A Farewell Message from JEED Founding Co-Editor in Chief, Marc Beutel

As announced at the 2025 AEES Conference this May, I have stepped down after completing my 3-year term as founding Co-Editor in Chief of our society’s diamond open-access journal, the Journal of Ecological Engineering Design (JEED). I leave the journal in the capable hands of JEED Editor in Chief, Sara McMillan, the AEES JEED Committee, and the University of Vermont Press. I will continue as an Associate Editor and past Editor in Chief, and I will judiciously peer review draft manuscripts when called upon.

Our society’s journal has had great success in its first full publishing year, with around a dozen journal articles published, pending publication, or in peer review. This effort was truly an experiment in self-design—an important capacity of natural systems and a fundamental concept in ecological engineering. Colleagues brought together their perspectives, goodwill, and precious time, and like a well-engineered ecosystem, a functioning JEED was born!

This journal will continue functioning and flourishing as long as we, the AEES membership, keep actively supporting and nurturing it. I encourage you to join the AEES JEED committee, become an Associate Editor, submit manuscripts for peer review, and serve as a peer reviewer when invited. I especially ask the Yodas of the ecological engineering universe to submit an JEED-I: INSIGHTS in Ecological Engineering paper, which highlights targeted research and science communications focused on compelling INSIGHTS in the field. We need your wisdom and experience formally recorded for posterity. I also call on the landscape architects in our ecological engineering community to submit Design Research Portfolios: presentations of original ecological engineering research with a visual emphasis on the design approach, process, and results. This was a key inspiration for starting the journal and, to date, it is an untapped resource.

With the climate change crisis unfolding before our eyes, the need for ecological engineering is more critical than ever. A recent article in Times Higher Education highlights this fact. As noted in the article, “ecosystem restoration has risen to the top of the political agenda.” And ecological engineers are needed to turn political promises into nature-based solutions to combat and adapt to climate change.

Journals like JEED are vital to sharing—without paywalls or authorship fees—critical research, case studies, and insights related to the effective design of nature-based solutions and the protection and restoration of ecosystems. The stakes are high and time is of the essence. It’s an exciting time to be an ecological engineer!

Marc Beutel
University of California, Merced

Banner photo of Merced, California, United States, by Akhilan E on Unsplash