Embodying Regeneration: Understanding Invasive Species and Our Role in Ecosystem Stewardship

Invasive species are often viewed as the drivers of ecosystem change, and the practice of landscape management often focuses on their removal as a means to improve ecosystem function and enhance biodiversity. A more holistic view of invasive species places them within a larger social, economic, and ecological context as symptoms, rather than causes, of changing ecosystems. Factors including climate change, historic changes in land use and management, and even our modern concept of nature and wilderness contribute to the status of ecosystems we live in today, many of which are declining in health and productivity. People have an important role to play in accounting for and mitigating these forces as they make plans for increasing biodiversity, beauty, and ecosystem function over the long term. We can be stewards of diverse, abundant, and thriving ecosystems - we'll discuss how to embody this land-based knowledge in our daily lives.