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Abundant and healthy natural resources within the Chesapeake Bay watershed help support a strong economy and a high quality of life for citizens. However, environmental problems associated with urbanizing landscapes, nutrient runoff, declining fisheries, a changing climate, and the potential for freshwater scarcity threaten the health and abundance of such natural resources. Creative, proactive solutions are needed to address these problems. Ecosystem restoration science uses the best approaches and tools of ecological science and engineering to anticipate problems and employ natural processes to solve them. It seeks to repair and manage natural ecosystems so they can continue to sustain humans and the resources upon which humans depend.
Although the practice of restoration has become a booming business, restoration ecology is a young science. Thus, restoration efforts too often focus on individual species or groups of species rather than taking a more holistic approach to integrate species and habitats so as to restore structure and function to impaired ecosystems. Although millions of dollars are spent annually to restore streams, forests, wetlands, and fisheries, there is an urgent need for new scientific theory and research to guide, coordinate, and integrate these efforts.
Because its land drains to a common point, the Chesapeake Bay watershed integrates the effects of all activities on the land and waterways, making it a natural laboratory for developing and implementing plans to restore damaged ecosystems. Located within this watershed, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science (UMCES) is uniquely poised to take the leadership role in partnering with other University of Maryland campuses, Federal and State agencies, non-profit organizations, and private companies to advance the science and practice of watershed restoration. In combining the strengths and resources of various groups, UMCES can provide the knowledge, tools, and workforce to meet the growing national need to solve difficult environmental problems at watershed scales.
Goals of ERI |
"Beneficial use of dredged material to restore Chesapeake Bay wetlands"
"Restore vs. Retreat: Securing ecosystem services provided by coastal Louisiana" |
