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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
Redefining "Enough"
Once we bring new technologies on line - such as plug-in hybrid vehicles, super-efficient buildings, and huge wind farms - we're there, right? Not exactly. Certainly, these simple habit changes and brilliant technologies are urgently needed pieces of an emerging Restoration Economy, but they are not sufficient. Until we change the direction of our plug-and- play lifestyle, we'll continue to be an endangered as well as dangerous civilization. Each American now requires an average of 30 acres (roughly 30 football fields) of prime land and sea to satisfy both the needs and wants of our excessive lifestyle - a national total of roughly 9 billion acres. Since this is more than three times the acreage of the United States, we'll inevitably have to bully other countries to continue our own absurd levels of consumption - unless, at last, we decide to modify and moderate our story.
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_10503529
Volunteers Sought to Pitch in at Great Basin National Park on Public Lands Day Sept. 27, 2008
Great Basin National Park will be the site of this year's White Pine County National Public Lands Day event as area residents join the largest annual coast-to-coast, single-day volunteer restoration effort for America's public lands. This year's local theme is "Our Public Lands, An American Legacy."
http://www.desertusa.com/desertblog/?p=3734
New Zealand: New Fund Benefits Community Conservation
The new Community Conservation Fund launched today will help community groups to restore important native areas on public land, Conservation Minister Steve Chadwick said. "This is the first time that the government has been able to offer funding to help community groups with their restoration efforts on public land, and I would like to thank the Green Party for bringing this initiative to the table," Steve Chadwick said.
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA0809/S00521.htm
Los Angeles River Restoration Events: October 2 & 4
Los Angeles welcomes a delegation from Munich that successfully shepherded the restoration of its own industrialized river, the Isar, into a "re-naturized" resource that provides both flood control and recreation. Highlights of the visit will include a free public forum to study how the lessons of the Isar might be applied to the Los Angeles River, and FoLAR's RioFiest, which will celebrate the Isar River and local heroes with live music, food and a Bavarian beer garden on the Sixth Street Bridge.
http://rare-earth-news.blogspot.com/2008/09/october-2-4-l.html
From New Mexico to the Caribbean
The collaborators, including the Acequia del Medio Association (an irrigation group), NM Wildlife Federation, NM Department of Game and Fish, Coronado Middle School and Cordova Logging Inc., are in the second year of a four year, $450,000 road closure and decommissioning project. The goals of the restoration work are to restore watershed function, return natural fire to fire-dependent forests, and bring much needed jobs and income to forest-based communities.
http://www.wildlandscpr.org/article/new-mexico-caribbean-story-road-decommissioning-marine-biology-and-future-watershed-restorat
New Zealand: Lake Planting Boosted by Donation
One of Masterton's most active conservation groups, the Henley Trust, has received a major boost with a donation of $3500 to go towards trees and wetland restoration. BOC gave Henley Trust representative Liz Waddington the cheque at Lakeview School last week. The Henley Trust has teamed up with Lakeview School to undertake major planting projects around the lake and surrounding wetlands. Lakeview deputy principal Tim Nelson was representing the school who are partners in the project.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/dominionpost/4704128a27729.html |
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People in the News
Design Techniques Unite People, Environment
The Latin word "biophilia" means "love of life," which fits in with the concept's mindset. Biophilic design has two goals, according to Stephen R. Kellert, a Yale professor and social ecologist. He says they are "minimizing, and mitigating the adverse effects of building construction and development on natural systems and human health, and promoting positive interactions between people and nature in the built environment." Basically, biophilic design connects people with their natural environment. By incorporating nature into everyday life, stress reduces, diseases are decreased and overall good health is improved.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2008/09/20/20080920greendesign0920.html
Michigan: Monroe Power Plant Recognized for Environmental Efforts
Where concrete rubble and metal rip-rap once lined the banks, tender green native grasses and plants poke through a layer of black mesh along a 500-foot stretch of the River Raisin near DTE Energy's hulking Monroe Power Plant. Elsewhere on the plant's 1,200 acres, farmland has been returned to prairie and five acres of a flyash landfill have been restored to wetlands where redwing blackbirds and spotted sandpipers nest. Those were among the reasons the Monroe Power Plant was recognized Monday for environmental initiatives by state and national conservation officials.
