Wild Collaboration: Ecological Restoration, Religion, and the Reformation of the Human/Nature Relationship
type: CreativeWork
description: ABSTRACT Lohrmann, Adam, M.S., May 2011 Environmental Studies Wild Collaboration: Ecological Restoration, Religion, and the Reformation of the Human/Nature Relationship Chairperson: Dr. Daniel Spencer In recent years, the field of ecological restoration has gained momentum as an academic discipline, a scientific profession, and as a community-based form of environmental activism and land stewardship. At the same time, the number, scope, complexity, and diversity of restoration projects has expanded, and restoration is now being practiced in every corner of the globe. Witnessing this surge of activity and interest, many restorationists now believe that the practice of restoration can serve as a catalyst for transforming the human/earth connection from a relationship of coercion and exploitation to one of collaboration and mutual enrichment. However, restoration also raises many problematic questions with regard to the human/nature relationship. The work of restoration often involves a high degree of intervention and tampering in ecological communities. Restoration entails disturbing the ecological trajectories of existing ecosystems, reconfiguring landscape features, and the killing or removal of plant and animal life. Accordingly, some critics suggest that restoration actually represents an extension of the dominant, destructive cultural paradigms by which human beings feel justified to intrude upon and manipulate natural landscapes however they see fit. These concerns regarding the practice of restoration reflect deeper, more fundamental tensions embedded within the human/nature relationship, and relationship in general. These tensions are rooted in the existential challenge of otherness, and in the pervasive ecological realities of limitation, volatility, suffering, and loss. If restorationists hope to reform the relationship between humankind and the earth, then they must confront and negotiate these core relational concerns and tensions. I contend that a serious…
abstract: ABSTRACT Lohrmann, Adam, M.S., May 2011 Environmental Studies Wild Collaboration: Ecological Restoration, Religion, and the Reformation of the Human/Nature Relationship Chairperson: Dr. Daniel Spencer In recent years, the field of ecological restoration has gained momentum as an academic discipline, a scientific profession, and as a community-based form of environmental activism and land stewardship. At the same time, the number, scope, complexity, and diversity of restoration projects has expanded, and restoration is now being practiced in every corner of the globe. Witnessing this surge of activity and interest, many restorationists now believe that the practice of restoration can serve as a catalyst for transforming the human/earth connection from a relationship of coercion and exploitation to one of collaboration and mutual enrichment. However, restoration also raises many problematic questions with regard to the human/nature relationship. The work of restoration often involves a high degree of intervention and tampering in ecological communities. Restoration entails disturbing the ecological trajectories of existing ecosystems, reconfiguring landscape features, and the killing or removal of plant and animal life. Accordingly, some critics suggest that restoration actually represents an extension of the dominant, destructive cultural paradigms by which human beings feel justified to intrude upon and manipulate natural landscapes however they see fit. These concerns regarding the practice of restoration reflect deeper, more fundamental tensions embedded within the human/nature relationship, and relationship in general. These tensions are rooted in the existential challenge of otherness, and in the pervasive ecological realities of limitation, volatility, suffering, and loss. If restorationists hope to reform the relationship between humankind and the earth, then they must confront and negotiate these core relational concerns and tensions. I contend that a serious…
author: Lohrmann, Adam Carl
keywords: ecological restoration, ecology and religion, ecotheology, environmental ethics, restoration ethics, William R. Jordan III
date published: 2011-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T03:12:06Z
provider: University of Montana
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Montana