For example, economic conditions, wildlife habitat, forest structure, and community well-being are restorable. Reduction of damaging air pollution could occur in a matter of days, but restoration of complex forest structure might take a century and recovery of degraded river channels, even longer. One problem that is irreversible is loss of species and loss of distinct populations of species. Plant, of course, for the future. But if one is already starving, the outcome will be the same regardless of the choice.
Options exist now for charting the course toward restoration.
Failure to use these options increases the chance of irreversible loss and reduces the range of options over time. Third, because our understanding of complex human communities and ecological systems is never perfect, all strategies for improvement are in some ways experiments. Learning as we go and adjusting as necessary work best when we give as much care and planning to measuring the response to new management strategies as we do to implementing them. Changes in our agencies and institutions will be necessary to adjust this balance between measuring outcomes and implementing new management. Monitoring designs that compare different approaches among agencies and private landowners could have the added value of collaborative efforts, sharing of resources and expertise, and more efficient testing of alternatives.