July 24, 2008
UW prof joins Kew Gardens project
The Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, known for work on plant systematics and botanical collecting, is getting into the ecosystem restoration business.
Two Seattle men, UW’s Kern Ewing and environmental consultant Lyndon Lee, were part of an international team convened at Kew in mid-June to develop ideas on how the 250-year-old organization can expand its role to include restoration ecology.
Kew Gardens is the largest botanical garden in the world in terms of its people — it has a staff of 700 — and the organization reaches into places such as Africa and island nations, Ewing says. Work has focused on plants, their conservation and documenting biological hot spots in need of protection.
“The organization has now decided to use its global network, skills and prestige to restore badly damaged parts of the Earth,” he says.
Surface mines, for example, are some of the bleakest places on Earth with huge piles of infertile waste rock and scarred landscapes. Some mined areas are so large they can be seen from outer space. Helping companies or countries find the best ways of restoring such areas might be something Kew Gardens could undertake, Ewing says.
Reforestation is another pressing problem where people have used the trees for firewood or cleared land for agriculture.
The group of 27 restoration ecologists worked with 37 staff members on a conceptual outline for how Kew Gardens could be involved in global restoration. They also suggested that the staff undertake a restoration project on their own grounds. Possibilities might be restoring the remnant of a riparian forest on the Kew grounds next to the Thames River or a project at Wakehurst, site of the Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank. Staff would gain valuable experience and credibility, Ewing says.
Ewing, a professor of forest resources, studies and restores ecosystems ranging from freshwater wetlands to prairies to oak woodlands. UW students in the restoration ecology course he helps teach get real-world experience by conducting restoration projects in neighborhoods and on public or commercial properties.
