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 RESTORE is a weekly e-bulletin, published by SER International, linking you to the latest, breaking news stories from around the world keeping you up-to-date on a wide variety of topics related to ecological restoration including the latest funding opportunities. RESTORE is free to SER International members and can be subscribed to for only $20/year by visiting: www.ser.org/content/restoration_network.asp. |
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Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration
Minnesota: Public Comments Sought on Wright County Wildlife Restoration Project
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is accepting public comments through June 18 on the Environmental Assessment Worksheet (EAW) for the proposed restoration of Pelican Lake, a 4,000-acre designated wildlife management lake in Wright County near Albertville and St. Michael.
http://news.dnr.state.mn.us/index.php/2008/05/20/public-comments-sought-on-wright-county-wildlife-restoration-project/
Michigan: Coguaiak Prairie Planting at Fort Custer Recreation Area on May 31
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Stewardship Unit will be holding a special volunteer stewardship workday at Fort Custer Recreation Area on Saturday, May 31, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to plant prairie wildflower seedlings.
http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/3829
Texas: Small Acreage Land Management Workshop Offered
For more than a century, rural Texas land has been owned mainly by farm and ranch families who lived there. In recent decades, the countryside has been fragmented into smaller tracts owned increasingly by former urban dwellers or absentee owners seeking closeness to the remaining pastoral lands of Texas. A workshop to be held June 7 will help West Texas landowners learn more about managing for wildlife habitat on smaller properties between two and 2,000 acres.
http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/3872
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People in the News
Illinois: Collier Lodge, Wetlands Restorations Top Wish List
The Hodsons have a Kouts mailing address and a 150-acre back yard. John doesn't mow much grass; he has been known to burn it. "I've planted native grasses," Hodson begins. "Periodically, you need to do prescribed burns to eliminate invasive species and restart the native grasses. "Besides my involvement with Kankakee Valley Historical Society, I'm working toward developing a wildlife area on the property east of the Collier Lodge. Two years ago, I entered into the wetland reserve program and placed 100 acres into the WRP. Previous to that, I entered 10 acres in the conservation reserve program. Native grasses were planted in both programs."
http://www.post-trib.com/news/manes/954453,salt.article
Conservationists Lament Departure of Brazilian Minister
The sudden resignation of Brazilian Environment Minister on 13 May has been greeted with shock and regret by the conservationist community. "This is a clear sign that environmental issues are not in the agenda of the government", said Denise Hama, WWF-Brazil's Secretary General.
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36468
Billion Tree Campaign Flowers into Seven Billion Tree Campaign
The UN's campaign to plant one billion trees has been so successful that it was expanded Tuesday to become a Seven Billion Tree Campaign. In just 18 months, the original Billion Tree Campaign has inspired the planting of two billion trees, double its original target. The effort is intended to avert rapid global warming by planting trees to absorb the main greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Deforestation accounts for over 20 percent of the carbon dioxide humans generate. Trees also keep precious rainwater from running off the land and shelter wildlife to combat the ongoin loss of biodiversity.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/may2008/2008-05-14-02.asp
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| New Books & Articles
Environmental Protection Vital to Reducing Natural Disaster Impact
Environmental degradation is a key factor turning extreme weather events into natural disasters, a new WWF report has found. Natural Security: Protected Areas and Hazard Mitigation, prepared with environmental research group Equilibrium, examines in detail the impacts of floods in Bangladesh (2000), Mozambique (2000 and 2001) and Europe (2006), heat waves and forest fires in Portugal (2003), an earthquake in Pakistan (2005) and the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004) and Hurricane Katrina in the USA (2005) in illustrating the natural disaster prevention and mitigation potential of environmental conservation.
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/36564
The Forgotten Infrastructure: Safeguarding Freshwater Ecosystems
The water strategies of the 20th century helped to supply drinking water, food, flood control and electricity to a large portion of the human population. These strategies largely focused on engineering projects to store, extract and control water for human benefit. Indeed, it is hard to fathom today's world of 6.6 billion people and more than $65 trillion in annual economic output without the vast network of dams, reservoirs, pumps, canals and other water infrastructure now in place. These projects, however, have often failed to distribute benefits equitably and have resulted in the degradation, or outright destruction, of natural freshwater ecosystems that in their healthy state provide valuable goods and services to society. As water stress and the risks of climate change deepen and spread around the world, policies and strategies designed to meet human needs, while protecting ecosystem health, will become increasingly critical to human well-being.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1384468/the_forgotten_infrastructure_safeguarding_freshwater_ecosystems/
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| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Green Economics: How Do You Value the Environment?
