The Management of Dissonance in Nature Restoration

Nature restoration is far from a neural undertaking. Just like any other type of heritage production, it can be the source of dissonance—‘our’ nature is not necessary ‘their’ nature. Often this dissonance is managed in ways, which are not particularly sensitive to site-specificity. As exemplified by the Skjern River Restoration Project (1999-2003), one interpretation of the landscape sometimes suppresses other valid interpretations, neglecting its diverse history. Landscape architecture might, however, provide an alternative approach to nature restoration that is more site-specific, allowing for multiple interpretations to coexist. Indications can be found in the Re-naturalization of River Aire (2002-2015)—a restoration project, which reveals approaches that could be labelled landscape architecture specific.