http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/NEWS01/109239986/-1/NEWS
MSU Scientist Appointed to EPA Advisory Board
A Montana State University scientist who specializes in wetlands and riparian areas has been appointed to a national board that advises the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Duncan Patten will start Oct. 1 and serve three years on the EPA's Science Advisory Board. Brought in as a landscape ecologist, he will be one of about 40 people advising the EPA on scientific, technical and policy aspects of environmental issues.
http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=6244 |
| New Books & Articles
In Italy, a Redesign of Nature to Clean It
Designing nature might seem to be an oxymoron or an act of hubris. But instead of simply recommending that polluting farms and factories be shut, Professor Berger specializes in creating new ecosystems in severely damaged environments: redirecting water flow, moving hills, building islands and planting new species to absorb pollution, to create natural, though "artificial," landscapes that can ultimately sustain themselves.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/22/world/europe/22marsh.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
USGS: Freshwater Biodiversity Collapsing in North America
Nearly 40 percent of fish species in North American streams, rivers and lakes are now in jeopardy . . . The 700 fishes now listed represent a staggering 92 percent increase over the 364 listed as "imperiled" in the previous 1989 study . . . . The statements above come not from Greenpeace or the Center for Biological Diversity, but from the US Geological Survey - an organization not prone to hyperbole - in its press release announcing the publication of Conservation status of imperiled North American freshwater and diadromous fishes (the bulk of a 60-page pdf), the third such comprehensive assessment undertaken by Mexican, Canadian and American scientists led by the USGS.
http://www.truthandprogress.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=750
Lack of Large-Scale Experiments Slows Progress of Environmental Restoration
A new study finds that environmental restoration research using large experimental tests has been limited. The study, published in Restoration Ecology, maintains that for restoration to progress as a science and a practice, more research should be done on whole ecosystems with large experiments. "Very few restoration ecologists are taking advantage of large restoration sites by conducting large-scale experiments," says Joy B. Zedler of the University of Wisconsin- Madison. "Most people wouldn't buy a new shirt without trying on several different kinds to see which fits best and looks right. It's similar with restoration; we want to find the best fit between the methods we use and the outcomes we want."
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-09/w-lol092308.php
Ecological Restoration in Southeastern British Columbia: Grasslands to Mountaintops
The British Columbia Chapter of the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER-BC) and the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology (CMI) co-hosted this regional conference. Southeastern British Columbia is a hotbed for ecological restoration. Themes covered at this conference included: Restoration of grasslands and forests at different elevations; Rehabilitation of mine spoils; Restoration of wetland and aquatic features.
http://www.cmiae.org/pdf/Ecosystem_restoration_2007_conf_summary.pdf |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Biodiversity Farming and Ecosystem Restoration for Profit
One thing that's been made abundantly clear this year is how much our civilization relies on nature's bounty -- its biodiversity and ecosystem services -- for its continuation, and just what a stress we're putting on the planet. As the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment reported, we've already thrashed 60% of the Earth's ecosystems, degrading their ability to provide the things we need like clean water and fresh air, while millions of species are thought to be on the road to extinction. I strongly suspect that in the near future, as the direct practical impacts of loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services make themselves felt, we're going to start seeing a variety of schemes to put value to natural systems.
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/002536.html
Green Accounting
Green accounting incorporates environmental assets and their source and sink functions into national and corporate accounts. It is the popular term for environmental and natural resource accounting. Corporate environmental accounts have not yet found wide application; proposed concepts and methods are similar to those of national green accounting and are not further discussed here.
http://www.earthportal.org/?page_id=70 |
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Traditional Native Elders - A Revival of Our Sacred Resources
Someone once said that our elders are the walking-talking libraries of indigenous culture, language, legends, knowledge of the environment, restorative justice, governance, childcare, education and skills development needed for survival on the land, spirituality, hunting and fishing, and pride. So true, but what if those proverbial libraries were during the last hundred years or so? Whatever traditional knowledge that used to be passed down from one generation to the next would have come to a stop. Using the analogy of lost or forgotten resources, that is exactly what has been happening to my people for about five generations in terms of losing our way of life, but that has changed recently.
http://www.orilliapacket.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1214429
Action Plan for Rejuvenating the Rivers of India
As an ongoing endeavour in the Nadi Sanrakhshan Satyagrah'08 (action plan for rejuvenating the rivers of India), the Rashtriya Jal Biradari will celebrate the resurrection of seven rivers in the vicinity of Jaipur, Alwar, Karoli and Dausa. This tremendous ecological achievement has been entirely due to the efforts of the community, using only traditional indigenous knowledge. This caps the resounding success of similarly reviving the Maheshwari, the Kumbh that was held at Khajuri on September 6 and 7. There is now no doubt, whatsoever, about the vital and life-giving nature of the jal-jungle system of nature and it devolves on all of us to protect this from decay due to pollution, encroachment and over-exploitation.