Is the environment best served-or served at all-by economics? Strange as it sounds, especially when the Republican presidential candidate is offering climate-change stump speeches that appear cribbed from an environmental economics syllabus, that debate is rattling around politics, academia and the blogosphere these days. The gist of the argument boils down to this: Are environmental goods-be they polar bears, tropical forests, or clean air-best preserved with a dollar sign on them? Or does the attempt to put a price on everything lead to knowing the value of nothing?
http://blogs.wsj.com/environmentalcapital/2008/05/15/green-economics-how-do-you-value-the-environment/?mod=WSJBlog
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Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
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| Agro-Ecology
Vandana Shiva: Why We Face Both Food and Water Crises
One aspect of the inconsistency is between the principles of Gaia, the principles of soil, the ecology, renewability, how the atmosphere cleans itself and the laws of the global marketplace. The global marketplace is driven by the World Bank and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the illogic of so-called "free trade," which is totally not free. [The result of this incompatibility] is the current food crisis: The more agriculture is "liberalized," the greater the food scarcity, the higher the food prices and the more people will go hungry. Never has there been this rate of escalation in food prices worldwide as we witness now with the global integration of the food economies under the coercive and bullying force of the WTO.
http://www.alternet.org/water/85433/
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China: Sustainable Development of an Agricultural System Under Ecological Restoration
Using China's advanced eco-agricultural model for Baiquan County, Heilongjiang Province, extensive statistical data and original information were collected. Based on dynamic analyses of economic features of the agricultural system and ecological restoration and rehabilitation, the Emergy theory was used to study production efficiency and sustainable developmental dynamics of the agricultural eco-economic system in an ecological rehabilitation time series (1980-2000). The objectives were to explore the research concept on quantification of agricultural effects of regional ecological restoration and rehabilitation, and to provide a scientific basis for planning of harmonious socio-economic development in this and similar regions. The results show great achievements in economic development and ecological reconstruction of the county.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1386505/sustainable_development_of_an_agricultural_system_under_ecological_restoration_based/
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| Biodiversity & Climate Change
UN Talks Seek To Safeguard Animals and Plants
Governments will meet in the German city of Bonn from May 19 to 30 to discuss how to safeguard the diversity of life from threats such as pollution and climate change. The UN Convention on Biological Diversity, which meets every two years, will review a goal set at a UN Earth Summit in 2002 of slowing the rate of loss of biodiversity by 2010.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48386/story.htm
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=42441
Expert Warns Climate Change will Lead to 'Barbarisation'
Climate change will lead to a "fortress world" in which the rich lock themselves away in gated communities and the poor must fend for themselves in shattered environments, unless governments act quickly to curb greenhouse gas emissions, according to the vice-president of the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC). Mohan Munasinghe was giving a lecture at Cambridge University in which he presented a dystopic possible future world in which social problems are made much worse by the environmental consequences of rising greenhouse gas emissions. "Climate change is, or could be, the additional factor which will exacerbate the existing problems of poverty, environmental degradation, social polarisation and terrorism and it could lead to a very chaotic situation," he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/15/climatechange
World Species Dying Out Like Flies Says WWF
World biodiversity has declined by almost one third in the past 35 years due mainly to habitat loss and the wildlife trade, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said on Friday. It warned that climate change would add increasingly to the wildlife woes over the next three decades.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48368/story.htm
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US: New Way Needed for Environment
We have to change how we conduct the country's most important business: restoring the natural world and its connection to people. The President's proposed budget for FY2009 slashes restoration for the nation's forests. That tells me it's time for a new framework for the environment in Washington. American Forest's March testimony before the House Appropriations subcommittee showed the Forest Service to be an agency with a broad, grand vision-as reflected in its Strategic Plan and Chief Kimball's priorities-but one with a narrow and misguided budget. It's a budget skewed towards just national forests and timber management.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1390845/new_way_needed_for_environment/
Florida: Preserve's Restoration Ready To Go
A three-year project to restore 951 acres of the Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Preserve should be under way by the end of this week, according to the Southwest Florida Water Management District. Sand pines have taken over much of the uplands acreage because of the lack of fire, which naturally maintains the quality of a habitat. In addition, decades of vegetative debris have built up, leaving the area at risk for raging wildfires. The tall pines will be removed and sold to pay for the restoration. By reintroducing controlled burns, the forest floor will be returned to a more natural state, resulting in more grasses and wildflowers, the agency said. Those plants and acorns will provide food for wildlife that normally would live in such uplands habitats.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/may/19/pa-preserves-restoration-ready-to-go/
Global Call to Stop the Planting of Genetically Engineered Trees
Organizations and scientists [1] from around the world spoke today about their opposition to genetically engineered trees which will be negotiated at the UN Convention on Biological Diversity's Ninth Conference of the Parties (CBD COP-9) beginning next week in Bonn. They are demanding that governments at the UN agree to accept the proposal to suspend all releases of genetically engineered (GE) trees into the environment, due to their extreme ecological and social threats.
