Concept
Ecological Enhancement can be described as processes to improve the ecological condition of a site on completion of a development or enhancement project. Projects can range from large tracts, even regions, to several acres. They may involve governmental entities, developers, and/or corporations to individual land owners and closely held operating entites. Purposes may range from mitigation, reclamation, and restoration to improving ecological qualitaty, aesthetics, and human well-being. In every respect, from very big to very small. We emphasize smaller, land owner projects here, but include aspects of larger projects for context.Motivation
ChicoryLane Model
The ChicoryLane Ecological Enhancement Model focuses on specific areas on a scale of one or several acres appropriate for individual land owners of small opeating entites. The goal is to improve ecological quality of the particular area. This is usually done by addressing a need or opportunity, identifying native plant species found in the area, and increasing or decreasing their numbers, as appropriate. New, normally native, species may also be introduced for identifiable purposes including increasing biological diversity.ChicoryLane Framework
We describe a framework of principles and processes that can help individual landowners, primarily, or small organizations, as well, to ecologically enhance properties they hold. We pay particular attention to the scale of projects - typically involving an acre or three - that can do significant ecological good but are not overwhelming or go on forever.ChicoryLane Projects
We are currently engaged in four ChicoryLane Projects, each adjoining at least one other project area. These four are all riparian, but each has a different ecological dimension. Together, they comprise a more extensive overall project and, we hope, will have a greater symbiotic impact. As we work in and mull these sites, we can already envision at least as many follow-on sites of similar scale but comprising different underlying ecological conditions.Developer Model
The concept of Ecological Enhancement predates ChicoryLane's efforts by some 60 years and our use of the term by 25. Interest and activity has been particularly strong in England since the creation of Natural England in 2006. This nongovernmental office has spured development of both guidelines and computational tools to record and calculate envionmental measures. Oriented toward large mitigation and restoration projects, these tools facilitate calculation of actual measues before, within planning, and after implementation to justify and evaluate such projects. Again, the strong emphasis is on large, often publically supported projects rather than ecological improvement. This said, someone strongly interested in their very sophisticated methodologies may find their work informative.
July, 2022
http://www.chicorylane.com/