SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program issues professional certifications to qualified individuals working in the field of restoration, helping them to demonstrate their restoration expertise and advance their careers. To learn more about the program, including its requirements and benefits, please visit the CERP program page.

Please tell us about your background.

My name is Lawrence Effiong Daniel, CERPIT. I work for Thermosteel Nigeria Ltd, and am assigned to Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria as a senior field supervisor, majoring in crude oil spill response and management, environmental damage assessment, and restored site certification with government regulators. I’m based in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Additionally, I serve as the principal consultant to Ledacinn Biodigester Ltd, a sewage management company in Nigeria.

What drew you to the ecological restoration field?

I grew up in a rural and agrarian community in Southern Nigeria, and I had the privilege of witnessing what I would describe as a serene and healthy environment when compared to current conditions. Native trees, birds and animals were abundant; and we even had a nearby forest where as kids we feared to enter because of suspected dangerous animals. Within a fifteen-year period, the forest and wild animals disappeared due to heavy and uncontrolled deforestation activities.

In my quest to find a solution to the current environmental devastation and degradation, I pursued training in environmental biology. My master’s degree program introduced me to ecological restoration, which informed my decision to pursue a career in this field. Despite its unpopularity in my country, I have no regrets about this choice.

Can you tell us about your current work?

My work revolves around crude oil spill impact assessment and restored site monitoring and certification. In my current role, I have been involved in managing about 250 incidences of crude oil spills over the last four years, which is by far one of the highest spill rates in the world. I work with Nigerian government regulatory bodies such as the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the federal and state Ministries of Environment.

Recently I worked on a post-impact assessment of an oil spill site, encompassing a large area of land, swamp, and mangrove forest in the central Niger Delta for a major international oil company operating in the region. This spill was caused by third party interference/sabotage, which accounts for 90% of the oil spill incidents in the Niger Delta region of the country.

What benefits does SER provide for you? How has being a CERPIT benefited you?

Firstly, I consider the SER principles and standards as the biggest input and blessing to my career. Prior to joining SER in 2018, I relied solely on a document called the Environmental Guidelines and Standards for Petroleum Industry in Nigeria (EGASPIN) which was lacking in the key concepts of ecological restoration, such as considering community livelihoods, adequate and specific duration for monitoring, reference ecosystems, education and advocacy to communities and even limitations on restoration funding. There was very little emphasis on restoration and instead remediation was the industry standard in Nigeria. The SER principles and standards were a game changer for me providing a better understanding for the scope of my work and transforming my career to a vocation in stewardship. The training, webinars and participation in conferences significantly helped me.

In 2021, I was humbled to be elected as a pioneer board member of the SER African chapter. A few months later, I qualified as a CERPIT and this was a milestone for me as a Nigerian. Being a CERPIT comes with a lot of opportunities, networks, and responsibilities; and I have been able to harness a lot of them. But the biggest impact of being associated with SER has been on certification of remediated oil spill impacted sites. I am using the ideas and concepts learned through SER to develop methods which lead to better outcomes for the environment. My confidence and engagement with the government regulators have improved tremendously due to our enhanced understanding of ecological restoration principles.

How do you apply SER’s standards and practices to restoration?

We have had a lot of oil spill incidents in the wetlands and mangrove forests which has affected a lot of streams and rivers in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. After a spill, there is an immediate response with the deployment of booms, flushing and other mechanical methods to recover the crude oil. The next phase is cleanup followed by an investigation into the cause of the spill and a post cleanup assessment that serves as the baseline which will be compared to a reference ecosystem to measure whether restoration is successful. It is important that this entire process is followed by all the relevant stakeholders including impacted communities, local government and media partners. The community is further engaged on the effects of the crude oil and the best measures to use to fully restore the natural flow regimes, control erosion and improve biodiversity and water quality. Finally, there are always monitoring and verification plans in place to ensure successful restoration.

What are some of the biggest challenges and areas for advancement in your region?

The biggest challenge we have is when a spill impacts a site which is being restored after a previous spill. This is very frustrating. Another problem is a lack of adequate punitive measures against oil theft, pipeline vandalism, and other environmental offenders which ties into the insecurity in the region. There are environmental regulations and laws; but they inadequately support restoration and are not properly enforced due to corruption and nepotism. While some international oil companies generally follow recovery and remediation guidelines, many indigenous operators and companies are not committed to lowering their environmental footprints and restoring damaged areas. They do the minimum necessary to comply with the regulations. In addition, the government is not funding regulatory agencies well enough to carry out their function without fear or favoritism.

What are some of the things you're focusing on that sustain you?

I am trying to set up peer to peer environmental advocacy groups in secondary schools within the pipeline communities of the Niger Delta region in Nigeria. I have always maintained that you cannot have enough advocacy just as you need to continuously encourage and motivate people to do more to protect the environment. We need to do more; and it is my belief that when we constantly train and re-educate young people who are actively involved in illegal activities, they will turn a new leaf and begin to protect their environment. We are also looking at implementation of an afforestation program for crude oil impacted areas especially around crude oil pipeline rights of way which are common throughout the Niger Delta. This will also include alternative clean energy programs for rural women in the mangrove areas to minimize deforestation.

