A Framework for Estimating Economic Impacts of Ecological Restoration.

Ecological restoration projects are designed to improve natural and cultural resources. Spending on restoration also stimulates economic impacts to the restoration economy through the creation or support of jobs and business activity. This paper presents accessible methods for quantifying the economic impacts supported by restoration spending and is written to be a guide and toolbox for an interdisciplinary audience of restoration practitioners and economists.

Ecological Harm and Economic Damages of Chemical Contamination to Linked Aquatic-Terrestrial Food Webs: A Study-Design Tool for Practitioners.

Contamination of aquatic ecosystems can have cascading effects on terrestrial consumers by altering the availability and quality of aquatic insect prey. Comprehensive assessment of these indirect food-web effects of contaminants on natural resources and their associated services necessitates using both ecological and economic tools. In the present study we present an aquatic-terrestrial assessment tool (AT2), including ecological and economic decision trees, to aid practitioners and researchers in designing contaminant effect studies for linked aquatic-terrestrial insect-based food webs.

Restoration Scaling Approaches to Addressing Ecological Injury: The Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method.

Natural resource trustee agencies must determine how much, and what type of environmental restoration will compensate for injuries to natural resources that result from releases of hazardous substances or oil spills. To fulfill this need, trustees, and other natural resource damage assessment (NRDA) practitioners have relied on a variety of approaches, including habitat equivalency analysis (HEA) and resource equivalency analysis (REA). The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Habitat-Based Resource Equivalency Method (HaBREM), which integrates REA's reproducible injury metrics and population modeling with HEA's comprehensive habitat approach to restoration.

A framework for establishing restoration goals for contaminated ecosystems.

As natural resources become increasingly limited, the value of restoring contaminated sites, both terrestrial and aquatic, becomes increasingly apparent. Traditionally, goals for remediation have been set before any consideration of goals for ecological restoration. The goals for remediation have focused on removing or limiting contamination whereas restoration goals have targeted the ultimate end use.