PUBLIC LECTURE: UWA Albany Skywest Public Lecture

The science and practice of ecological restoration have depended for several decades on key touchstones such as ecological integrity and historical fidelity to provide moral guidance on appropriate action. The intensification of human-caused environmental and ecological change is giving rise to hybrid and novel ecosystems, and thus blurring the picture on counts as proper restoration. Does historical knowledge still matter? Is conventional restoration still appropriate? What targets should be used in designing restoration projects? What are the foundations of a 'new' restoration? These questions, and ones like them, are beginning to receive the technical and scientific attention they deserve, but so too is it important to clarify values for a new ecological world order. In this lecture Professor Higgs will draw on recent ideas about ecological restoration, novel ecosystems, and environmental ethics, as well as his decade-long field research in the Canadian Rocky Mountains examining landscape change.