A Restoration Practitioner’s Guide to the Restoration Gene Pool Concept

Abstract

Choosing plant materials for each desired species is often one of the most difficult steps in developing a restoration plan. The Restoration Gene Pool concept was developed to clarify the options available to the ecological restoration practitioner in terms of plant materials. We present a decision-making flowchart incorporating the issues delineated in the Restoration Gene Pool concept. We intend to provide practitioners with a framework to make objective and defensible plant materials choices in keeping with the objectives and philosophy of the restoration project. The flowchart consists of a series of boxes with single or multiple statements to be judged as true or false. The statements deal with issues such as genetic identity, plant metapopulation, functional guild, ecoregion, invasive weed presence, site soil and climate, endangered species presence, commercial seed availability, seed contracting potential, and availability of material bred for improved stress tolerance. Implementing the flowchart is a straightforward way to apply the Restoration Gene Pool concept to a particular project, but we encourage each practitioner to personalize the flowchart to make it as practical as possible for the situations that she or he most often encounters.