What are some things you think would benefit other practitioners?

First, I am operating in one of the most difficult regions as far as restoration is concerned where there are many obstacles and bottlenecks for restoration practitioners especially from unexpected places. However, some of the ideas and things that I feel would be beneficial to practitioners are the need for them to excel in stakeholders engagement and management and information sharing, advocacy and policy engagement, regulatory support, collaboration, maintaining total transparency, remote sensing tools, reference databases, how to access funding (which I am still learning), and good presentation and negotiation skills. These and other skills will be very useful to a practitioner especially those in my region and other developing nations.

This interview is featured through Practitioner Insider, a benefit offered to individuals certified through SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program. Practitioner Insider is a newsletter with tools, resources, and content catered to restoration practitioners across the world.

 

SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program issues professional certifications to qualified individuals working in the field of restoration, helping them to demonstrate their restoration expertise and advance their careers. To learn more about the program, including its requirements and benefits, please visit the CERP program page.

Could you introduce yourself and tell us more about your background and your career trajectory in the field of ecological restoration?

I am a full time Principal Research Scientist at Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) working on ecological restoration and biodiversity conservation projects. I joined KISR in 1973, where my research focused on native plants, desert ecology, biodiversity conservation, protected areas, revegetation, and restoration of degraded lands. From 2016 to 2021, I was appointed the Director General of KISR and was charged with the advancing research and development in the field of water resources, petroleum, food and agriculture, environment, and energy. I previously served on the SER Board of Directors in 2015 as the Asia Director and joined The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) the same year as a Counselor, Treasurer, and Research Fellow. 

I led the Kuwait Environmental Remediation Program (KERP) for the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) from 2011 to 2015, and  was appointed Division Director of Food Resources and Marine Sciences from 2000 to 2011. Through my collaborations with local and international organizations, I became Regional Councilor to IUCN for the West Asia Region and member of the Board of the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).

Since obtaining my PhD from the University of California at Berkeley in 1990, I have worked on remediation and restoration projects to restore and remediate damaged ecosystems with emphasis on arid environments, as well as conducting a major project on soil survey for the State of Kuwait. My research experience on plant ecology started in the early seventies after my graduation from Kuwait University with a double major in Botany and Chemistry.

What inspired you to join SER, and what do you value most about your membership?

The Society for Ecological Restoration has a national and international reputation for advancing scientific know-how and building capacity in ecological restoration. SER promotes its members, communities, and students to become more active in restoring degraded ecosystems following guidelines and policies to achieve sustainable goals, and encourages young people to become more involved and take part in restoration efforts. As a member, I benefit from SER by receiving publications, and attending world and regional activities such as conferences and workshops. I regularly receive announcements, notifications, and events from SER, which keeps me up to date on the latest research and best practices in the field. SER also gave me the opportunity to be recognized as Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP).

Dr. Samira Omar supervises a native plant farming system for restoration projects. Farmers were encouraged to produce mother plants for collecting seeds and for large-scale restoration projects, as a business model of ecological restoration.

How do you plan to use your skills and/or experience to strengthen SER?

I have ambitions to achieve positive outcomes in restoring damaged ecosystems worldwide, as well as controlling waste and pollution. Through SER, I will continue to encourage the use of native plants to reduce invasive species and control climate change impacts on ecosystems. My plans are to apply integrated restoration knowledge and programs that will not only address revegetation activities and policies, but also maintain vulnerable ecosystems and reduce further damage to our Earth’s ecosystems.

What about ecological restoration excites you the most?

I get excited when I see the success of the sustainable measures applied in restoring damaged ecosystems and the return of the ecological functioning of ecosystems. I find sharing knowledge and knowhow and learning from other people’s experience highly rewarding.

Could you highlight a particular project or initiative you've been involved in that you're especially proud of or passionate about?

I worked as a project leader on two projects that I am especially proud of: the Soil Survey for the State of Kuwait and the Environmental Remediation Program. The Soil Survey provided a complete GIS-based database on soil classification, distribution, and potential for irrigated agriculture for the State of Kuwait. Developing the Environmental Remediation Program was more challenging, because there were many different stakeholders and we had to demonstrate to the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) that restoration methods with native plants could be used to restore areas degraded by war. I am pleased to share that both projects were successfully implemented and completed on time.

Dr. Omar taking notes on a protected community of Rhanterium epapposum, which is vulnerable to extinction in Kuwait.

In your view, what are the most pressing ecological restoration challenges or opportunities that the field is currently facing, and how do you see SER playing a role in addressing them?

I think climate change and depletion of renewable natural resources are the most serious challenges that the world is facing. SER can play an important role in providing guidelines and policies, as well as, supporting capacity building for organizations and communities to help them mitigate the negative impacts of climate change and reduce depletion of resources. Water is the main source of life and methods for restoration with adequate use of water needs to be considered.

Where do you see opportunities for SER to grow its impact in the field?

