What is Ecological Landscaping?

What is Ecological Landscaping…

Put simply, ‘ecological’ refers to understanding how living organisms interact with their surrounding environment, and ‘landscaping’ would be to alter the physical features of the land to how we see fit. Putting these terms together would suggest its landscaping done in an ecologically sensitive way.

Lost Habitat’s ethos of ecological landscaping is to carry out landscaping practices sustainably, for example utilising materials that might be available on site such as timber, stone, and soil, and creating a mutually beneficial environment for nature and our clients, and to promote the use of native plants and pollinators, and to encourage wildlife by way of introducing areas for refuge and food, such as bug hotels or wildlife ponds, and creating stepping stones for wildlife to enable nature to join-up and become less fragmented.

We want to lessen the impact of modern developments and engineered structures to allow more free movement for wildlife. Our aim is to reconnect modern society with nature taking pragmatic approaches, being hopeful in the long-term vision of nature recovery and empowering people to understand the true value of nature, so protecting it for the future.

Climate change, soil degradation, poor flood management and invasive non-native species all play roles in damaging ecosystems. We understand we cannot simply rely upon nature to recover on its own, albeit certain rewilding versions do utilise this approach, certainly on a smaller scale our intervention is necessary, particularly on a site-specific basis. It is common for people to start a rant here about why the environment is in the state it is, and this is not for me to start a debate or to start pointing blame, we are here now, and we can make changes pragmatically, to take heed, re-evaluate, and make small differences to shape a better future. This is why we want to mitigate these threats to wildlife, to offer nature-based solutions on multiple small-scale projects, to aid ecological recovery, and to assist in conserving nature.

Landscaping, Restoration or Rewilding…

The term ecological restoration does differ from ecological landscaping, as restoration is the process of restoring the landscape or ecosystem (s) back to its original habitat prior to it being altered by human intervention. A more modern term used in ecological restoration is rewilding which follows much the same process, however with a more natural progression towards the final ecosystem and without much human influence, however introduction of animal or plant species would be incorporated to fulfil certain ecosystem functions, and to help steer towards the natural environment. Rewilding does aim to restore natural food webs, dispersal, and disturbances, which does crossover into the disciplines of ecological landscaping.

Fundamentally, ecological restoration and rewilding are both forms of ecological engineering, however debated between scientific communities, and both aim to restore interactions and networks between organisms and their physical environment.

Often the term ecology would relate to measuring habitat compositions, species populations and be site specific, usually not including human intervention. Rewilding is a fresher approach and normally a bit more ‘relaxed’ and looks at the functions and processes, being pragmatic, accepting the changes however they may evolve.

Here at Lost Habitat we aim to encompass many of these disciplines to bring our clients an aesthetically pleasing, functioning landscape for enjoyment of them and wildlife. More information of ecological landscaping in Devon can be read here.