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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.
This issue of RESTORE is sponsored by: Environmental Defense Fund's Center for Conservation Incentives focuses on incentives-based policies and projects that encourage farmers, ranchers and other private landowners to volunteer to manage land for conservation. Our latest report discusses improving rangeland management for declining grassland birds in Wyoming, with implications for 16 other western states. Visit them at http://www.edf.org/conservationincentivesBiohabitats, Inc. a company that provides ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design services to clients throughout the world. Biohabitats' mission is to "Restore The Earth And Inspire Ecological Stewardship". Visit them at www.biohabitats.com |
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Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration
Nevada: Volunteers Sought for Angora Fire Restoration
Volunteers are being sought Saturday for restoration work at the site of last summer's Angora Fire in South Lake Tahoe. The League to Save Lake Tahoe and U.S. Forest Service are sponsoring the 11th Annual Tahoe Forest Stewardship Day from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080708/NEWS06/807080352/1047/TT
Illinois: HSBC Employees Help Restore Old School Forest Preserve
Volunteer employees from Mettawa-based HSBC have "adopted" the Old School Forest Preserve near Libertyville as part of an ongoing habitat restoration project this year to improve the preserve's environment for plants and wildlife. Approximately 30 employees from HSBC's new North American headquarters in Mettawa participated in a volunteer workday June 18 at the preserve on St. Mary's Road. The company has other volunteer workdays scheduled this month, September and October.
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/libertyville/news/1037264,li-oldschool-070308-s1.article
Mexico Plants 8 Mln Trees in Latest Green Project
Mexicans went out and planted more than 8 million trees across the country on Saturday as part of a government push to shed its reputation for environmental mismanagement and rampant illegal logging. Packs of volunteers, including oil workers and schoolchildren, trekked into fields and forests up and down Mexico wielding shovels and wheelbarrows full of government-supplied saplings. They planted a 8.3 million trees, the environment ministry said.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/49188/story.htm
New Zealand: Habitat Restoration
When junior Megan McCaghey says she spent two weeks working on "habitat restoration" in New Zealand, she is being a tad euphemistic - and modest. What she doesn't mention, at least not immediately, is what her work entailed: climbing near-vertical ravines; planting fields of razor-sharp needlegrass; and wading through swamps to collect decomposing rat carcasses. Did she mention this was volunteer work?
http://www.hendrix.edu/eventsnews/eventsnews.aspx?id=24716 |
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People in the News
CSUCI Faculty Member Works With Stanford Professor on Turkish Wetlands Project
California State University Channel Islands faculty member Sean Anderson is working with researcher Çagan Sekercioglu, of Stanford University, who recently earned the Whitley Gold Award, on a wetlands restoration project in Turkey. The Whitley Gold Award is a top award for grassroots nature conservation presented by a United Kingdom-based charity, the Whitley Fund for Nature. The award includes approximately $120,000 in unrestricted grant money to continue their project.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/jul/07/csuci-faculty-member-works-with-award-winning-on/
Corps Group Recognized for Missouri River Restoration Work
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is giving a national award to a team from the Army Corps of Engineers at Yankton. The group has been involved for several years in protecting and restoring a trio of threatened or endangered species on the Missouri River. They are the pallid sturgeon and two birds: the least tern and the piping plover.
http://www.ktiv.com/Global/story.asp?S=8621509 |
| New Books & Articles
Restoring Western Rangelands for Declining Grassland Birds
Grassland birds have been declining for decades, according to U.S. Geological Survey data. Wyoming's 8.6 million acres of untilled grasslands, most in private ownership, are a stronghold for these species. Crucial help could come from USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service. That agency works nationwide, providing financial and technical assistance for voluntary conservation management. Environmental Defense Fund's Rocky Mountain office recently evaluated NRCS's Wyoming programs. Their report recommends ways NRCS and ranchers can help grassland birds and other wildlife, while maintaining agricultural operations and improving rangeland health. There are implications for 16 other western states as well.
http://www.edf.org/wygrasslandbirds.
