Dr. David Casagrande
eco-restoration
STEPS Building, Room 436
Lehigh University
1 West Packer Ave.
Bethlehem, PA 18015
Tel: (610) 758-2672
Ecological restoration provides an opportunity to break down the cultural barrier that separates humans from non-human ecosystems. We call this “cultural-ecological” restoration. This is especially relevant in urban areas where the culture-nature divide is most pronounced. Restoration also provides opportunities to conduct experiments on our relationships with non-human systems. Since 1995, I’ve been working with a team to promote and study the restoration of the West River in New Haven, Connecticut. This work was originally funded by NOAA’s Sea Grant program. We study how water quality, vegetation, fish and birds are changing, but also the way people who live in neighborhoods experience and interact with these changes. We compare our observations to neighborhoods where ecological restoration is not occurring. Our work promotes economic development and social healing in low-income neighborhoods, and includes development of an environmental magnet school. We have also compared our results to cultural-ecological restoration in other areas, such as Hopi tribal lands. The flood mitigation work I do along the Mississippi River is cultural-ecological restoration on a grand scale. Proactive mitigation requires restoring a human relationship with the river that allows for human identity and social relations to flourish in cooperation with the river’s dynamics and natural ecosystems, instead of attempting to dominate nature: a strategy that has failed tragically.
As a result of my experiences, I’ve called for a new definition of “nature” in which ecosystems include human social systems. “Re-naturing” means that both cultural and ecological processes must be included in restoration so that human and non-human systems can co-evolve and continuously adapt in cooperation with each other to external changes. In the dawning age of the anthropocene, neither humans nor non-human nature should be considered dominant over the other.
How my research is funded
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Current Positions
Professor of Anthropology, Lehigh University
Dept of Sociology/Anthropology
Teaching Faculty, Environmental Studies
Research Faculty, Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience
Faculty Affiliate: Cognitive Science and Latin American/Latino Studies
Lehigh University Representative to the United Nations
Degrees
Ph.D., University of Georgia, Ecological Anthropology
Master of Forest Science, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
B.S., Geography, Southern Connecticut State University
Languages
ENGLISH - primary, SPANISH - secondary, TZELTAL (Maya) - intermediate, GERMAN - ich bin ein beginner
"An open mind requires an open heart."