Sue Galatowitsch: A pioneer in ecological restoration education

In June 2025, Susan Galatowitsch, PhD, will retire from the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, closing a chapter on a career that has profoundly shaped the field of ecological restoration. Over her 32 years at the University, Galatowitsch has not only advanced restoration science through research and practice but has also cultivated a generation of restoration professionals through her groundbreaking course, ESPM/HORT 5071: Ecological Restoration.

When Galatowitsch first offered the course in 1995, ecological restoration was still a fledgling discipline. “There were very few publications on restoration at the time,” she recalls. “We were building the field as we taught it.” What began as a bold experiment in interdisciplinary education has since become a cornerstone of restoration training in Minnesota and beyond.

A course ahead of its time

Galatowitsch was hired in 1993 with a joint appointment in Landscape Architecture and Horticulture. She began teaching landscape architecture courses in 1994 and launched ESPM/HORT 5071 the following year. The course, now cross-listed in Horticulture and Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management (ESPM), was among the first of its kind in the U.S.

Designed as a survey course, it draws students from a wide range of disciplines — plant sciences, natural resources, engineering, and landscape architecture. Typically, two-thirds of the class are graduate students, and one-third are undergraduates. The course has also been taught internationally, including at the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

From the outset, Galatowitsch emphasized real-world application. Early students conducted interviews with practitioners on topics like mangrove restoration, leading to the creation of the Restoration and Reclamation Review, an online journal that ran for a decade and is now archived in the University of Minnesota Library System. In the early days of the internet, it became a surprising hub for restoration knowledge, cited in newspapers and magazines around the world.

From wetlands to watersheds

The course has evolved alongside the field itself. In 1995, students worked on an 8-acre wetland restoration project at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Today, they study complex, large-scale efforts — restoring entire river systems, reclaiming 20,000 acres of grassland in northern Minnesota, or addressing contamination in urban waterways.

Galatowitsch’s teaching methods reflect this complexity. Students learn to assess ecological degradation, identify restoration goals, and design interventions that are ecologically sound and socially informed.

Adapting and innovating

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Galatowitsch adapted the course to maintain its hands-on, collaborative spirit. Lectures moved online, freeing up class time for group exercises. She created audio tours of Twin Cities restoration sites so students could visit independently, then produce video blogs with questions for project managers, who later met with the class to respond in person.

“We are always focused on what you do with the information and how you make sense of whether it’s working or not,” she explains. “We start by building a toolbox of skills and later in the course work on planning, decision-making, and goal setting.”

This emphasis on applied learning has made the course not only memorable but transformative. “It’s an intense, action-packed course with a lot of teamwork,” Galatowitsch says. “That’s part of what makes it so effective.”

A global perspective

While the course focuses on the Upper Midwest, it also includes global case studies from Asia, Australia, South Africa, and New Zealand. Galatowitsch’s own research has taken her around the world, including two years in Australia where she studied mine site and marine restorations. These experiences informed her 2012 textbook, Ecological Restoration, which is now used internationally and features case studies from both Minnesota and abroad.

One such example is the restoration of the Minneapolis Chain of Lakes, a project that involved extensive community engagement and watershed modeling to reduce pollutants and restore swimmable water quality. Another is the Skjern River project in Denmark, where farmers and recreational fishers collaborated to restore an Atlantic salmon fishery.

Building capacity for the future

Galatowitsch sees her role as preparing students to meet the rapidly evolving demands of the restoration field. “I want students to leave this course with the confidence and skills to take on restoration work in their careers,” she says. “That means staying current with the science, understanding the social dimensions, and knowing how to collaborate.”

To that end, students interact with six to 10 practitioners each semester, learning how to work on interdisciplinary teams and build professional networks. She also maintains a robust network to help students find internships and jobs, and often hears from alumni years later. One former student now works on sand dune restoration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; another surprised her at BP’s Anchorage office during a site visit in Alaska.

