Ecological restoration fails when it excludes the spiritual dimension of relationship.

Evidence

What we contemplate here is more than ecological restoration; it is the restoration of relationship between plants and people. Scientists have made a dent in understanding how to put ecosystems back together, but our experiments focus on soil pH and hydrology—matter, to the exclusion of spirit. We might look to the Thanksgiving Address for guidance on weaving the two. We are dreaming of a time when the land might give thanks for the people. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 963

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Feeds the grafting essay’s central metaphor — restoring relationship to land as a kind of grafting of severed links.
• XREF: Beyond the Thanksgiving Address (ch24-27), this is the crux concept bridging Eco-Justice Education and the legal-systems land rights thread: reparative relationship as legal/ethical framework. — connects to: Restoration’s enduring product is the human-land relationship, not ecosystem state — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1233; Ecological restoration must also repair humanity’s relationship with the world — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 709

Broader Connections

• Ecological restoration must also repair humanity’s relationship with the world #corroborates (0.95) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 709
• Restoration’s enduring product is the human-land relationship, not ecosystem state #corroborates (0.90) — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1233