SER has good opportunities to expand its reach in restoring forests damaged by fires and degraded arid lands. SER can and has successfully reached communities through its active chapters and sections to restore damaged ecosystems in different parts of the world. In addition, SER can expand its partnership with organizations and the United Nations environmental programs to achieve more at the international level.

Can you share some key lessons or insights you've gained from your work that you believe are important for the broader restoration community?

Working as a team and applying professional procedures are key to achieving successful outcomes.

Dr. Omar showing the success of a re-introducing Rhanterium epapposum with a temporary irrigation system in a degraded desert area due to military activities.

Are there specific ecological restoration principles or practices that you find particularly fascinating or effective, and how have you applied them in your work or projects?

Nature is fascinating, it responds positively to any scale of ecological restoration. When people start protecting nature and reintroducing native plants and wildlife to their original habitats, nature recovers rapidly.

What unique ecological restoration challenges and opportunities are associated with your region and how does the chapter address them?

Arid land ecosystems are severely damaged and degraded due to anthropogenic and climate change factors. Restoration of damaged desert ecosystems is challenging due to lack of water resources and pressure from overgrazing. The Middle East Region is also challenged by conflicts and war that cause land and water pollution. I have firsthand experience working through these types of challenges and have come to realize that to achieve sustainable remediation and restoration objectives, it is necessary to demonstrate cost-effective restoration measures to decision makers and to monitor their success on a long-term basis.

Desert landscape with dunes at the Nature Reserve in Kuwait, established with efforts from Dr. Omar.

What advice do you have for students or emerging professionals who are considering a career in ecological restoration?

Arid land ecosystems are severely damaged and degraded due to anthropogenic and climate change factors. Restoration of damaged desert ecosystems is challenging due to lack of water resources and pressure from overgrazing. The Middle East Region is also challenged by conflicts and war that cause land and water pollution. I have firsthand experience working through these types of challenges and have come to realize that to achieve sustainable remediation and restoration objectives, it is necessary to demonstrate cost-effective restoration measures to decision makers and to monitor their success on a long-term basis.

Can you share your vision for the future of ecological restoration? What role do you see SER playing in that future?

Ecosystems are continuously degrading due to urbanization and development. Ecological restoration and nature-based solutions are best practices for recovering damaged ecosystems and returning ecological functioning. My vision is that SER’s promotion and advancement of ecological restoration will continue for generations and will expand in providing services worldwide.

Dr. Omar led projects on monitoring plants and restoring damaged desert areas to demonstrate the potential of native plants in the large-scale restoration and remediation projects supported by the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC).

What’s something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know?

I love gardening and growing vegetables at home, and I enjoy needlepoint, knitting, and quilting when I have time. I also love art, photography, and writing children’s stories on environmental issues. I play hide and seek with my grandchildren, although it is exhausting sometimes! I also love cooking, making banana bread is my favorite.

What inspired you to pursue certification, and how has it impacted your career and/or work in the field of ecological restoration?

Since I am responsible for implementing several projects on ecological restoration in arid lands, it became necessary to acknowledge my experience with a certification from SER. After reviewing the procedures and requirements of CERP, I realized how important it is to pursue certification for promoting my career and improving my partnership with clients. I am pleased that I achieved this objective, as it is highly  rewarding.

In your view, what are the advantages of becoming a CERP, both for individuals and the ecological restoration profession as a whole?

CERP provides recognition to practitioners who practice ecological restoration worldwide. Certification guarantees that the practitioner meets the minimum requirements and acquired practical experience in ecological restoration. This proof of ecological knowledge and practical experience and understanding of principles and standards of ecological restoration, is essential to building trust and partnerships in the field.

Resting on rocks at the Nature Reserve of Kuwait, established with efforts from Dr. Omar. The reserve is about 330 km and hosts a diversity of ecosystems and plant communities.

What advice do you have for restoration professionals considering certification?

I highly recommend and encourage professionals to apply for CERP.

What is your vision for the continued growth and recognition of CERP certification in the field?

The program has shown success throughout the world and my vision is an increase in applications and continuation of the program for a long time.

Please tell us about your background.

I went to NC State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. I am originally from western Montana and spent a lot of time in the outdoors growing up and learned to respect the environment. When thinking about school and my future career I wanted to impact the environment and make it and my community better.

In college I started in nuclear engineering. However, I realized that it would take me into power generation or military applications and knew that was not the right fit for me. So I changed majors to environmental management in NC State’s natural resources department. It was applied work. I got an internship with Freese and Nichols where I worked on hydrologic and hydraulic modeling, site development, natural resources assessments, and stream restoration work. I also worked with protected species for Duke Energy as part of their Federal Energy Regulatory Commission compliance. Early on in my career, I realized that the stream work was where my passion lay.

After graduating, I went to work for Pond and Company. I began applying stream restoration practices to protect utilities. The work involved helping clients to see the benefit of using natural channel design over traditional channel armoring methods. Traditional armoring methods can protect the utilities but often degrade over time and result in detriment to the stream ecosystem.

