All routes

Restoring a whole landscape

Working at catchment scale — reading the land, clearing what blocks it, and proving it worked.

Restoration
  1. 01
    Restorationist surveying a hillside, noting slope, drainage, and existing vegetation
    Restoration4384 min

    Reading the Land: Site Assessment for Restoration

    How to interpret slope, water flow, vegetation patterns, and soil indicators to build a restoration plan grounded in what the land tells you.

  2. 02
    A hand-drawn site map showing contour lines, drainage paths, and pooling zones in coloured pencil
    Restoration5125 min

    Water Mapping: Find the Leverage Points Before You Dig

    Where it pools, where it cuts, where it disappears. Map the existing water flow before any earthworks and the right interventions become obvious.

  3. 03
    A dense stand of invasive knotweed crowding out native vegetation along a riverbank
    Restoration2306 min

    Invasive Species: Control Without Scorched Earth

    Triage before removal, why the gap you leave matters more than the plant you kill, and the control methods that hold over a decade.

  4. 04
    A wooded strip of trees and rough vegetation running along both banks of a small river
    Restoration3956 min

    Riparian Buffers: The Strip That Protects the River

    Vegetated margins along watercourses — how wide they need to be, what each zone does, and why they are the highest-return restoration per hectare.

  5. 05
    Blanket bog with pool systems and sphagnum moss recovering after ditch blocking
    Restoration3475 min

    Peatland Restoration: Rewetting the Largest Carbon Store on Land

    Why drained bogs emit carbon for centuries, how ditch blocking and sphagnum reintroduction work, and why planting trees on peat makes it worse.

  6. 06
    Species-rich restored grassland in flower with mixed forbs and native grasses
    Restoration1966 min

    Grassland Restoration: Rebuilding the Least-Protected Ecosystem

    Prairie, steppe, and species-rich grassland — why lowering fertility matters more than adding seed, and how to get diversity back into a rye grass field.

  7. 07
    Cracked and curling dry mud stretching across a drought-stricken plain
    Restoration1406 min

    Dryland Restoration: Zai Pits, Half-Moons, and Farmer-Managed Regeneration

    The low-cost techniques that reversed desertification across the Sahel — planting pits, contour bunds, and protecting the root systems already underground.

  8. 08
    A mature street tree in a wide planted verge shading a pavement and parked cars
    Restoration5087 min

    Urban Forestry: Trees in the Hardest Place to Grow One

    Soil volume, heat islands, and species diversity — why street trees die young and what actually keeps them alive to maturity.

  9. 09
    Field measurement of tree diameter with a tape during a forest carbon survey
    Restoration0645 min

    Carbon Accounting: Measuring What a Project Actually Stores

    Additionality, permanence, leakage and baselines — why most tree-planting carbon claims overstate, and what credible measurement looks like.

  10. 10
    A restoration site plan with budget spreadsheets and cost breakdowns on a table
    Restoration3916 min

    Restoration Economics: What It Costs and Who Pays

    Realistic cost ranges, why maintenance is the line item that gets cut, and the funding structures that keep projects alive past year three.

  11. 11
    A restorationist recording species data on a clipboard beside a permanent photo point marker
    Restoration2973 min

    Monitoring: Track What Works

    How photo points, quadrats, and soil tests turn a restoration project from a gamble into a learning system you can hand on.