This seminar by Economic Restoration engaged the CSU student chapter of the Society of Ecological Restoration. Decades of research and practice in ecological restoration have shed important light on the process of economic restoration. This includes the process of ecological succession, which shows that peak productivity occurs when some disturbance is allowed to liberate resources and provide opportunity for species (and businesses) that would otherwise be suppressed by others (e.g., a dense forest of one species of tree, or a community dominated by one large manufacturer).  Absent disturbance, succession proceeds in a manner that productivity declines, alongside diversity. In the process, resources are controlled by fewer and fewer species (or businesses).  This may be an ecological equivalent of the wealth gap occurring in the US and other highly developed nations around the globe.