I have worked with a broad suite of clients including non-profits, private utilities, and municipalities.

I have gone through the Rosgen stream restoration training. Dr. Dave Rosgen developed the approach to stream restoration known as Natural Channel Design. I have also gone through the US Forest Service Aquatic Organism Passage (AOP) training; a method which uses larger culvert structures to provide stabilized conditions, restores aquatic passage and improves habitat. The tendency with road crossings is to over-widen them, and this approach seeks to balance the sustainability of the road crossing with improvement to stream function and habitat.

What drew you to the ecological restoration field?

Growing up in Montana I observed a lot of intensive ranching and livestock practices. After moving to the east coast, our family farm was just downstream of the nearby city’s wastewater treatment plant. As the city grew, I saw their attempts to increase sewage treatment capacity while not addressing the negative impacts of the increased effluent. Witnessing the disregard for the environment from so many early on instilled my interest in improving the environment and the ways in which our communities and the environment interact.

Can you tell us about your current work?

Right now my major projects include stream restorations for Dekalb County, GA near Atlanta. One of the projects is located in a park that borders the South Fork of Peachtree Creek. The park area was previously a brownfield site from former asbestos production.

Another DeKalb County Project I am currently working on is Olmsted Linear Park - Deepdene Park – a historic park in eastern Atlanta where urbanization has resulted in stream degradation. The goal of both projects is to improve the stream, wetland, and floodplain resources while managing the impacts of upstream development and ensuring the ongoing integrity of the park itself.

Another set of projects I am involved with are several with the City of Winter Park, Florida where we are addressing infrastructure failures from past hurricane damage along stream systems.

I and other staff at our company have unique backgrounds that allow us to work with our clients to propose more ecologically sound solutions that also align with the clients’ goals.

What benefits does SER provide for you? How has being a CERP benefited you?

A real benefit of being a part of SER is the community. It has been really valuable getting a chance to engage with people across the world and understand their perspectives: how they want to approach restoration, how they have varying resources to address issues, how they engage with the stakeholders. It has been interesting working with the Marketing and Outreach Committee that there are members with very different backgrounds and hearing how conditions have changed in their industries and how attitudes have changed.

Having the CERP certification attached to my name has really given me a greater opportunity to talk about what SER does and what the organization stands for. I have been in project interviews and the potential client asks what CERP is, what is SER, and what value my association with the organization can provide for their project.

How do you apply SER’s standards and practices to stream restoration?

The standards that SER have produced are a comprehensive guide to how projects should be approached. It allows the practitioner to tailor the approach to the project needs and conditions. There is no cookie cutter way to approach restoration. We who are practitioners and project managers know you have to tailor your approach to the project. The practices also emphasize the need for adaptive management. The pieces of the project can change over time, and adapting to those changes is critical. The approach SER uses can be catered to a lot of different situations and stakeholder groups.

What are some of the biggest challenges and areas for advancement in stream restoration?

I still see stream restoration as being a pretty new industry. In the circles I interact with, people work to demonstrate how they are the best at what they do. We talk readily about our successes, but we don’t do a good job of talking about our failures. Most people will acknowledge that if they look back at older projects, they would do things differently based on what they know now. So there is room for improvement as we learn and experience more.

Another opportunity area would be more data sharing. Reference streams are very important for understanding what healthy or stable systems look like. However, you do not always have the resources to identify and collect data on reference systems. If data was being shared, practitioners could pull from that pool of information to improve projects.

I have hope that we can improve in these areas.

There is a new organization that has popped up in the last couple of years called River Share that is trying to create a space to share information. They are starting to hold technical meetings and conferences. They have had a meeting series where people can listen to talks and have conversations. They are also trying to create a space where people can share tools and resources across the industry.

A lot of the work that I do is based on the Rosgen or NC State methodologies. There is an effort to digitize reference reach data developed by Dr. Rosgen and publish it. However, some of the data is specific to certain regions and care has to be taken in its application.

What are some of the things you're focusing on that sustain you?

I spoke a little bit about this earlier. We as practitioners get really good at the science. But what is often forgotten about is the community aspect of what we do. I love that we get to be involved in all phases, the full cycle of the project. We as engineers and scientists are often less willing to be involved in the soft skills side – community and stakeholder engagement.

I have been encouraged by clients who really want to interact with the communities and stakeholders and make them a part of the project. If you get buy-in from the community, you will be so much more successful over time. You get people who want to help with the assessment, the planting, the post construction monitoring. They will let you know when intervention may be necessary. Seeing this more holistic approach and the buy-in really sustains me in what I do.

What are some things you think would benefit other practitioners?

I’ll reiterate that talking about our failures as well as successes is a vital piece to development in this industry. Also talking to people who do work outside of your normal frame of reference. We can not only improve restoration in our primary areas, like stream restoration for me, but also other types of projects. We are working on more pollinator work with energy clients. We can apply restoration principles from SER in areas other than those we are used to, to the wider scope of our work.

This interview is featured through Practitioner Insider, a benefit offered to individuals certified through SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program. Practitioner Insider is a newsletter with tools, resources, and content catered to restoration practitioners across the world.