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/36423
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| Wetland Restoration
Virginia: Major Wetlands Restoration Anchors Community Revitalization
One of the Mid-Atlantic's most significant wetlands restoration efforts will be showcased May 21 along the Norfolk, VA Elizabeth Riverfront in observance of American Wetlands Month. The initiative, a model environmental partnership between the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority (NRHA), Hampton Roads Transit (HRT) and City of Norfolk, is taking place along the shoreline of NRHA's 44-acre Grandy Village community.
http://www.knowledgeplex.org/news/1774481.html
Georgia: Mountain Bog Restoration Sheds Light On Rare Habitat
In the early-1990s, some conservation-minded folks had a vision to protect and restore one of the last remaining mountain bogs in Georgia. The bog was small then; you might miss it if you weren't looking for it. Although about the size of a dining room table, this remote place had something that made it unique: the last native population of mountain purple pitcherplants in the state. Restoring the bog would become a 20-year effort. The early days were a learning period for many, with mistakes and successes, but ultimately the bog began to flourish again.
http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/3878
US: Bush Administration Bars Drilling in Arctic Wetland
The Bush administration on Friday proposed keeping potentially oil-rich wetlands in Arctic Alaska off-limits to drilling because of their ecological sensitivity, a reversal of its earlier plan. The Bureau of Land Management proposed a 10-year leasing moratorium for 430,000 acres of wetlands north and east of vast Teshekpuk Lake in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmentalists and local groups hailed the decision.
http://www.enn.com/top_stories/article/36444
Florida: Huge Project to Restore Everglades to be Suspended
Construction on a huge reservoir meant to help restore the Everglades will be put on hold over a lawsuit brought by a group that fears the water could be diverted for other purposes. The South Florida Water Management District, whose board voted Thursday to stop work, has already spent about $250 million on construction. The delay could cost nearly $14 million. The 25-square-mile reservoir - the largest of its kind in the world - is estimated to cost up to $800 million and was set for completion in 2010.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iclYhPWmpgjApURM7A_1spt7mNdwD90MF59G1
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River & Watershed Restoration
Washington: City Steps Up Duwamish Restoration
During a 20-minute cruise on the Duwamish River that hugged the columns, and riprap, of the West Seattle Bridge, Mayor Greg Nickels was surrounded by cameras as he introduced a new approach, and a new firm, to developing a salmon and shorebird-friendly habitat on the troubled, industrial waterway. Nickels announced that the Duwamish River Habitat Restoration Project would include the city's partnership with Bluefield Holdings. An ecological company based in Seattle its plan is to lease out city-owned riverfront parcels for habitat development and sell environmental credits to businesses that have culpability in the river's current polluted condition.
http://www.westseattleherald.com/articles/2008/05/15/news/local_news/news07.txt
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| Grassland Restoration
UK: Grasslands Project gets £30,000 Boost
A project to safeguard rare species in Perthshire has been granted £30,000 to help conserve and restore habitats. The Scottish Agricultural College has been awarded the budget by a number of funding sources including the Tayside Biodiversity Action Fund, Scottish Natural Heritage, recycling and waste management company Sita UK and the Cairngorms National Park Authority. It will be channelled over the next three years into the Highland Perthshire Calcareous Grassland Project, which aims to increase awareness of and restore areas of rare calcareous grasslands in the region.
