Ecosystem restoration has emerged as an integral part of global conservation strategies. The re-establishment of healthy ecosystems complements the protection of existing natural areas, but meeting goals of sustained biological diversity and ecosystem function in restorations is a major challenge. Historically, restoration projects and goals have focused on re-establishing plant communities under the assumption that most other organisms, particularly consumers, would recolonize sites passively. Other than cases where high-profile species of conservation concern are released, little is known about how consumers re-establish following vegetation restoration. This knowledge gap is also important because consumers contribute to and influence a wide range of critical ecosystem functions and services such as primary production, nutrient cycling, pest control, and pollination. Examining these processes from a community perspective, and understanding the contributions of consumers to restored ecosystem function is necessary for comprehensive evaluations of restoration success. This Organized Oral Session brings together ecologists studying a variety of consumer communities in different restored ecosystems, and includes projects that go beyond traditional community metrics, such as including phylogenetic or functional perspectives. Speakers will address both the process of community re-assembly and the interactions among species that colonize and establish populations in these systems. By relating these communities to the ecosystem functions that they influence, we hope that common themes will emerge linking restoration management, community assembly, and functions driven by the traits of those communities.