 

SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program issues professional certifications to qualified individuals working in the field of restoration, helping them to demonstrate their restoration expertise and advance their careers. To learn more about the program, including its requirements and benefits, please visit the CERP program page.

Empowering Large-scale Ecosystem Restoration: LERS Board Election Results and Membership Survey

The power of restoration is in your hands! The new LERS board is thrilled to announce the results of their recent elections, bringing together a passionate group of individuals committed to making a difference in large-scale ecosystem restoration. In total, 11 Board members were elected by the LERS membership, all with a complimentary and diverse set of knowledge and skills in wetland, forest, grassland, agriculture, mine, and marine ecosystem restoration. 

Most importantly, we want to learn more about each of you - who you are, what you're working on, and your needs, questions or challenges in the realm of large-scale ecosystem restoration. Your voice matters. The more people answer our 7-question membership survey, the better we can assess the needs of our community.

As we move forward in 2024, let's stand together, united by our shared dedication to restoring and protecting the ecosystems on our common Earth.

-The LERS Board

SER-Natural Regeneration Network has hit the ground running

The SER-Natural Regeneration Network (SER-NRN) was formed in 2023 as a thematic section of SER. While members of the board are all busy practitioners or researchers, they have wasted no time initiating a few information-sharing activities and as a result the network is attracting high levels of membership.

The SER Regen Network’s activities in 2023

During 2023, the SER Regen Network held two educational events focused on natural regeneration, a launch webinar held in June, and a Symposium at SER2023 in September. As a final milestone, SER Regen Network’s website was launched at the end of 2023. A recurring theme for all four of these contributions - outlined in turn below - has been how natural regeneration approaches not only benefit nature but also benefit human communities, including Indigenous communities and farming groups. 

Launch webinar. In June 2023, the SER Regen Network held a launch webinar online. Each of the four speakers shone a spotlight on projects from Central America, Africa, India and Australia – all outstanding examples of harnessing natural regeneration in restoration. The webinar recording is available here.

SER2023 Symposium. In November 2023, the SER Regen Network held a Symposium at the virtual component of the SER2023 Conference. This shone a spotlight on case studies from Central America, Africa, India and Australia and generated some very helpful discussion on what terminology is being used in different parts of the world to convey our methodologies. The recordings of the four presentations can be accessed by members here - and the rich discussion can be accessed by all on the SER Regen Network website here.

Book chapter. Nine of the SER-NRN’s board members and collaborators co-authored a chapter on harnessing natural regeneration in restoration around the globe. This was published in the 2023 book ‘Ecological Restoration: Moving forward using lessons learned’ published by Springer which can be accessed through  the Springer website here.

SER Regen Network’s website launch and call for your case studies. The SER-NRN website aims to curate information on natural regeneration for researchers and practitioners, offering resources such as definitions, guidelines, learning opportunities, and case studies. This platform enables members to connect, share ideas and lessons, and find others who can provide feedback and suggestions for their own learning.

The examples and case studies page of the website is arguably the most important section to visit for two reasons. First, it serves as a gateway to published examples of people harnessing natural regeneration in restoration worldwide, including in the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia.

Regeneration after the Heber Dam was removed on Vancouver Island Canada. Left: July 2013. Dam area showing the rough substrate on the disturbed area surrounded by stands of red alder (Alnus rubra). Right: June 2017. Same area showing prolific regeneration of red alder along with 80 other species. The alder trees are starting to thin out while other species move in. (Photo by David Polster).

Second, this page features original case studies and stories on this topic. The Regen Network invites anyone interested in sharing their stories to submit them for consideration by the editorial team. Submissions should be made through the online submission form.

Regeneration of a long- cleared and grazed pasture in New South Wales Australia. Left: The dominant exotic grass after spraying but before burning. Right: Removal of grazing, spraying and burning plus regular follow-up spot spraying of weed resulted in unexpectedly high and prolific regeneration over a 3-year contract. While only three native species were recorded within the quadrats prior to treatment, the treatments saw extensive recovery of 35 species of native forbs, sedges and grasses (germinating from buried seed banks) and 7 species trees and shrubs (largely from seed rain).

We would love to hear from SER members about what you have seen or worked on through your own teams and landscapes. Please feel free to contact us at SERNRN@gmail.com.

Dr. Andre “Andy” Clewell will be celebrating his 90th birthday on 27 March, and SER Southeast and SER invite all members to wish him a very happy birthday. 

Andy’s Contributions to the Society

Andy’s impact on the ecological restoration field, and on the Society for Ecological Restoration, is immeasurable. He was instrumental in the founding of the Society in 1987 and served on the SER Board of Directors for its first 7 years. During two of those years from 1994 to 1995, Andy held the position as SER’s second and final President (after which SER shifted to having a Board Chairperson).