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?title=Kumbh%20programme%20on%20October%202&articleID=141924 |
| Agro-Ecology
The New Vegetarianism: Meat is More Murderous than Ever
Back in April, under the auspices of a campaign titled No Meat No Heat, around a million people in Taiwan - including the speaker of parliament, the environment minister, and the mayors of Taipei and Kaohsiung - vowed to never again touch flesh nor fish. Given that Taiwan's Buddhist traditions mean around 1.2 million of its people are already vegetarian, this was perhaps not such a bold move as it seemed, but still: the organisers of the mass pledge cited the often overlooked contribution of livestock farming to greenhouse gas emissions, and presented it as an environmental move par excellence.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/jun/19/food.environment
Monoculture Tree Plantations are "Green Deserts"
A number of environmental and social organizations have declared September 21st: International Day against Monoculture Tree Plantations to highlight the social upheaval and environmental degradation - including impacts on global biodiversity and climate change - wrought by industrial plantations.
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/0919-plantations_hance.html
US: Law Offers Cash to Smooth Shift to Organic Farms
The new farm bill could help feed America's appetite for organic food by enticing more farmers to switch from conventional agriculture. The bill offers farmers as much as $20,000 a year to cover the cost of converting their farms to organic agriculture. There also is money to offset certification costs and new funding for organic agriculture. "It's definitely the nudge that has been missing" to get conventional farmers to switch to organic, said Bill Horner, one of Iowa's 450 organic farmers and also the president and chief executive of Naturally Iowa, a dairy based in Clarinda.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080923/BUSINESS/809230359/1030/BUSINESS01
Conservation Corp.: Enviros Ally with Big Grain Traders
Judson Barros lives in the state of Piauí in northwestern Brazil - a region known as El Cerrado that is traditionally dominated by dirt poor family farms and tropical woodland savannahs. It's a stunted, scruffy landscape often overshadowed by the larger and more romanticized Amazon jungle to its west. But it is nonetheless important as Brazil's second-largest ecosystem. Scientists say it is one of the most biologically diverse savannahs on the planet. In 2003, New York-based agribusiness company Bunge Ltd. opened a soybean-crushing factory in the city of Uruçuí in the south of the state. In search of cheap land, a few commercial soybean farmers had already moved into Piauí from soy-growing strongholds in southern Brazil. Once the Bunge plant arrived, the conversion of Piauí's Cerrado into industrial farmland began in earnest. http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/mm2008/092008/macdonald.html |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
Canada: Six Questions on the Environment
In fact, with all the parties now promising to control climate change and reduce pollution, we actually have a chance to make this the "environment election" - a vote in which Canadians' ballot question becomes: "Which candidate is most capable of ensuring ecological enhancement?" To assist in this endeavour, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment is offering six questions citizens can ask at all-candidates' meetings and on the doorstep. These will help us discover which would-be MPs will best revive the natural world and thereby promote human health:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/501898
Malaysia: Biodiversity Centre Launched
The government now has a strong advisory board on the legal aspects of biodiversity development and commercialisation in the form of the Centre of Excellence for Biodiversity Law (Ceblaw) based at Universiti Malaya. Ceblaw was launched yesterday by Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas. One of the key objectives is to enhance the nation's capacity on legal issues regarding biodiversity, biosafety and biotechnogly.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Friday/National/2354170/Article/index_html
Canadian Company Brings Climate Change Expertise to New York
Canadian pioneers in the climate change counter-offensive will join colleagues from around North America in New York City today and tomorrow to help identify how to mitigate carbon emissions in developing countries. Led by CEO Dr. Robert Falls, the Vancouver-based ERA Ecosystem Restoration Associates Inc. delegation will share their unique and proven expertise on revitalizing degraded forest ecosystems with a distinguished group of scientists, political leaders and activists. Two Nobel laureates; Al Gore, the former U.S. vice-president, and Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, will be among those present at the talks, which will focus on opportunities for "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation" - or "REDD" - in developing countries.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2008/22/c7013.html
Australia: Wildlife and Climate Change
Researchers, academics and business leaders have formed a new group in South Australia to protect and manage wildlife in the face of climate change. The Equinox Group will be headed by Adelaide University professor of plant conservation biology Andy Lowe. Professor Lowe said it was important to build knowledge about the climate dependency of native and introduced species and how they were likely to respond to variations in conditions.