Minnesota's Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan
A new report, released today by the University of Minnesota's Institute on the Environment and the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR), offers comprehensive assessments and recommendations pertaining to the future of Minnesota. The Statewide Conservation and Preservation Plan (SCPP) charts long-term strategies for addressing critical issues and trends impacting Minnesota's environment and natural resources.
http://www1.umn.edu/umnnews/news_details.php?release=080707_3616&page=UMNN |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Ecosystem Services Approach Boosts Investment in Conservation
The ecosystem services approach to habitat conservation assigns a value - both economic and social - to facilities such as food and shelter that an ecosystem can supply to people. It can be highly successful in protecting land that is already exploited rather than pure wilderness. But there's some concern that it may divert funding from more traditional biodiversity-based conservation projects.
http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/futures/34933
Canada: Sockeye's Success near Osoyoos is a Miracle in the Desert
Of all the places least likely to see a revival of wild salmon, the southern Okanagan must top the list. There, in Canada's only desert, where summer temperatures routinely make Osoyoos the national hot spot and lake waters warm to 24 degrees, conditions seem ideal for rattlesnakes, sunbathers and vineyards - not a cold-water species such as salmon. But an experimental fisheries restoration project led by the Okanagan Nation Alliance is having remarkable results - producing a booming run of sockeye that, in a year of relentless bad news about salmon, seems almost miraculous.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080707.BCHUMECOLUMN07/TPStory//BritishColumbia/
Oregon: Governor Plans to Boost Economy with Eco-friendly Jobs
In the famous opening scene of "The Graduate," a businessman pulls aside a dazed Dustin Hoffman and offers him this terse bit of career advice: "Plastics." That was the 1960s. In the new century, Gov. Ted Kulongoski has an updated word of wisdom for Oregon's future jobs market: "Solar." At a time of economic stress -- sluggish home values, bounding gas prices and shrinking businesses -- Kulongoski has mapped out a jobs strategy that plays off worldwide concern about climate change and takes advantage of Oregon's eco-friendly reputation. http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1215487536291830.xml&coll=7 |
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Washington: Coast Salish and USGS Commit to Restoring Salish Sea Water Quality
This is the only year so far that a scientific component has been added to the Coast Salish Annual Tribal Journey. For the first time, water quality surveys will be simultaneously conducted behind multiple canoes to show variations in a broad area crossing international borders. This project will blend traditional knowledge of the Coast Salish People with USGS science in an effort to help improve management of ancestral waters experiencing environmental decline.
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=1968
New Zealand: Indigenous People are the Original Environmentalists
Tangata whenua are ideally placed to lead local environmental projects because of the strength and integrity of traditional environmental values, says the Maori Party. "Tangata whenua were environmentalist before the government or environmental groups even existed in Aotearoa," said Tarina Turia, environment spokesperson for the party.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0807/S00133.htm |
| Agro-Ecology
Waterless Wheat Makes Central India's Farmers Smile
Time was when Malwa, a region spanning central India, grew wheat that required no irrigation. What it required instead was careful nurturing of the soil to retain its moisture. That was then. Soil preparation began months in advance; chemical fertilizers were unknown and green mulch was the principal soil nutrient.
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| Biodiversity & Climate Change
Some Plants Can Adapt To Widespread Climate Change
While many plant species move to a new location or go extinct as a result of climate change, grasslands clinging to a steep, rocky dale-side in Northern England seem to defy the odds and adapt to long-term changes in temperature and rainfall, according to a new study by scientists from Syracuse University and the University of Sheffield (United Kingdom) published online in the July 7 issue of the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37608
Nature Reserves Attract Humans, But At A Cost To Biodiversity
Rather than suppressing local communities in developing nations, nature reserves attract human settlement, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley.
In an analysis of 306 rural protected areas in 45 countries in Africa and Latin America, the researchers found that, on average, the rate of human population growth along the borders of protected areas was nearly twice that of neighboring rural areas.
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/37586
Ecosystem Restoration: The Other Strategy for Climate Change
While reduced burning of fossil fuels is the most common response to rising levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere, there is another, longer-term remedy that is gaining ground in the public view and business world: the restoration of destroyed and degraded ecosystems.
http://www.econeutral.com/blog/2008/07/ecosystem-restorationthe-other-strategy.html |
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Philippines: Protecting Our Forests
The law should provide a management scheme for the remaining open and denuded forests for the purpose of restoration. The law should identify a management scheme for the remaining open and denuded forests for the purpose of restoration. This is to ensure the expansion of protection for forestlands in order to achieve the ideal forest cover of 54 percent of the total land area of the Philippines. Restoration of forests by rainforestation, which refers to the use of native trees, is a primary objective of the bill given the poor state of our forests and biodiversity. Further degradation or destruction of our forests will lessen our capacity to adapt and mitigate the effects of global warming. Decreasing forest cover compromises our ability to optimize ecological benefits derived from natural forests.
