This paper summarizes current thinking regarding ecological restoration from an ecosystem management point of view. The intended audience is natural resource professionals, natural resource interest groups, and interested members of the public. We discuss ecological restoration concepts in the context of three ecological restoration efforts with which we have been involved and which are particularly important to contemporary public land management: ponderosa pine ecosystems, forest ecosystems of the Western Hemlock Zone of the Pacific Northwest, and tidal wetlands of the Northeast. In discussing these examples we emphasize scientific principles and concepts fundamental to ecological restoration. We close our paper with a discussion of ecological restoration and human habitat needs