http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,24390103-2682,00.html |
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Tanzania / UN and Norway UN-ite to Combat Deforestation
The United Nations collaborative programme of FAO, UNDP and UNEP agencies on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (UN-REDD Programme) has selected Tanzania as a pilot country for the UN efforts to fight climate change through reducing deforestation. The UN-REDD Programme aims to assist forested developing countries to make significant progress in reducing deforestation, forest degradation, and associated emission of greenhouse gasses. Tropical forested countries are stepping up the efforts to combat climate change via a pioneering new initiative called the UN-REDD Programme announced in New York yesterday (September 24th).
http://appablog.wordpress.com/2008/09/24/tanzania-un-and-norway-un-ite-to-combat-deforestation/
California: Old-growth Sierra Junipers Felled Amid Warming Debate
A 60-year-old fishing guide from rural Lassen County, Fair has nothing against thinning forests to protect them from fire and disease. But the barren, dusty swath of stumps and downed junipers logged from public land last year and the adjacent house-high pile of wood chips was not that kind of cut. Not only were trees mowed down across nearly 300 acres, they were leveled under a banner of ecological restoration, energy independence and climate-friendly power. It was portrayed as a win-win by the federal government, which was paying for the removal to undo the legacy of poor land management.
http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/1253584.html
New Jersey: Volunteers Invited to Plant Cedars
Volunteers are invited to come to the 9,600-acre Franklin Parker Preserve this weekend and help plant Atlantic white cedar seedlings in one of the region's most ambitious forest restoration projects. The New Jersey Conservation Foundation is planting 25,500 seedlings on an 80-acre patch of old cranberry bog.
http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080921/NEWS03/809210379/1007/NEWS03 |
| Wetland Restoration
Malaysia: Peat Forests are Worth More as They Are, than Chopped Down
By nature it is waterlogged. So, when humans try to alter its traits, the system bites back. As though furious with the violation, the land combusts, sending out sporadic fires which foul the air with smoke. And these spats have been occurring for the past decade with ad hoc solutions that only stop the symptoms but do not address the root causes. This is the seemingly never-ending plight of the highly fragmented peat swamp forests in Selangor, where rapid development comes with the pressure to venture into areas that are highly sensitive to human disturbance. Not that there is lack of recognition of the socio-ecological value of this semi-submerged ecosystem.
http://thestar.com.my/lifestyle/story.asp?file=/2008/9/23/lifefocus/1782627&sec=lifefocus |
River & Watershed Restoration
Colorado: What will it Take to Restore Boulder Creek?
Quietly, Boulder Creek endured at the expense of our prosperity. We dammed its headwaters, diverted, channeled and controlled its raging wild tendencies. As we tamed the creek, we began to exploit our newly acquired access to shameful excesses. Little did we appreciate the effects of our actions but somehow Boulder Creek has endured. Very few of us have seen Boulder Creek flow freely through the seasons in all of its natural beauty and magnificence. Today, we are experiencing a renaissance of connectivity to our environment. I think it started for me when I was in grade school. I was gripped by a television commercial depicting an American Indian shedding tears for a polluted river in the background. I was moved as I believe most of our generation has been to alter our passions from dominion over nature to how we can coexist and leave no foot prints.