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2008/july/05/yehey/opinion/20080705opi7.html
Brazil: One Out of Five Trees Lost in Amazon are from Protected Areas
One of each five timbered trees in the Brazilian Amazon belongs to government protected areas according to a report published on Sunday by O' Globo. Apparently 2% of deforestation last year was in Indigenous reservations o preserved areas, says O' Globo adding that the information was collected from Brazil's Environmental Office, Ibama, appealing to satellite photos.
http://www.mercopress.com/vernoticia.do?id=13904&formato=HTML
Oregon: Siuslaw Forest Hits 100-year Mark
The Siuslaw National Forest has been very much like Silverstein's giving tree, except for the stump part, as it turned 100 years old this week. This is, by most accounts, a happy birthday. After a gut-wrenching transformation brought about by the Northwest Forest Plan in 1992, the forest is now hailed as a model for its balanced nurturing of habitat restoration, tree farming and public play areas. The Siuslaw's centennial is a chance to consider the evolving story of a 630,000-acre forest that, like Silverstein's single tree, has given myriad gifts to the residents of the eight counties its sprawling reaches span.
http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/dt.cms.support.viewStory.cls?cid=122056&sid=1&fid=7 e of Contents |
| Wetland Restoration
Conservationists Unite to Restore Britain's Parched Wetlands
Thousands of acres of bog and ponds are to be recreated as part of an initiative to restore ancient wetlands to the landscape. Wetlands, whether sparkly blue water or boot-suckingly squelchy marsh, were once a common feature of the countryside, but most have been drained, dried and developed out of existence. A map showing the extent of prehistoric wetlands has been drawn up by conservationists to help to identify the best places to reestablish them. A second map shows the quantity of wetland habitat surviving today and areas where they can best be recreated over the next 50 years.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4282183.ece
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/07/07/eawetland107.xml
Illinois: Back in the Flow
Corn and soybeans no longer grow on this bottomland along Gimlet Creek and the Illinois River. Ducks Unlimited designed a creative wetland restoration with a series of three stair-stepped lakes with water flowing from one to the next and into the Illinois River.
Hundreds of oaks, pecans and other hardwoods were planted as well as prairie grasses and forbes. The transformation has been noted by motorists traveling along Illinois Route 29 and Route 17 over the bridge between Sparland and Lacon.
http://www.pjstar.com/features/x1816438858/Back-in-the-flow |
River & Watershed Restoration
Canada: River Fix Begins
The provincial government will spend $20 million over the next two years to begin the much-anticipated restoration work on the Petitcodiac River, allowing the causeway gates to open in the spring of 2010. Premier Shawn Graham and Health Minister Mike Murphy, the MLA for Moncton North, will announce the funding this afternoon at the bandstand area in Riverfront Park. The Times & Transcript has learned the funding will complete the first phase of the restoration project.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/347022
California: Groups Plug for Putah Creek
In a Davis greenhouse not much larger than a mid-size apartment, Rich Marovich is working to turn back time. It is there that Marovich, the streamkeeper for Putah Creek, spends most of his days cultivating native trees and grasses to restore the stream - long the victim of the environmental ravages of agricultural and residential development - to its natural state. Since early April, Marovich and a handful of volunteers have turned the formerly vacant, 1,000-square-foot greenhouse at the L.A. Moran Reforestation Center into a dense jungle of California black sedge, valley oaks, creeping wild rye and other plants that once thrived along Putah Creek's banks.
http://www.dailydemocrat.com/ci_9801281 |
| Grassland Restoration
China's Grasslands Mostly Hurt by Humans
Poor management, not climate change, is the chief cause of grassland degradation, a senior Chinese scientist told an international rangeland forum on Wednesday. "Both natural and human factors led to grassland desertification, but improper management contributed most to the situation," Ren Jizhou, a Chinese Academy of Engineering academician, said at the ongoing 2008 International Grassland and Rangeland Congress here in the capital of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-07/02/content_8477809.htm |
| Desertification & Arid Land Restoration
African 'Wall of Trees' Gets Underway
Three years after it was first proposed, preparations for an African 'wall of trees' to slow down the southwards spread of the Sahara desert are finally getting underway. The 'Great Green Wall' will involve several stretches of trees from Mauritania in the west to Djibouti in the east, to protect the semi-arid savannah region of the Sahel - and its agricultural land - from desertification.
http://www.enn.com/ecosystems/article/37598 |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
South Carolina: Rebuilding Oyster Reefs, 1 Shell at a Time
Tysean Pigott doesn't know much about oysters, except that he enjoys their taste. That changed this week, though, when he learned how to replant an oyster reef through the South Carolina Oyster Restoration and Enhancement program. The 17-year-old student of the Beaufort Marine Institute, a nonprofit residential facility that serves as an alternative to prison for juveniles, participated in the state program with seven of his peers and some volunteers from Bluffton and Sun City Hilton Head.
