when you can barely keep your arguments straight. He is also super anti-technology and makes classic boomer arguments about technology that makes someone reading this in 2021 roll their eyes. Uhh…you’re worried about “personal digital assistants” and pagers? You don’t even know what you’re about to get into.

He is quick to discount the role of technology in unpaid domestic labor in the household, and targets the dishwasher for some reason, arguing that the mundane act of washing your dishes by hand is a focal ritual practice or something, and this means that if we wash the dishes by hand we’ll actually come to really appreciate those dishes and realize that those rituals matter to us. Dude, what? Dishwashers were a huge technological advancement that helped give women more freedom and reduce the amount of unpaid labor they were expected to do around the house. And technology has been an incredibly positive force for so many people with disabilities and that lens is completely absent from any of his arguments. He is also way too quick to push aside ideas of eco cultural restoration in favor of his own made up terms for what he thinks is actually good ecological restoration.

He discounts ecocultural restoration but also is pretty willing to push aside worries about the appeal of nostalgia because he just can’t let go of the idea that the past was somehow better before humans were involved. This shitty view of human interaction with nature is exactly why we continue to be so disconnected from nature - when you believe that humans are an inherently negative force that can only do harm to the environment, you’re stripping away all possibilities for positive change. This whole book was a frustrating and confusing read that made me want to drop out for the 70th time this week. Guess the lesson here is, don’t read this book, and especially don’t read this book in the middle of a pandemic while doing grad school while actively sick with said pandemic.

[Jessica Zu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I find this book very inspiring. I've been looking for ways, methods to solve China's environmental problems for a long time. This book provide some very powerful methods to resist technological take-over in China. I recommend it to everyone who are interested in environmental issues.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy Higgs' writing in general so was happy when a friend gave me this book.

The book completely lived up to my expectations. It is a thoughtful, philosophical, and practical examination of ecological restoration. Higgs addresses the issue of what constitutes 'real nature' - Disney's sanitized plastic leaves and carefully painted geysers that spout on schedule? Wilderness untouched by human hands? Something in between? He ties these ideas to our interactions with nature and the decisions those undertaking ecological restoration must make. I really enjoyed his ideas on focal practices and engaging as much of the public as possible in restoration work.

Overall, a great read for those interested in environmental issues, and really a great read all around.

[Bryan Kibbe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thoughtful and nuanced attempt to bring clarity and substance to the idea and practice of ecological restoration. I especially enjoyed the chapter "Denaturing Restoration," in which Higgs draws restoration practice into conversation with work in the philosophy of technology, and particularly Albert Borgmann's distinction between focal things and devices.