“If there is going to be a new green economy in Appalachia, this is how it will happen: one relationship at a time – between people, between people and land. [It] won’t make headlines. But it just might help put eastern Kentucky back together again.”

– Gabriel Popkin in “The Green Miles” via The Washington Post

Let us all praise the Society for Ecological Restoration which has gone global and is sharing innovation, experience, and learning about how to fix the mess that humans have made of ecosystems. A few years ago, the website showed images of forest restoration on Welsh coalfields that were truly inspiring. The same thing is happening in Appalachia, where 500 or so mountaintops have been removed and grassroots groups are restoring them. Aiding them are people who did the damage, and have since come to regret.

In both cases, public, academic, and private groups have converged. Such organizations are not enough. In many areas, the efforts are truly grassroots, and the process can be ‘hairy’. For example, in Southern Oregon, there are non-profit groups doing their best to protect local habitats that face many threats. They are effective, and their methods are state of the art. There are also ‘guerilla’ groups who arrive at old meth labs and grows in dead of night and use bags of fungus to remove toxins. And then there are groups who make things worse.

At a camping event near Crater Lake attended by some experienced habitat restorers, one camper shared a story that was not inspiring. Not long before, a group had shown up at a nearby stream to clean it up. Arrogant, uninformed, and unhappy to be called out about not knowing what they were doing, they eschewed toilet facilities and caped carelessly on the streambank. They were doing as much harm as good—or more.

Those who have no respect for the difficulties of restoration would do better to stay home. Overall, though, the ability of people to love life and to restore it is heartening. Chalk one up for sapiens: Present rewilding and restoration efforts are a sign that we may deserve the life that we inherited.