Edmonds Community College
IN-4: Innovation 4

Restoration Horticulture Associate's Degree

The Restoration Horticulture degree program at Edmonds Community College remains a unique, one-of-kind program among community colleges in the U.S. The need for such a program is growing at an alarming rate. Human beings -- now a geophysical force on the planet like no other -- appropriate large volumes of Earth's resources and are polluting what remains. As human degraded lands, habitats, and ecosystems come to predominate on the Earth, restoration work will become a more critical component of a sustainable society. Restoration Horticulture is a key component of that work.

As a subset of Restoration Ecology, it became clear that Restoration Horticulture fills an important gap in that practice which is so heavily dependent upon botanical remediation. Through the Horticulture Department advisory committee and direct correspondence, professionals in the field of Restoration Ecology recommended that restoration horticulturists are trained at EdCC in innovative revegetation techniques to help restore disturbed and degraded land. They also recommended that these students be trained to use landscaping techniques such as green roof, bioswale, urban forestry and other low impact development solutions to mitigate the effects of urbanization.