http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/637814?UserKey=0
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| Desertification & Arid Land Restoration
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| Lake Restoration
New Zealand: Aussie Sees Benefits of Lagoon Restoration
The effort to restore Te Wherowhero Lagoon received a major boost yesterday, as Banrock Station Winery donated $23,580 to the cause. Conservation was no longer enough to protect our environment -- what was needed now was restoration, said Banrock Station manager Tony Sharley, at the Muriwai home of Barney and Polly Whaitiri.
http://www.gisborneherald.co.nz/Default.aspx?s=3&s1=2&id=12ceee4113d34f4dbf6578c3de41b7a4
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| Coastal & Marine Restoration
In Myanmar, Mangroves Out, Flooding In
The destruction of huge areas of coastal mangroves around the Irrawaddy River delta in Myanmar in the last few decades amplified the flooding and worsened devastation there, according to a report and images released Thursday by the Food and Agriculture Organization.
People have been pushing in closer to the coast, and the combination of dense new settlements and deforestation for fish ponds and farmland set the stage for the disaster, said Jan Heino, the F.A.O.'s assistant director general for forestry. The same trend is evident around the world, he added.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/05/15/in-myanmar-its-mangroves-out-flooding-in/
Florida: Mangrove Damage may Mean $11K Fine in Martin County
A consultant agreed to pay for damaging mangrove wetlands on an island in the St. Lucie River while doing ground work for the Indian Street Bridge, a state transportation official said Wednesday. But the incident won't jeopardize the $210 million span linking Indian Street in Stuart with 36th Street in Palm City, said Betsy Jeffers, a project manager with the Florida Department of Transportation.
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2008/may/15/no-headline---15sibridge/
New York Subway Cars Find New Life On Ocean Floor
The worn-out cars were dumped on Friday into the Atlantic Ocean, 21 miles off the Maryland coast, to create an artificial reef, designed to attract fish for the state's lucrative sport-fishing industry. After four decades carrying millions of New Yorkers, 44 of the city's subway cars are now home to millions of fish. http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48396/story.htm
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Wildlife Restoration
Oregon: Fish and Wildlife Releases Spotted Owl Recovery Plan
In its final northern spotted owl recovery plan released Friday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said the $489 million effort could recover the threatened bird's population in 30 years. The plan cites habitat loss because of logging and catastrophic wildfires along with competition from the barred owl as the primary threats. It identifies 34 actions to counter the threats, including establishing nearly 6.5 million acres of owl conservation areas.
http://www.dailytidings.com/2008/0519/stories/0519_valley_spottedowl.php
Florida: Sea Turtles Need our Help, So Let's Restore their Habitat
The April 26 article about widening the beach for Palm Beach ("Agencies add to activists' criticism of sand project") does little justice to the issues related to beach nourishment. The referenced National Marine Fisheries Service opinion (they do not approve the project) estimated "dredging would destroy 19 (they actually calculated 18.35) green turtles." I read their elaborate technical theory, but it does not hold water. It seems the possible taking of 19 turtles is due to the lack of foraging and resting habitat for juvenile green sea turtles. However, if they can't nest due to a lack of sand then there are zero turtles that need a foraging or resting area. The turtles will go elsewhere to nest, forage and rest.
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/opinion/content/opinion/epaper/2008/05/14/wednesdaywebletters_0514.html
Fish Restoration Bad Choice for Great Lakes Gulls
You might think that stocking the Great Lakes with things like trout and salmon would be good for the herring gull. The birds often eat from the water, so it would be natural to assume that more fish would mean better dining. But a new report published in the April journal of Ecology by the Ecological Society of America says that the addition of species such as exotic salmon and trout to the area has not been good for the birds, demonstrating that fishery management actions can sometimes have very unexpected outcomes.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1387114/fish_restoration_bad_choice_for_great_lakes_gulls/
Washington: Fort Lewis Prairie a Sanctuary for Four Rare Species
It's been called the most violent spot on Fort Lewis. No other place on the 86,000-acre Army post is as heavily used for live-fire training as the post's largest artillery impact area, or AIA, north of the Nisqually River and west of the tiny town of Roy. The remote target zone is littered with so much old ammunition that post officials don't allow people to set foot on the ground unless they go through unexploded ordnance training.
http://www.thenewstribune.com/front/topphoto/story/365081.html
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| Extractive Industries
The Tar Sands, Downstream
When 500 ducks died earlier this month after landing on a tar sands tailings pond, Canadians got a glimpse into how unfettered tar sands development is taking its toll. Members of the Mikisew Cree and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nations living downstream from the massive industrial projects have been feeling the effects for a lot longer.
