When ecosystems are degraded, severely disturbed, or converted to other land uses, their ability to provide critical ecosystem services is compromised. These altered ecosystems are less resilient, having reduced ability to recover from disturbances such as fires, non-native plants, insects, diseases, drought, and other stresses related to climate change.

Forest Service scientists apply an interdisciplinary approach to restoration and recovery research to ensure a holistic approach, restoring ecosystems from the soil upward so that restoration efforts are informed, effective, economical, and efficient.

The Forest Service is keenly aware of the value of restoration and has led the world in developing and applying the science and methods to restore ecosystems. This research is critical because:

• Private landowners and public land managers are facing accelerating threats and need novel, dynamic, and effective management options. Forest Service researchers develop and rigorously test management options for restoring desired ecological processes along different spatial scales and timelines.

• The vast set of variables, costs, and long-term implications associated with restoration efforts requires coordination and science-based, integrated planning. Forest Service researchers model and quantify realistic expectations, outcomes, tradeoffs, and synergies. They also develop landscape-scale decision-support tools to prioritize areas for restoration to ensure the most efficient use of resources.

• Building healthy, resilient ecosystems relies on diverse, hardy sources of genetic material. Forest Service scientists identify, develop, and test high-quality, genetically appropriate seeds and seedlings, as well as effective ways to use them to restore degraded ecosystems.

• Restoring the vast expanses of degraded and threatened U.S. landscapes is a monumental task. The Forest Service forges partnerships and collaborations with a broad complement of scientists and practitioners across federal, tribal, state, university, and non-profit boundaries to leverage resources, expertise, and perspectives to steward the land.

Featured Work

Restoring oak forest, woodlands and savannahs using modern silvicultural analogs to historic cultural fire regimes describes how restoration of oak ecosystems is possible but requires innovative combinations of traditional practices, including prescribed burning.

In Trade-offs relating to grassland and forest mine reclamation approaches in the central Appalachian region and implications for the songbird community researchers examined the influence of mountaintop mining/valley fill (MTMVF) reclamation habitats (grassland, shrubland, and remnant forest) on songbird community composition and abundance at three former MTMVF mines in southwestern West Virginia, relative to intact forest. 

Restoration handbook for sagebrush steppe ecosystems with emphasis on greater sage-grouse habitat ‒ Part 3: Site level restoration decisions leads readers through concepts necessary to make decisions at the landscape and the site level for restoration of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) steppe ecosystems.

Public and forest landowner attitudes towards longleaf pine ecosystem restoration using prescribed fire examines both forest landowner and general public interest in longleaf pine restoration.

In Incorporating food web dynamics into ecological restoration: a modeling approach for river ecosystems, the authors present an application of a new model to the Methow River, Washington, USA, a location of on-going restoration aimed at recovering salmon.

How traditional tribal perspectives influence ecosystem restoration features examples of how diverse perspectives of Indigenous tribes have guided ecosystem restoration through partnerships between tribal communities and the U.S.

Seed use in the field: delivering seeds for restoration success is a guide for seed delivery to site, a critical step in seed-based restoration programs.