Andy proposed and wrote the initial draft of the seminal SER Primer on Ecological Restoration and the second draft in collaboration with James Aronson and Keith Winterhalder. Together, they facilitated its journey to completion and approval by the Science and Policy Committee of SER. The Primer provided an important foundation for SER’s International Principles and  Standards for the Practice of Ecological Restoration. Andy also contributed to much of the early groundwork for SER’s Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner program and served on the Editorial Board for the Society’s journal, Restoration Ecology.

Andy has been, and continues to be an integral member and contributor to the SER Southeast Chapter. Given his generous spirit, Andy received SER’s prestigious John Rieger Award, which recognizes those who have dedicated their time and skills to the advancement of ecological restoration and the development of the Society. He was also honored as SER’s first President Emeritus for leadership and commitment to the field.

Andy at the Tobe Gardens Quitman, in Georgia, USA for the annual SER-Southeast board meeting (December 2013).

Andy’s published contributions to the field of ecological restoration

Among his extensive body of work, Andy's significant contributions include serving as the lead author of the widely-utilized book Ecological Restoration, Principles, Values, and Structure of an Emerging Profession (2007), which was published as part of SER's Book Series by Island Press. 

The book was co-authored with James Aronson and is now in its second edition (2013) and available in several languages. Andy and James have collaborated on various influential papers, notably those focused on the restoration of natural capital, an ever-evolving assessment of the contribution of nature to the global economy. Much of his early ecological experience was earned as a Research Associate at the Tall Timbers Research Station in the Florida Panhandle near Tallahassee, during which time he authored a study of the Natural history, cytology and isolating mechanisms of the native American Lespedezas (Bulletin of Tall Timbers Research Station No. 6, January 1966). Andy investigating marsh gas in the Suwannee River Basin, Florida, USA (1977). In his spare time, Andy authored a voluminous report titled An Account of the Environments and Plant Communities of Northern Florida, West of the Suwannee River (funded by U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, Mobile District, Report No. COESAM/PDEI-86/001, 732 pp), which was reissued by Andy as Natural Setting and Vegetation of the Florida Panhandle (1997). The report is a comprehensive treatise on the natural setting of the Florida Panhandle, his long-time stomping grounds, including geology, physiology, soils and climate which collectively comprise and define the habitats and physical environments.

A poem dedicated to Dr. Andre “Andy” Clewell An Ecological Restoration Industry Icon and “A Boulder in the Pond of Life” Drop a Pebble A ray of light Passing thru this plane No word No reason No way to explain But it’s time to tell What I know very well It’s all about Love… That’s all I have to say It’s all about Love… That’s all I ask and pray Drop a pebble in a pond For all to hear Just a ray of hope Crossing thru this sphere Ripples expand Throw lots of pebbles Care not where they land Just trust they all settle Drop a pebble in a pond Don’t be derelict Who or what will respond You just cannot predict It’s all about Love… That’s how to show the way It’s all about Love… That’s how I live my day No way Ever think A pebble in a pond Won’t make a difference Just takes one throw Watch the ripples grow Their wake serves as offense Makes the world A better place For all of us In the human race Love is what it’s all about Ripples out to save the day Makes me want to stand and shout Guess that’s all I have to say… By: Jim Kelly, Vice-President, SER Southeast Chapter

Andy’s early life and career

Andy grew up in Hudson, Ohio, USA where he attended a prestigious private high school, Western Reserve Academy (WRA), where his father was head of the music department. Six decades later in 2012, WRA honored him with their Morley Science Medal for “playing a significant role in advancing the cause of ecological restoration as a means of sustaining the diversity of life on Earth”. Andy graduated from Oberlin College and then received his Ph.D. in Botany from Indiana University..

During his formative years, he was a wheelsman who steered a freighter carrying iron ore on the Great Lakes and served in the US Army Reserves artillery battalion during the Berlin Wall crisis. He also played the upright bass, performing in classical music and big band jazz ensembles.

For the first 16 years of his career, Andy served on the faculty at Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA where he became a tenured professor in biological science teaching botany. During his tenure, Andy authored the pioneering taxonomic key manual, Guide to the Vascular Plants of the Florida Panhandle (University Press of Florida, 1988), which is still used by botanists across the southeastern United States to this day. Andy discovered several new plant species which are named in his honor. Additionally, Andy played a pivotal role in establishing the university's international student center and spent almost two years as a Fulbright Fellow teaching in Honduras.

Andy conducting an inventory of plant species on restored pine savannah on MS Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge, Jackson County, Mississippi, USA (November 2010).

Later, Andy owned and operated his own specialty-niche environmental consulting firm for 22 years in peninsular Florida, USA. His firm planned and implemented countless restoration projects and conducted baseline ecological inventories and characterizations of reference ecosystems.

One notable project included the development and implementation of an ecological restoration plan for the first bottomland hardwood restoration of a stream ecosystem (Dogleg Branch) on phosphate-mined land in Central Florida. This site has been evaluated numerous times by government, NGO and private enterprises including this initial assessment by the American Society for Surface Mining and Reclamation (Forest Restoration at Dogleg Branch Phosphate-Mined and Reclaimed Land, Florida). This was a seminal project and is still studied as an exemplary model of ecological restoration of this kind. On top of this work, Andy prepared reclamation plans for gold mines in Ecuador.

