In a technical sense, the future of restoration is bright. We've learned so much these past few decades, and there's no reason to think we'll stop learning. There have been some very large habitat restoration projects these past few years, and a few more designed and in the permitting stages now, and the big ones especially tend to have the resources to try new things, monitor, and apply adaptive management.
There are some risks. Political changes at the national level have put some pretty conservative folks in positions of power who aren't exactly advocates of what we do; I'm not sure what it is the republicans think they're "conserving" but it isn't habitat. Teddy Roosevelt must be turning over in his grave.
The Obama administration, while saying all the right things, at mid-levels seems to have in some cases reverted to a command-and-control mentality that I thought was outdated and discarded at the federal agency level. It remains to be seen whether all of last years talk about communication and cross-agency collaboration can overcome the petty bureaucracy.
I also have very real fears about an economy that is based 70% on consumer spending, and which at the same time seems to think it's OK for credit card companies to charge 30% interest (and that's for their customers with good credit). This seems like an excellent way to undermine the very customer base that's supposed to be doing all that spending. We seem to be slowly pulling out of the recent economic mess, but I wonder what we're setting ourselves up for in the future. While slower growth means less rapid habitat loss, it also means fewer resources and fewer projects for the next generation of restoration ecologists.
As we enter 2011, I'm going to remain cautiously optimistic and assume that things will eventually swing back to a balance.
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