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/05/20/TarSands/
Venezuela Stops Open-Pits and Gold Mines
Mineral-laden Venezuela on Thursday shut the door to new gold projects and threatened other mining and logging concessions in a step by leftist President Hugo Chavez to tighten control of natural resources. Environment Minister Yuviri Ortega said the South American country will not give permits for any open-pit mines and will not allow companies to look for gold in its vast Imataca Forest Reserve.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/48373/story.htm
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| Invasive Species
UK: Giant Carnivorous Mice Threaten World's Greatest Seabird Colony
Whalers who visited remote Gough Island in the South Atlantic 150 years ago described a prelapsarian world where millions of birds lived without predators and where a man could barely walk because he would trip over their nests. Today the British-owned island, described as the most important seabird colony in the world, still hosts 22 breeding bird species and is a world heritage site.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/may/19/wildlife.endangeredspecies
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| Urban Restoration
North Carolina: Boone Creek Restoration Project Begins
Work has begun to restore and enhance a 150-foot section of Boone Creek that runs between Howard and Rivers streets in Boone. The affected portion of the creek runs from near the back of Café Portofino to the future location of the university's Beasley Broadcasting Complex at the corner of Depot Street.
http://www.news.appstate.edu/2008/05/15/boone-creek-restoration-project-begins/
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| Funding Opportunities
Minnesota: Shoreland Restoration Funding Available
A perfectly manicured lawn may be appealing curbside, but on the water's edge it's devastating.
Osakis lakeshore owners may be eligible for a 75 percent project grant for shoreland restoration projects. The Sauk River Watershed District (SRWD) received a grant from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) to help fund these projects.
http://www.theosakisreview.com/articles/index.cfm?id=1416§ion=News&freebie_check&CFID=32747008&CFTOKEN=96561653&jsessionid=883082bd3f6267771c2f
Fellowships Available in Estuarine Science Closes June 6, 2008
CALFED Science Program, California Sea Grant College Program is offering stipends of up to $45,000/yr. for Postdocs and $25,000/yr. for Graduate Fellows for up to 2 years, plus eligible expenses.
http://www.csgc.ucsd.edu/EDUCATION/CALFED/CALFEDIndx.html
Fulbright Scholar Program for US Faculty and Professionals Closes August 1, 2008
The Fulbright Scholar Program is offering 109 lecturing, research or combined lecturing/research awards in environmental science during the 2009-2010 academic year. Awards range from two months to an academic year. Faculty and professionals in environmental science may apply for awards specifically in their field or for one of the many "All Discipline" awards open to any field. The application deadline for Fulbright traditional lecturing and research grants worldwide is August 1, 2008. U.S. citizenship is required. For other eligibility requirements, detailed award descriptions, and an application, visit our website at www.cies.org, or send a request for materials to apprequest@cies.iie.org.
Fulbright Awards in Agriculture or Fisheries
Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program for academic year 2009-10 offers various awards for American academics and professionals in the fields of agricultural economy. The Philippines ( http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2009/award/Agr9161.htm)offersa six-months Lecturing/Research combination grant to help the development of young scholars and practitioners as well as to consult the country's Department of Agriculture. Kazakhstan ( http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2009/award/Env9494.htm ) offers awards for 4 to 10 months in environmental sciences or environmental law to lecture or lecturing/research combination. Turkmenistan ( http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2009/award/All9513.htm ) seeks for applicants in agricultural studies and water resources management; and so does Uzbekistan ( http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2009/award/All9515.htm ) Interested applicants are encouraged to contact Program Officer Mamiko Hada (mhada@cies.iie.org) with most up-to-date CV.
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