Temple University Students Win Ecological Restoration Scholarship Contest

Congratulations Teresa Pereira and Taylor Keegan on winning the Island Press and Society for Ecological Restoration Why Restore? video contest! Thank you for taking part in our contest and for your contributions to ecological restoration. Keep up the good work! Check out the winning video below and read on to learn more about the winning duo and their project. Teresa Pereira and Taylor Keegan Teresa Pereira, Master's candidate Temple University, Landscape Architecture and Ecological Restoration Taylor Keegan, Master's candidate Temple University, Landscape Architecture and Ecological Restoration WHY RESTORE: LESSONS LEARNED BY BUDDING LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS Why Restore: Lessons Learned by Budding Architects guides us through an interdisciplinary approach to ecological restoration as seen through the eyes of Landscape Architecture graduate students at Temple University. As students of landscape architecture , we look to shape and manipulate the landscape. As growing restoration practitioners we seek to replenish and rework the past and return ecological systems to what they might have become. As scholars, specifically of Landscape Architecture and Ecological Restoration, we are learning to collaborate, understand and ultimately solve the problems within the public spaces of our world. Using the knowledge presented to us by John Munro who heads the ecological restoration department within our program, we explore various plant communities and ecosystems across the North Eastern United States. The culmination of our studies lead to the completion of a restoration project within our local community. Our workshop specifically took us to Rickett’s Glen State Park in northern Pennsylvania, Pennypack Preserve in southern Pennsylvania, the Pine Barrens in New Jersey, and Cheltenham Township Park in Philadelphia. In these places we recorded reference plots, increasing the department’s collection of restoration resources as well as intimately learned native and non-native plant communities. On our own campus, in Ambler, Pennsylvania, we cleared out a square acre of invasive plants and constructed fascines from the woody material we removed from the site. The final project was to complete a streambank restoration project on Tannery Run Creek on our University’s campus; this stream has experienced an influx of stormwater runoff due to the decrease of open lands and increase of development in the region. Our class broke into smaller groups and installed check dams to restore vitality on the eroded banks of our local stream. The result of this workshop, as well as our overall program curriculum, is an experiential and creative approach to hybridizing Landscape Architecture and Ecological Restoration. It has also encouraged us to think about the implications of ecological restoration and why it is so crucial for our present and future health and well-being. Through this video we examine the question "Why Restore?" and formulate an answer based on our reflections of the impact ecological restoration has at an individual level to the impact ecological restoration has at a societal level.