“I’ve had the honor of knowing Sue for over 25 years. Over that time she’s been a teacher, mentor, colleague, and friend, and had a significant influence on the success of my conservation and teaching career,” said Dan Shaw, an adjunct professor at the U of M and senior ecologist/vegetation specialist at the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources.

“Sue prioritized guiding the next generation of professionals and preparing them to address our growing environmental challenges. She taught us the value of being an effective mentor through dedicating time and energy, and caring for the success of students,” said Shaw. “Through her Ecological Restoration class, collaboration with many conservation partners, and guiding students, Sue played a significant role in making Minnesota a national leader in the field of ecological restoration.”

A lasting impact

Many alumni of ESPM/HORT 5071 have gone on to influential roles in ecological restoration, both in Minnesota and beyond. One such alum is Tory Christiansen, founder and CEO of Landbridge Ecological in St. Paul, Minnesota. Several of his employees also took Galatowitsch’s course, reflecting its wide-reaching influence.

“I’ve known Susan since my time in graduate school at the University of Minnesota in the early 2000s. I came into the Landscape Architecture program with several years of practical field experience in ecological restoration, looking to grow professionally and transition from field work into more strategic and design-oriented roles. During my graduate studies, I took Susan’s ecological restoration course. She quickly recognized that I had some background in restoring prairie, wetland, and river ecosystems — but also made it clear that there was a lot more for me to learn,” said Christensen.

“Susan had very high expectations for her students and brought out the best in them. I was surprised by how rigorous her coursework was and how much I still had to grasp. Her classes were no joke. She wasn’t afraid to challenge you, especially if you were coasting or relying too much on past experience. She pushed me — and many others — to rethink what it really means to restore an ecosystem. That humility she instilled in me sparked a lasting sense of curiosity and a drive to continually improve my understanding of the field,” said Christensen, adding that she has shaped generations of professionals, including many of his current staff at Landbridge Ecological. “Her influence is woven deeply into the work we do. Each of them has their own ‘Sue story,’ echoing the same mix of challenge, inspiration, and lasting impact that she brought to all her students,” he said.

Galatowitsch estimates she’s taught around 800 students over the years. “People will pop up as alums of this course,” she says. “It’s a testament to the richness of the field — how many different ways you can go about putting yourself into this realm.”

Accountability and adaptation

Since the late 1980s, Minnesota’s Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund  (ENRTF) has invested millions of dollars in restoration. Galatowitsch instills in her students a sense of responsibility for how public funds are used. “There’s a high level of accountability for the students leaving this class,” she says. “They need to feel accountable for how the money is used and the results on the ground.”

In recent years, climate change has become a central theme in the course. “Now we make decisions within the context of how the climate is changing — what will forests be like in 50 years? How is hydrology impacted by droughts and floods?” she says. “That wasn’t part of the course until the last decade, but now it’s essential.”

A career rooted in restoration

Galatowitsch’s own journey into restoration began in the mid-1980s, when she evaluated wetland restorations under the 1985 Farm Bill, the largest such program in U.S. history. Her PhD research at Iowa State University focused on what was working and what wasn’t in those early efforts. That experience laid the foundation for her teaching and research at the University of Minnesota.

She sees her teaching and research as deeply intertwined. “What I gained was incredible insights that allowed me to frame my research questions in a really interesting way,” she says. “It also gave me a role in the restoration network around the region. I was connected by teaching the course with an overall role in restoration in Minnesota.”

A grateful goodbye

As she prepares to retire, Galatowitsch reflects on the course’s enduring impact and the community it helped build. “What’s special for me as a professor is to have been fortunate to land on this course as part of my U of M career,” she says. “I’m grateful.”

Her legacy will live on not just in the textbook she authored or the projects she’s influenced, but in the thousands of students she’s inspired — students who now lead restoration efforts across the globe, carrying forward the spirit of collaboration, curiosity, and care that defined her teaching.