Andy leading supplemental tree planting at The Nature Conservancy Deaton Preserve, George County, Mississippi, USA (January 2006).

Global work and more

Andy’s work is not only regional, it’s global. Outside of his home region, for instance, he and fellow SER member James Aronson helped mentor and accompany the first  the Restoration Ecology Masters program at Dimoria College Assam, India.

Additionally, from 2014 to 2019, Andy worked in China to promote ecological restoration based on the recovery of biodiversity rather than solely ecosystem services. He conducted training and supervised field work to reconnect fragmented habitat for Giant Pandas in the Wolong Nature Preserve in Sichuan, China in collaboration with Marc Brody, the founder of Panda Mountain and the US-China Environmental Fund. His latest book, Management of Ecological Rehabilitation Projects, co-authored with Professor Junguo Liu, has been published in both Chinese and English. 

Since his “retirement,” Andy has conducted numerous restoration workshops and given lectures on five continents. His countless activities, workshops, presentations, lectures, and mentorships, around the world have unquestionably created a wide ripple that will continue into the future.

Andy on a recent field trip expounding on ecosystem form and function at Lake Talquin State Forest, Florida, USA (January 2024).

In addition to his tireless work in the field of ecological restoration, Andy has been a driving force and is a national speaker for the Theosophical Society in America. His mentors include Milton B. Trautman (ornithologist, Ohio State University), Jacques Posell (principal double bass, the Cleveland Orchestra), and the Reverend Carol Parrish (Dean, Sancta Sophia Seminary). Andy is past President of the Mid-South Federation of the Theosophical Society in America and has helped organize and revitalize several Theosophical study centers. He continues to lecture nationwide on the nexus of spirituality, consciousness, and science.

How Andy is Celebrating his 90th Birthday

Currently, Andy spends much of his time enjoying the peace and tranquility of his rural home in Wetumpka, Florida, USA; some twenty miles west of Tallahassee. From his secluded attic nerve center, nestled in the hardwood forests of Bear Creek and the adjacent Lake Talquin State Forest, he continues his writings and discourse on ecological restoration and spirituality in collaboration with friends and colleagues around the globe. Suffice it to say that 90 years on this planet is a difficult task to encapsulate, the preceding is but a miniscule description. Andy continues to conduct workshops, lectures and takes extended hikes into the forest leading nature trail expeditions for all participants interested in botany, ecology, spirituality, consciousness, the physical structure of ecosystems and the ethereal construction of our universe.

Andy relaxing and having a late night discussion in his secluded attic nerve center in Wetumpka, Florida, USA (January 2024).

You are invited to contribute to this tribute of Andy’s extraordinary life accomplishments in the field of ecological restoration and spirituality by letting him know how much he is appreciated and adding your comments below.

To start off, can you share a bit about your background and research?

Yeah, sure. I'm a restoration ecologist and my interest is really driven by trying to answer the question of how and where can we best restore biodiversity. My lab focuses on a few different ecosystems. We focus on the world's most diverse ecosystems, tropical rainforests. I've worked for many years in Costa Rica. I'm now working more in Western Ecuador and also collaboratively with a nonprofit group called Green Again: Madagascar. Another part of my program involving many of my students is working in the world's most threatened ecosystem, which is temperate and subtropical grasslands. I started that work when I was at Missouri Botanical Garden between 2014 and 2019 and it has really transitioned over to Virginia especially.

How and why did you start a SER Student Association at Virginia Tech?

That's a great question. I didn't push to start a student association for the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER). It was students at Virginia Tech. They decided to form this student association and I've just been trying to support them. We started submitting the paperwork to create an Ecological Restoration major when I came to Virginia Tech in fall 2019, and it became official in December 2021. And now we have 50 students that are signed on for the ecological restoration major in less than two years. Two of the very first students to sign up for our new major began the process to form an SER Student Association.

That's fantastic. Did they express to you their rationale for wanting to start the association?

I think that they wanted to be associated with something bigger. They wanted to build on this major and link up to the SER at large.

VA Tech Ecological Restoration students seeding native species near Stroubles Creek, Blacksburg, VA

What are the benefits you think having this SER Student Association has for the students and for your program?

Well, there's a few. One is the SER membership benefits. That provides them journal access and access to the Job Board, which is pretty useful. Membership provides various networking opportunities, some of them online through the SER website, and then also discounted rates for the meetings for the for the international meetings like the one this year in Australia. I think maybe more important than that is the networking that we've been able to do with other student organizations. So far we've hooked up with the student association at Duke University and are working with them to figure out how we can get our two groups together. The two programs are kind of at a parallel point.

Can you describe some of the work you guys are doing together with your students?

It's a very new group, and the goals and projects of the group are still evolving. We've had a couple of organizational meetings. We've had a couple of field trips and are planning some more for this fall. And one of the big goals for this fall is just a tour of local sites. We’ve been talking with the Sustainability Coordinator for the Town of Blacksburg about participating with volunteers that have been managing an area of old growth forest behind the football stadium. We just want to go out and see where we can plug in.

