abstract

It's almost time for the NCER conference. Here's my abstract for 2013:

In recent years restoration projects have tended to become increasingly complex. Attention to
detail is essential at the final design stage, but at earlier conceptual stages, excessive control may
be counterproductive. When addressing stochastic systems, control may indeed be an illusion.
Deep understanding of spatial and temporal dynamism and ecosystem-level processes can be to
a large extent intuitive and abstract. Walking a project site in the rain and watching hydrology in
action or visiting multiple reference sites may be keys to understanding processes and creating a
successful design. Understanding landscape-level processes and historic landscape context can
facilitate a restoration design requiring less long-term maintenance. Economic and policy factors
can then be considered as part of a feasibility analysis. Several case studies demonstrate that
conceptual minimalism, in the sense of eliminating non-essential distractions during the early
stages of restoration design, can be an effective strategy. As in other fields of human endeavor,
this may require learning the “rules” well enough that they can be allowed to fade into the
background or sometimes even be challenged. Modern philosophies and ancient wisdom offer
useful metaphors to guide this process.

So simple. And yet I've had difficulty getting some to understand this.