Ecosystem restoration has existed as a nascent niche study for at least 70 years, but it didn't really pick up ......... until the practice of environmental mitigation brought serious dollars into the picture.

As ecosystem restoration grew into an industry, the demand for quality standards and ......... research grew.

During this period, there was a lot of debate over its .........: is it an art, a science, an industry, or all three — or is restoring ecosystems playing God?

Should we try to restore a system back to a certain point in time that we deem to be ........., or should we merely try to restore the health of its underlying systems, so it can pursue whatever trajectory is appropriate for current circumstances?

In all of this, there's been much emotion, much soul-........., much business, much science, much poetry, and much politics.

The English language has over three times as many synonyms for restoration as it does for new development, maintenance, and conservation combined: that should tell us something about how important the renewal portion of the natural lifecycle is to our ..........

An economy that's based primarily on ......... — in a country with finite borders — is a strategy that can only lead to depauperization, degradation, and war.

Nowadays, the growth of ecosystem, watershed, and fishery restoration industries, budgets, and sciences far ......... the growth of their counterparts related to extraction of virgin resources.

So why are our trade schools and universities still ......... out skills and degrees that don't address the fastest-growing sector of the economy?

For the first time in human history, we can put ......... numbers to the value of the damage of environmental transgressions; NOAA has pioneered the application of this trend by applying a three-stage fine to those who destroy turtle grass beds in Florida.