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  Shackelford Lab, Restoration Scientist
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Restoration Futures Lab

Our research group is lucky to work and live on the traditional, ancestral and unceded territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples, now known as the Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt. We acknowledge and respect their relationships to the land, and the relationships of the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples, which are alive and continuing to this day.

Based at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, the Restoration Futures Lab aims to advance our understanding of how to design and conduct successful restoration of ecological communities. Our research investigates the drivers of restoration outcomes, bringing together ecological theory with on-ground results to make restoration more predictable at all scales. We assess how functional traits, landscape context, and environmental variability shape the development of restoration sites, and how this can be generalized across ecosystems globally. Our work is community-centered and prioritizes integrating Indigenous-led work as much as possible.
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Design by W̱SÁNEĆ/Coast Salish emerging artist Sarah Jim.

connecting knowledge

Local and global scopes

With ambitious restoration global goals like the UN’s Bonn Challenge and the IUCN’s Restoration Initiative, the UN Decade of Ecosystem Restoration, and an ever-increasing amount of degraded landscapes worldwide, restoration is increasingly being turned to as a global solution for broad conservation and societal concerns. To meet these needs, restoration science will need to share knowledge and discovery across boundaries, and conduct research in collaboration with an international community of scientists and practitioners. Restoration is inherently a place-based effort, however, and must meet the needs of the local communities. Our work bridges across scales, linking locally connected projects and partnerships with global networks and knowledge.
See our projects

connecting people

Research group

Our people are the best! Our group is composed of active, excited students and research partnerships that guide the questions we ask and the projects we tackle. Each one of our members and collaborators brings a unique perspective into the group, and boy do we love to share those perspectives with each other. It makes for broad thinking, and a common enthusiasm driven by our shared passion for our work.
Meet our people
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We work on the traditional territories of the lək̓ʷəŋən peoples. The Songhees and Xʷsepsəm/Esquimalt, as well as the W̱SÁNEĆ peoples have deep, historical relationships with the land that continue to this day. Most of our group are uninvited settlers here. We are committed to deepening our understanding of how we can assist in the movement of reconciliation, dismantling the systems that continue to cause harm, and honoring the traditional stewards that have shaped this land.
  • Home
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    • People
    • Grasslands
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    • Forests
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  • Behind the Science