Restoring Natural Areas = Economic Stimulus & Job Creation
by Matthew McDermott, New York, NY 
on 12.10.08
photo: Dean Forbes
Everybody and his brother in the green movement seems to be recommending that President-elect Obama make investing in clean energy and improving the United States’ infrastructure by making it more energy efficient and eco-friendly. The Nature Conservancy has taken the idea of green infrastructure one step more and is recommending that the federal government should also focus on rehabilitating natural areas.
Bob Bendick, Director of US Government Relations for The Nature Conservancy, responded to the following questions:
What Does Green Infrastructure Mean to The Nature Conservancy?
Green infrastructure involves restoration of natural systems to provide human and ecological benefits. For example, restored freshwater marshes hold water in times of flood, retain water in times of drought and filter out pollutants.Coastal marshes and oyster reefs are nursery grounds for fish and buffer the land against storms. Green jobs include those needed to design and restore natural systems and all sorts of other employment needed to move to a more sustainable, lower carbon economy.
Are Conservation and Economic Growth Compatible?
Not only are they compatible, they are interdependent. The nation’s rivers, coasts, and estuaries are linked to billions of dollars in economic productivity and provide important habitat and natural services.Unfortunately many natural areas have been in decline for years. We can produce a more sustainable long-term economy by reversing those declines and restoring those areas. Also, the development and deployment of less damaging technology can, in itself, be an important element of economic recovery.
The bottom line is: If our natural systems are suffering, our national economy will soon be suffering too.
What Sorts of Jobs Could Be Created by Rehabilitating Natural Areas?
Ecological restoration is a high-growth sector of our regional and national economy and more investment will provide significant job-creation. It’s an emergent, dynamic industry comprised of a variety of applied sciences and a diverse set of skills.Ecological restoration employs everyone from non-skilled laborers, to restoration design engineers, ecologists, landscape architects, hydrologists and even botanists who work in nurseries that offer local seedlings and other specialized plants for restoration.
The sector also employs lots of people working on the ground to do the physical work of restoration from heavy equipment operators to laborers.
A recent example of job creation through restoration are the jobs being offered to watermen in the Maryland blue crab fishery, which was declared a commercial fishery failure earlier this fall. Here, federal and state disaster aid is helping provide over 520 jobs to affected watermen, employing them to carry out oyster restoration work in the Chesapeake Bay.
Read the complete list of questions and answers at: The Nature Conservancy
Ecosystem Services
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I graduated with a degree in restoration ecology at the University of California, at Davis in 2003. I am unemployed currently, and hungry, but not as bad off as many others.
I would take a restoration ecology job in a heartbeat. Hopefully it would pay enough to cover my student loan payments and groceries. Heck, I don't want to sound greedy, but maybe I could finally afford some health insurance.
WHAT TO DO
I know that a green revolution is the way to save our planet and our economy. It would also aid the health of workers who would then be working in the field, instead of indoors. [As we have seen, health care costs are a major cause of the US financial crisis.]
HOW TO DO IT
I think regulations requiring all US companies to clean up all of their messes (whether they make them here or abroad) is the best way to create restoration jobs (and regulatory jobs). Of course, the cost will be passed onto the consumers of their products, but that will help consumers to make better environmental purchases simply by comparing prices.
I see this as a quick way to get everyone on board, including the poor, middle class, large corporations, and new companies (restoration companies).
Can we get Obama to stand firm and make this happen? YES WE CAN
I graduated with a degree in restoration ecology at the University of California, at Davis in 2003. I am unemployed currently, and hungry, but not as bad off as many others.
I would take a restoration ecology job in a heartbeat. Hopefully it would pay enough to cover my student loan payments and groceries. Heck, I don't want to sound greedy, but maybe I could finally afford some health insurance.
WHAT TO DO
I know that a green revolution is the way to save our planet and our economy. It would also aid the health of workers who would then be working in the field, instead of indoors. [As we have seen, health care costs are a major cause of the US financial crisis.]
HOW TO DO IT
I think regulations requiring all US companies to clean up all of their messes (whether they make them here or abroad) is the best way to create restoration jobs (and regulatory jobs). Of course, the cost will be passed onto the consumers of their products, but that will help consumers to make better environmental purchases simply by comparing prices.
I see this as a quick way to get everyone on board, including the poor, middle class, large corporations, and new companies (restoration companies).
Can we get Obama to stand firm and make this happen? YES WE CAN
I work in this industry and can say for sure that it could create massive amounts of work for many thousands of people, given proper funding. I'm surprised he didn't mention invasive species, it may be a touchy subject, and one that many people don't realize is a problem. Tons of work removing them though, buckthorn alone could take trillions of man hours to eradicate.
www.pizzo.info is my employer.