Environmental Values Environmental Values
Environmental Values 15(2006): 463-478. doi: 10.3197/096327106779116096
ABSTRACT
Conceptual and methodological changes in ecology have the potential to alter significantly the way we view the world. A result of embracing a dynamic model ('the flux of nature', and 'disturbance regimes') has been to make ecological restoration projects a viable alternative, whereas under 'equilibrium ecology' (climax communities/nature-knows-best) restoration was considered destructive interference. The logic of sustainability strategies within the context of dynamic forces promises a greater compatibility with anthropogenic activity. Unhappily, environmental restoration turns out to be paradoxical under the current identification of wilderness with wildness where wildness is, at least, a necessary condition for the possession of natural value. The solution to the paradox is to separate wilderness from wildness both conceptually and ontologically by enlarging the domain of wildness to include certain human activities.
KEYWORDS: Restoration, wildness, wilderness, Thoreau, Leopold
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