BETHLEHEM, Pa. \u2014 When it comes to restoring natural landscapes across the globe, there are several ongoing debates, Daniel C. Laughlin said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Chief among them, though, is a question: How can we restore landscapes to what they once were as the climate continues to change, creating different conditions?<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an ongoing debate, and it’s an interesting one, because we need to come to terms with the fact that things are changing, and we can’t restore things back to some fixed point in time,\u201d said Laughlin, a botany professor at the University of Wyoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to restore resilient communities and ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n
Laughlin was the keynote speaker during the Lehigh Valley Watershed Conference at Ben Franklin Technology Partners\u2019 TechVentures building, 116 Research Drive, on Lehigh University’s Mountaintop campus.<\/p>\n
In its 10th year, and led by the Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley, the conference theme was \u201cBack to Basics,\u201d and drew a sold-out crowd, with approximately 180 people, including professionals and volunteers, attending.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s nothing like it anywhere, where it is this mix of engineering and technical and conservation professionals, along with conservation volunteers. We’re really trying to connect these people with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rebecca Hayden, president, Watershed Coalition of the Lehigh Valley<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a great conference,\u201d said Rebecca Hayden, WCLV president.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s nothing like it anywhere, where it is this mix of engineering and technical and conservation professionals, along with conservation volunteers. We’re really trying to connect these people with one another.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We can’t just protect what’s left\u2019<\/p>\n
Laughlin\u2019s plenary session included talking through the current state of restoration ecology on a global level.<\/p>\n
The world is halfway through the United Nations\u2019 Decade on Ecosystem Restoration<\/a>, an effort to protect and revive ecosystems to benefit both people and the environment.<\/p>\n \u201cThe reason this was established was because we realized that preservation is not enough in order to achieve our goals of climate mitigation,\u201d Laughlin said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can’t just protect what’s left. We need global-scale efforts of restoration in order to scale up and achieve our goals of, say, carbon sequestration and climate mitigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with the initiative has come several mass efforts to plant trees, he said, like the trillion trees movement<\/a>.<\/p>\n However, some of these efforts can end up planting trees where they don\u2019t belong, like in grassy biomes, such as prairies, meadows and savannahs.<\/p>\n \u201cAnother problem that we’re seeing is that there’s massive tree-planting failures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne study estimated that 44% of the trees that were planted died in the tropical forest in which they were being planted. Others showed that 98% of the mangroves that were planted died.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so, clearly, restoration success should not be measured by acres planted, but tree survival.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about the proliferation of invasive species in the Valley, Laughlin described invasives \u201care a major issue\u201d that are \u201cnot going away.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome people are starting to argue that we need to relax a little bit and acknowledge that we’re never going to totally eradicate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cBut, the goal is to try to create a resilient ecosystem where the invasive species are part of the community, and not just totally overtaking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Agricultural literacy\u2019<\/p>\n After the opening session, participants could choose from four tracks: Back to Basics, Volunteer, Farm Conservation and Technical, each with four sessions.<\/p>\n During \u201cDigging into Farm Conservation,\u201d officials explained how farmers across Pennsylvania are supported through training, funding and partnerships.<\/p>\n