What+is+Restoration?

=**6th Period**= "Damaged Ecosystems Can Be Restored within a Lifetime." //Building a Kinder Earth//. 31 May 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. []. Suraj Kalvala
 * 1. What does it mean to restore an ecosystem?**
 * Ecosystem restoration is the return of a damaged ecological system to a stable, healthy, and sustainable state, often together with associated ecosystem services (Wikipedia).**
 * Restoration is done for many reasons, including restoring national goods and services, mitigating climate change, and**
 * 2. How are restorations done?**
 * Mechanical removal of woody species would improve the quality of blackland prairie and woodland communities by increasing the abundance/frequency of native species within the prairie and woodland communities
 * This combined with fire maintains a healthy structure in the blackland prairie.
 * The appropriate use of chemicals would reduce the amount of invasive plant species in the blackland area
 * Prescribed fires will help maintain the blackland prairie
 * Habitat restoration can be will be guided by the knowledge gained
 * Restoration can be expanded
 * Mechanical grinders can help keep the area clear by removing excessive plants and other unnecessary shrubs.
 * A combination of chemicals and grinders would be best.
 * Pearson, Seth. "Phase Two Blackland Prairie and Woodland Restoration at Nacatoch Ravines Natural Area." The Nature Conservancy. Web. 15 Oct. 2011. []. (Martin)
 * 3. Why do we need to restore the prairie?**
 * 4. Can complete restoration be achieved?**
 * 240 independent studies by researchers of Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, stated that ecosystems can recover within a lifetime if societies commit to the restoration of the ecosystem
 * Ecosystems on average recovered in 42 years
 * Oceans ecosystems have recovered in 10 years
 * Ecosystems affected by invasive species, mining and oil spills have recovered in 5 years
 * Ecosystems took longer to recover from natural disturbances
 * The analysis was done on 7 diiferent ecosystems and a plethora of circumstances that affected the ecosystem were tested
 * The deined recovery the recovery of each of the variable in terms of the time it took for them to retuen to per-disturbance state.
 * Rebuilding is a plausible feat as long as society maintains support and maintains its efforts.


 * 1. What does it mean to restore an ecosystem?**
 * Ecosystem restoration is the return of a damaged ecological system to a stable, healthy, and sustainable state, often together with associated ecosystem services (Wikipedia).**
 * Restoration is done because of many reasons, including restoring national goods and services, mitigating climate change, and helping threatened species, aesthetic reasons, and moral reasons.**

"Ecosystem Restoration." //Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia//. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. .


 * 3. Why do we need to restore the prairie?**
 * Out of the 20 million acres of beautiful prairie, less than 1% remains. The restoration of the prairie is vital to water quality and the native plant communities, grassland birds, and other wildlife within prairie regions of Texas. Native grasslands protect watersheds in which they occur, and increase the supply of water by reducing the amount of erosion and sedimentation of the rock/ground. The quality of the water increases due to the lack of use in fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide.**
 * Preserving the prairie preserves natural heritage and Texas history. More than 99% of the prairie which old time Texans got to live on has been destroyed.**
 * Restoring the prairie reduces global warming via carbon sequestration and increasing the independence on energy via prairie biofuels.**
 * Restoring the prairie provides educational opportunities, open space, and nature exposure for all Texans (children and adults).**
 * Lastly, preserving the prairie would restore beautiful native Texas prairie plants and critically imperiled native plant communities. It also would protect birds which are pollinators, and other wildlife by protecting and restoring habitat.**

Spangler, Jason. "Why Protect and Restore Prairie?" //Native Prairies Association of Texas//. Texas Prairie Organization. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. .

=**7th Period**=

- create a park to preserve the land that is left (check) - start groups in order to raise awareness - Protecting water quality and quantity: Native grasslands protect the watersheds in which they occur, increase water infiltration and water yield, increase water supply by reducing erosion and reservoir sedimentation, and increase water quality due to the lack of fertilizer, pesticide, and herbicide use. galgai: a topographic soil that can be found in blackland prairies in austrailia and africa - can be defined as " The microrelief of soils produced by expansion and contraction caused by changes in moisture. Gilgai is found in soils that contain large amounts of clay, which swells and shrinks noticeably with wetting and drying.It usually occurs as a succession of microbasins and microknolls in nearly level areas or as microvalleys and microridges parallel to the direction of the slope." - stores significant amount of water- can develop wetland vegetation and associated biota, including amphibians, particularly gilgai found in forested regions of the Gulf Coastal Plain. - found Sedge Wrens at one gilgai site in Sachse, Texas - even though it helps sustain streamflows and improve water quality it is not protected with the Clean Water Act - largely ignored in scientific world []

restoration Objectives: 1.Restore blackland prairie plant communities and species assemblages. 2.Restore upland woodland community and species assemblages. 3.Restore suppressed ecological processes, particularly fire. 4.Reduce abundance of non-native species.5. Conduct habitat restoration monitoring. - seed collection to plant more of the native species to nudge the restoration process in the right direction - mechanical removal of woody invasive species to give room and life to those species who's home is the blackland prairie - prescribed burn (but since not allowed we can mow like last year) - herbicide application to emergant invasive species - maintenence of restoration area--> keep up with the area we have and keep working and researching for restoration. [] rachel Ecosystem restoration is the return of a damaged ecological system to a stable, healthy and sustainable, state. //"Ecosystem Restoration." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. 13 Oct. 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. .// Haley
 * 1) What does it mean to restore an ecosystem?**

The Blackland Prairie needs to be restored, because less than one percent of the prairie remains, and this one percent is still home to many native animals and organisms that are quickly being driven out by invasive species and urban development. Several rare plant species are found on some of the prairies, including purple beard tongue (//Penstemon cobea//), and eared false foxglove (//Tomanthera auriculata//) in the Blackland Prairie, and since the size of the original twenty million acre prairie has been reduced to one percent of this total amount, these rare and exotic species are becoming extinct. R.C. Anderson writes that the eastern prairies and grasslands "would mostly have disappeared if it had not been for the nearly annual burning of these grasslands by the North American Indians." however, seeing as how the burning of the prairie is not possible in Coppell, alternate means of restoration are necessary to preserve this small stretch of land. The restoration of the Blackland prairie would be beneficial to many native species, and would protect their native habitat. //"Blackland Prairie 2010." Springcreekforest.org. Preservation Society for Spring Creek Forest, 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 17 Oct. 2011. .// Haley
 * 3) Why do we need to restore the prairie?**

Yes, complete restoration can be done however, it can take-on average- forty-two years. In order to completely restore an ecosystem, the group that is in charge of the restoration process needs to be dedicated and committed. It was found by researchers from Yale, that ecosystems that were harmed by natural disturbances took longer to recover. It is true that determining the state of the ecosystem before it was disturbed may be difficult, and therefore may alter the restoration process, however with determination and hard work, any ecosystem can be restored over time. "Damaged Ecosystems Can Be Restored within a Lifetime." //Building a Kinder Earth//. 31 May 2009. Web. 13 Oct. 2011. []. Rachel
 * 4) Can complete restoration be achieved?**

Complete restoration of the whole prairie to what it used to be is not possible because of the amount of urban cities that's are located in the places where the prairie used to be, as well as it would not be possible to restore it completely the same because you couldn't get it exactly where it used to be with the exact plants and animals.