http://www.thestate.com/local/story/452736.html
Transplanting Eelgrass may Help Crab, Salmon
Scientists don't know a lot about why eelgrass grows in certain underwater environments and not others. They do know the aquatic plants provide valuable shelter for juvenile salmon and Dungeness crab and attract a buffet of critters for them to eat.
http://www.dailyastorian.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubSectionID=398&ArticleID=52572&TM=81.983 |
Wildlife Restoration
Canada Helps Restore Wood Bison to Alaska in International Conservation Effort to Recover a Threatened Species
Canada's Environment Minister John Baird and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin officially welcomed 53 Canadian wood bison to their new home at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, in Portage, Alaska. The bison were transferred from Elk Island National Park of Canada on June 17, 2008 in an effort to repopulate the wood bison in their native habitat.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Government-Of-Canada-876901.html
Canada: Turning the Corner - Efforts to Save Endangered Bird Pay Off
Just 11 years ago, the future of Eastern Loggerhead Shrike looked very grim. With only 18 wild pairs in the province, the species was on the brink of extinction. Now, a captive-breeding and release program to save this rare bird is producing remarkable results. For the fourth year in a row captive-bred shrikes released to the wild have survived migration and returned to breed. An unprecedented seven captive-bred birds were spotted in the wild this year- making up more than a quarter of the number of wild pairs.
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Wildlife-Preservation-Canada-876062.html |
| Extractive Industries
UK: Quarry Pit to be Given New Life as Nature Site
The quarry which provided 400,000 tonnes of gravel and sand to build the Thorney bypass is set to be given a new lease of life as a nature haven. As part of a restoration scheme, craters in the ground at Pode Hole quarry, a mile east of Thorney, near Peterborough, will be turned into ponds teeming with reeds and wildlife. Areas surrounding the newly- created ponds would then be transformed into wild grasslands and flower meadows for grazing sheep, while pockets of oak, rowan and silver birch would be planted to establish a traditional deciduous woodland.
http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/Quarry-pit-to-be-given.4237354.jp |
| Recreation & Tourism
Iowa: Schuetzen Park Restoration Efforts Near Completion
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| Funding Opportunities
Leopold Center Seeks Project Ideas for 2009
Iowans with ideas for projects that will lead to sustainability in agriculture will want to check out the 2008 Request for Pre-proposals now available from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. Each of the Center's three initiative areas - ecology, marketing and food systems, and policy - is looking for innovative new projects to enhance the long-running competitive grants program at the Leopold Center. The RFP contains all the information about what sort of projects the Center is looking for and how to apply for the grant funding.
http://wallacesfarmer.com/index.aspx?ascxid=fpStory&fpsid=34539&fpstid=2
Washington: USDA Funding for Wetland Restoration Closes July 15, 2008
Federal funding is available through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wetland Reserve Program to landowners in South Sound who are interested in restoring or improving wetlands on their property. The program, which is administered by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, offers three options: 10-year cost-sharing agreements, 30-year conservation easements and permanent easements. http://www.theolympian.com/127/story/491371.html
Minnesota: Sign-up is Open for Wetlands Restoration Program
Federal and state agencies started on Thursday the first phase of a conservation easement practice targeting high-priority areas for habitat restoration and flood reduction.
The state's Board of Water and Soil Resources is calling the practice the "premier wetland restoration program in the country," according to a news release from the Cedar River Watershed District in Austin. Sign-up for the first phase ends July 18.
http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=28&a=349734
Grant Workshops Scheduled For Nearshore Restoration Project Sponsors
A series of six workshops will be held this month and next for individuals and organizations interested in sponsoring nearshore habitat restoration and preservation projects in the Puget Sound area. The workshops, hosted by the Puget Sound Nearshore Partnership and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), will be held at various sites throughout the region.
http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/4222
New Zealand: Apply Now for an Environment Enhancement Grant
Landowners or groups working to protect and enhance native biodiversity in Canterbury have until the end of August to apply for contestable grants of up to $5,000 through Environment Canterbury's Environment Enhancement Fund. Financial assistance can be granted for any project that contributes to the region's indigenous biodiversity and usually involves the protection or enhancement of waterways, wetlands, coastal dunes and native vegetation. Applicants may apply more than once.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0806/S00102.htm
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)offers a 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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