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/sep/20/what-will-it-take/
Oregon: Restoration Closes More than 14,000 River Acres
Restoration work on the Hanford Reach National Monument will partially close about 14,000 acres north of the Columbia River until next month. Work in the area, which began Monday, continues in response to last year's wildfire season that destroyed more than 77,000 acres there, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Restoration efforts began last December.
http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=83089&TM=65196.19
Massachusetts: Removal of Dam Next Step in Brook Restoration
A restoration project intended to make Red Brook's spawning beds more accessible to fish populations resumes this week with the removal of New Way Dam. The project began with the removal of Robbins Dike in 2006. It is expected to be completed next summer with the dismantling of two other structures that control water flow and dredging to remove fill from wetlands. Red Brook, a five-mile stream on the Wareham-Plymouth border, runs from White Island Pond to Buttermilk Bay and is home to eels, river herring and one of Massachusetts' last native sea-run brook trout populations.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1559655/removal_of_dam_next_step_in_brook_restoration/ |
| Desertification & Arid Land Restoration
US: Climate Change Threatens To Dry Up the Southwest's Future
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| Lake Restoration
Michigan: Restore the Shore
Now a local group is leading an ambitious effort to restore nearly five miles of the disfigured shoreline. The Muskegon Lake Watershed Partnership hopes to transform miles of seawalls and debris into a softer, more natural shoreline -- one dominated by native vegetation that benefits fish and wildlife. It's a daunting task. But if the $3.4 million project succeeds, it could -- along with ongoing efforts to remove contaminated sediments from the lake bottom -- get Muskegon Lake removed from a dubious list of Great Lakes toxic hot spots, known as Areas of Concern.
http://blog.mlive.com/chronicle/2008/09/restore_the_shore.html |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
Video: Harvest to Restore
Many scientists now believe that pipeline sediment delivery holds the promise of expeditiously recreating the natural system of barrier islands, marshes, and ridgelands that provide the only practical long term hurricane protection both to America's energy hub and to the port and city of New Orleans. The documentary looks at how pipeline sediment delivery works, how it's being used in other countries around the world, and how it might be implemented in the Louisiana coastal zone. Harvest to Restore, a co-production of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program, Louisiana Public Broadcasting, and Côte Blanche Productions, Inc, looks at the new methods being used to try and save the state's rapidly disappearing coastline and wetlands.
http://www.lpb.org/programs/harvesttorestore/
Rhode Island: In Narragansett Bay, Eelgrass makes a Comeback
The coolers are dropped on the sand, the canopy is pitched in the bright sunshine and the kayaks are dragged to the water's edge. But instead of a beach party, it's time to work. Half a dozen divers gripping trowels and mesh bags wade into the perfectly calm surf at King's Beach, plunge underwater and swim off in different directions. In shallow waters less than 50 yards offshore, Sarah Sylvia finds what she's looking for - an eelgrass bed so thick and so tall that as she digs out a handful by the roots, the blades virtually envelop her in a cocoon.
http://www.projo.com/ri/portsmouth/content/EB_EELGRASS_18_09-18-08_6QBF9MS_v44.1605e81.html
Southeast Asia: Calamities, Climate Change - Reprieve for Mangroves
Lack of access to military-ruled Burma has not stopped a global environmental body from setting its sights on the country's Irrawaddy Delta, which was devastated by a powerful cyclone in early May. Rehabilitating mangroves is the draw. In November, mangrove forestry experts from Burma (or Myanmar) will join others from the region at a four-day scientific conference in southern Thailand co-hosted by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A major theme will be to foster ''Sustainable Mangrove Ecosystem Management.''
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43976
Massachusetts: Bird Island Tern Restoration Project gets Federal, State Help
After seven years, erosion control and soil restoration work will resume at Bird Island, which had become badly degraded due to weather, and wave action, and put in peril delicate sea bird habitat. Bird Island, on which sits the historic Bird Island Lighthouse, is a significant habitat for the endangered roseate tern, as well as common terns. A collaboration between the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers, the state Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the town will offer much respite for the battered island on the outskirts of Sippican Harbor.
http://www.wickedlocal.com/marion/news/lifestyle/x636389237/Bird-Island-tern-restoration-project-gets-federal-state-help
New Jersey: Volunteer Group Tidies Up Island off Beach Haven
Cranmer said he hopes to start a project next month that will place biodegradable geo-tubes filled with sand on the southwestern part of the island to curtail some of the wave action. The Mordecai Land Trust has received several bids for the project, he said. The first phase of the Southwest Mordecai Ecosystem Restoration Project was expected to restore and protect 7,480 square feet of shoreline and marsh habitat using 20-foot tubes made of organic material. But the project failed. The second phase, which is currently out to bid, will use geotubes over a total of 1.38 acres of coastal salt marsh that the organization hopes will be restored and protected from further erosion over a two-year period. If the biostabilization techniques are successful over the long term, an additional 2.62 acres is expected to be protected as part of the project.
