Ecological Restoration – Federal Land 

Management Agency Perspective

Background

Types of Resources - Stressors

Sources

DOI Projects

Issues

Greg Eckert

greg_eckert@nps.gov

970-225-3594
Defining Restoration

Ecological restoration is 

the process of assisting 

the recovery of an 

ecosystem that has been 

degraded, damaged, or 

destroyed.

(Society for Ecological 

Restoration)

... Removal of barriers to

ecosystem recovery ... 

(sensu Aide)
Defining Restoration

Used to argue over:

RESTORATION

Revegetation

Reclamation

Remediation

Now addressing emerging 

concepts of :

Restoration Values

Ecological Services

Restoration and Culture
Ambient

Environment

Landscape / 

Ecological 

Processes

Communities 

/ Ecosystems

Populations 

/ Organisms

Natural Resource Levels of Organization

Contaminants

Dust

Light and Noise Pollution

Altered Fire and Flow 

Regimes

Altered soil conditions, 

nutrient cycles & 

geomorphological 

conditions

Vegetation degraded

Individual organisms 

affected by disease or 

noise
Sources – past and present

• Land use Legacies 

• Contaminants

• Process alteration

• Fragmentation

• Resource 

Exploitation 

• Invasive Species
DOI Projects - South Texas Wildlife Refuges

• Goal of restoring attributes of natural diversity

• Over 10,000 acres of trees and shrubs planted since 1995

• Work with Cooperative Farming Program and Local 

Conservation NGO
DOI Projects – Southern Cal BLM 

Plant species used for livestock forage have 1) eliminated habitat for 

the endangered Quino checkerspot butterfly, 2) created typeconversion of coastal sage scrub and chaparral to non-native annual 

grasses 3) increased non-native grasses as “flash-fuels”

Multiple projects: Quino habitat, AML gates, Fuel breaks, Golden 

eagle nest platforms, multiple local collaborations

PROGRAM ISSUES

• Lack of staff and funding

• Opposition from public when attempting to manage borderlands by 

implementing closures following fires or for the protection of 

threatened and endangered species. 

• The lack of Activity plans and Wilderness plans for the management 

of border lands.
DOI Projects – San Diego Area Refuges 

Addressing a suite of issues across multiple units

Projects include

> 63 veranl pools

130 acres Cactus wren habitat

Post fire recovery of T&E habitat

67 acres of Otay tarplant & Mexican flannelbush habitat

Coast live oak and Engelmann oak - > 600 locations

The additional challenges of climate change (e.g., reduced 

annual rainfall but increased rain event intensity; longer, hotter 

summers; range shifts of species; rising sea levels) magnifies the 

need for active management and monitoring of these conserved 

lands and their vast biological diversity.
DOI Projects – Restore New Mexico

Multi-agency emphasis on desert grassland & riparian projects

NGOs and private landowner cooperation 

Over 56,000 acres treated in “NM Bootheel”

Support monitoring from USDA

Ecoregional Assessments hampered by lack of knowledge from 

Mexican side of border
DOI Projects – SW Arizona
DOI Projects – SW Arizona

Damage to soils 

and vegetation

The range of the endangered 

Sonoran pronghorn is in the 

heart of intensive off-road 

driving, illegal immigrant trails, 

and law enforcement 

interdiction activities
DOI Projects – DHS Mitigation
DOI Projects – Sonoran Joint Ventures 

Partnership of diverse organizations and individuals from 

throughout the southwestern United States and northwestern 

Mexico that share a common commitment to the conservation 

of all bird species and habitats within this range.

• Multiple projects to assess, monitor, conserve and restore

bird habitats

• eg, Restoring hummingbird nectar

plants to improve pollination 

- Via local NGO

- Strong local community 

component
DOI Projects – Big Bend-Rio Bravo 

Bi-national action plan to implement conservation actions that 

will strengthen landscape resilience and protect and improve

ecosystem services. 

1. Increase binational conservation cooperation 

2. Implement projects & science on the Rio Grande to improve

aquatic and riparian habitats and conveyance capacity. 

3. Implement uplands projects 

to improve resiliency, &

4. Conservation assessment 
Issues

Increases in drug smuggling 

and related violence and 

security

• Resource staff have limited 

access to key resources

• Indirect loss of time/money 

due to increased 

coordination with LE 

Perceptions of policy-makers
Issues

• Restoration seen as static and dwelling in past

• Difficulty working with Mexican counterparts

• Incompatibility among partners

– TX – AZ and Bufflegrass

• How to assess and restore large areas – REAs & LCCs

• Current actions lead to future restoration needs

– Border wall designs block debris flows

– Highway designs

• DOI Restoration values generally limited to species, 

habitat, “nature”
Issues

• Nexus with Mexico and border context

• Environmental hazards & the right to a safe environment

• Relationship to Climate related adaptation strategies

• Urbanization and Population growth

Image: Kevin Bixby