VA Tech Ecological Restoration graduate student, Jordan Coscia, monitoring restored grassland

We have students supporting a primary area of research that is being managed by a PhD student. Her dissertation is broadly focused on restoration of grasslands in the Northern Virginia Piedmont. The research is focused on three phases: 1) Describing the floristics of Piedmont grasslands based on species inventories in >100 remnant grassland plots – mainly along roads and in rights-of-way (e.g., utility corridors); 2) Comparing plant community recovery in experimentally restored plots at three locations using sites studied in phase 1 as a reference system; and 3) Comparing plant diversity and composition in “working” grasslands, including pastures, hay meadows, and restored grasslands using sites studied in phase 1 as a reference system.

To address the second phase, four major treatments each with two management regimes have been replicated at three research sites: The Clifton Institute, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. We basically started with old cow pastures. All of the sites are now established, and this year we will really begin to capture data on the results. The students are doing critical core research in collaboration with this large network of people and organizations.

Another project involving students is looking at how we can integrate and improve diversity of grazing lands to incorporate native grasses and forbs to support native species while still providing forage for livestock. We call it the Bee-Friendly Beef project. There are many landowners in Virginia that can't necessarily do grassland restoration without getting some kind of a payback. I think this approach does a good job of providing some alternatives for landowners who don’t want to take land out of production but do want to support native grassland. This falls into the realm of Regenerative Agriculture, but I think it's also closely aligned with ecological restoration because it can be implemented between high-quality preserves and provide interstitial spaces between those preserves that support native plants and animals and allows them to migrate across and maintain viable populations.

Another project in Virginia is focused on woodland restoration in the Shenandoah Valley, particularly the effects of prescribed fire on federally threatened small whorled pogonia orchids. And that work is in collaboration with the Virginia Natural Heritage Program.

The next step will be to get funding for students to participate in the work Ecuador and Madagascar. In western Ecuador we are working in some of the most diverse forest in the world. It is a particularly interesting spot because we're talking about an area that's west of the Andes mountains up against the Pacific Ocean. There are places in the region that just get an unbelievable amount of rainfall, super, super wet. We're in a transitional zone so our area is not as wet as some places, and because it's separated from the Amazon rainforest by these tall mountains, it's an area with really high endemism, so there's lots and lots of species there that you can't find anywhere else in the world. We're working to reclaim areas that have been cleared for agriculture using a method that we developed in Costa Rica called applied nucleation. Instead of relying on natural regeneration, which can be slow and risky in the sense that sometimes it works quickly and sometimes it works very slowly, or planting an entire tree plantation, we're just planting small patches of trees, and the expectation is that we're attracting seed-dispersing animals, facilitating seedlings regenerating in the understory, by shading out some of the pasture grasses that are there, and creating a cool moist microclimate for trees to establish, like a little nursery. What we found in Costa Rica is that over a 10- or 20-year time span you can get essentially the same recovery in terms of biodiversity recovery as you get with a full tree plantation and much more than on average than you would get through natural regeneration, and it costs maybe a third or quarter as much as planting a full tree plantation.

In Madagascar, the questions we're also using applied nucleation, but the questions they are totally different because Madagascar has been isolated for 80 million years from either India or from Africa. It has been greatly impacted by invasive species and has unique nutrient and flora-faunal interactions that make restoration challenging.

Tropical forest restoration using applied nucleation in Ecuador

What are some of the things you're focusing on that sustain you?

For one thing, I'm focusing on the people that are doing restoration. You don't have to get very far under the skin of the restoration or the conservation movement to see that there are really smart, dedicated people all over the world that are fully committing themselves to restoring and conserving natural habitats.             

What are the things that you think would benefit other practitioners?

Well, something that's been on my mind lately that I think would benefit practitioners probably in most places is to have better access to native plant seeds. I think using volunteer networks, like master naturalists, for example, that might be able to help contribute to identifying populations of plants that are a priority for collecting for restoration projects and getting out and collecting some of those seeds. But really you need an organization to be able to create a pipeline where those seeds could be processed and cleaned and ultimately provided to practitioners.
Another thing that I think most practitioners could benefit from is more effectively tapping into volunteers as a resource. There was a great book that I read last year called The Healthy Nature Handbook edited by Justin Pepper and Don Parker. It's about restoration in and around the Chicago Wilderness. There are some wonderful chapters. It's a very accessible book and there's wonderful chapters in there about how to engage volunteers by getting them plugged in and giving them some autonomy right away in a restoration project. Letting volunteers pursue their vision for a given piece of land to the greatest extent possible. I think that's how volunteers get motivated and how you expand the base.

This interview is featured through Practitioner Insider, a benefit offered to individuals certified through SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program. Practitioner Insider is a newsletter with tools, resources, and content catered to restoration practitioners across the world.

 

SER's Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner (CERP) program issues professional certifications to qualified individuals working in the field of restoration, helping them to demonstrate their restoration expertise and advance their careers. To learn more about the program, including its requirements and benefits, please visit the CERP program page.