Faking it? The multiple meanings of environmental restoration near Twyford Down

Abstract

Resistance to the construction of a new motorway link through Twyford Down in the 1990s made the name of this small part of Hampshire, England, symbolic of contemporary environmental protest in Britain. But a little-known part of the story concerns the use of environmental restoration by proponents and opponents of the new road. This paper investigates how the 'restoration rhetoric' was used in the Twyford Down case and also how it was translated into practice on the ground. It shows that environmental restoration is neither necessarily good nor bad for environmental protection, but that its very plasticity can be moulded by different hands and contexts.he Twyford Down anti-road compaign in the early 1990s is often regarded as the cradle of contemporary environmental protest in Britain. The protestors occupied historically and environmentally important sites and, for a time, frustrated attempts to cut a new motorway link through them. National media coverage of these attempts and of the Dongas, the name taken by those who camped on site to describe their 'tribe', brought the passionate commitment of the environmental protestors to millions, and the resulting political alliances, networks and discourses went on to inspire groups like Alarm UK and Reclaim the Streets as well as specific anti-road protests elsewhere in England and Scotland. Although subsequent sites of resistance have been well researched and some activists have put down on paper their own stories about Twyford Down, 1 little has yet been published that academically interprets these events. I find this surprising, because Twyford Down stands now as an icon for the environmental movement, for threatened landscapes and for cultures of protest. As Jonathon Porritt suggests, 'Far from being the final battle, Twyford Down was but the first . . . Long after the Twyford Down campaign was lost, and the Dongas had been brutally routed, Twyford Down continues to work its magic as a symbol of opposition to cultural geographies 2002 9: 313-333

Restoring Walden Woods and the Idyll of Thoreau II: A Recent Historical Tracing of Changing and Renegotiated Restoration Goals

“…This weakness in existing literature has been pointed out by Hall (2005), as well as by Eden (2002), Higgs (2005), and Clewell and Aronson (2007), among others. It is Hall's understanding of nature myths, "those collective, often explanatory set of assumptions that people hold about the nature of nature" (2005, pg 10), and subsequent scrutiny of mythchanging-that "Only by switching myths can one justify different ways to restore" (2005, pg 233)-which is taken forward in this study, and of particular interest are the claims and, in some instances, tensions that are bound up therein.…”

Negotiating river restoration: The role of divergent reframing in environmental decision-making

“…As such, the concept of river restoration has received significant academic attention from both the natural and social sciences (for instance REF REF REF REF). Eden , 2002;McDonald et al, 2004;Newson and Large, 2006;Wharton et al, 2006;Hobbs and Cramer, 2008). In the case study that is presented used in this paper it is not entirely clear whether the management steering group class the particular intervention as 'restoration', although the broader pearl mussel conservation project, with which it is closely associated certainly has been referred to as a restoration project (Ref to web page or other project literature?).…”

“…This supports the purist (traditional) view that restoration is about re-establishing an ecosystem's 'natural' appearance and functions and returning it to some past, historical state, often prior to disturbance or damage (possibly pre-human) (Aronson et al, 1993;Jordan, 2003). Hence the restored system should be indistinguishable from the pre-disturbed ecosystem to all but the expert (Eden, 2002). However there is extensive debate in the literature about the ideals of this type of restoration.…”

“…In practice restorers acknowledge that restoration to a 'natural' state is rarely possible and that there are many other related interventions that seek to repair the environment but not necessarily return ecology/rivers to a historical or pristine state (Eden, 2002;Hobbs and Cramer, 2008). Wheaton et al (2006) found that during a survey of river restorers the most commonly held view was that restoration was used as a 'catch all' term for river management activities (46% of respondents).…”

“…environmental losses may be traded off against restored gains under the rhetoric of the overall 'stock' of natural capital for the next generation (Colwell, 1997;Eden et al, 1999). Indeed, Eden (2002) illustrates the plasticity of environmental restoration for Twyford Down and demonstrates how the project provided a space for contestation and a political and cultural resource on which different interest groups could draw depending on how they engaged with, and portrayed different rhetorics (environmental, historical, social, and economic).…”