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/183/story/263809.html |
Wildlife Restoration
Vermont: Biologists Attempt to Restore Spruce Grouse Population
A wildlife restoration effort is starting to take flight in Vermont. The spruce grouse - whose population has been dwindling since the end of the 19th century - may be making a comeback, thanks to the work of state biologists. These days, Mark Freeman and Nick Fortin spend a lot of their time deep in the woods of Vermont's northeast kingdom. They're tracking the progress of the spruce grouse, as the rare bird considers whether to call this part of Vermont home. The victory basin wildlife management area - and, in fact, most of the state - hasn't had a spruce grouse population in more than a century.
http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/Biologists-attempt-to-restore-Spruce-Grouse-population-in/1221703173.html
Wyoming: United Habitat Restoration Project Succeeds
Since 1990, the Little Mountain area south of Rock Springs has benefited from nearly $2.2 million in collaborative, landscape-scale, on-the-ground habitat restoration projects funded by 16 private groups and federal and state agencies. The Wyoming Game and Fish Department has spent an additional $350,000 to improve wildlife habitat as well. "It's been pretty amazing what we've been able to do out there," said Kevin Spence, a wildlife biologist with the Game and Fish Department's Green River office.
http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/09/23/news/wyoming/doc48d8e4dfd6a7a927529463.txt
Washington: Imperiled Frogs get a Fresh Start at Fort Lewis
About 500 tiny newcomers hopped and skittered through the mucky waters of Dailman Lake on Monday, pioneers in the first-ever relocation project for the Oregon spotted frog, a state endangered species. They were born this spring in the Black River wetlands of Thurston County, captured and reared at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park near Eatonville and transported to a secluded, 50-acre lake and wetlands complex at Fort Lewis in a bid to boost their numbers and help them avoid extinction.
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/593299.html |
| Extractive Industries
Audio: Chevron, Ecuador In Costly Environmental Dispute
Oil giant Texaco, now owned by Chevron, is involved in an epic environmental lawsuit brought on behalf of the indigenous people of Ecuador's rain forest. Texaco is accused of failing to clean up billions of gallons of toxic waste produced during its involvement in oil production in Ecuador. Although the company ended its operations there in the early 1990s, its new owner Chevron inherited the lawsuit.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94751411&ft=1&f=1025
Illinois: Pipeline gives $25,000 for Restoration at Midewin
Alliance Pipeline has donated $25,000 to assist The Wetlands Initiative in restoring rare wetland and prairie habitat at Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie north of Wilmington. The two-year project will restore 109 acres of dolomitic wetlands and prairies, which are rare landscapes formed by glacial drift that left underlying dolomitic limestone close to the surface.
http://daily-journal.com/bloggers/outdoorjournal/?p=171 |
| Invasive Species
Unwelcome Invaders on Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian Trail is a haven for thousands of hikers annually. However, the Trail is also home to other - unwelcome - guests: invasive plants. To rid the Trail of these harmful species, The Nature Conservancy, National Park Service, Connecticut AT Committee of the Appalachian Mountain Club and Appalachian Trail Conservancy announced today that they have joined together in a removal effort near the Connecticut and Massachusetts border. The work is part of a five-year conservation initiative to remove non-native, invasive plants from over 9,000 acres of the Berkshire Taconic forest plateau.
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/massachusetts/press/press3690.html
Growing Native Plants or Native Weeds?
When the confrontations boil over on this otherwise quiet street, Valley Forge Drive in Orange, tempers flare, harsh words are traded, and city code enforcement is called in to referee.
The house on the corner, it seems, has gone back to nature. And the neighbors are up in arms about it. "We pull weeds, and he's growing them," said neighbor Joanne Woltz, 82, who, like others on the block, has a manicured lawn and carefully trimmed ornamental plants. "We just look the other way when we drive by. We just don't like what he's done."
http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080920/LIFESTYLE/809209951/-1/frontpage&title=Growing_native_plants_or_native_weeds_ |
| Urban Restoration
California: Will Good Science Prevail in Restoration of Aliso Creek?
Although there are those who continue to believe in Fantasyland and its application to the Athens Group development, Aliso Creek isn't Disneyland and a reality check is required. Ms. Gladstone opines that the Athens Group project is environmentally sensitive and that they "look forward to restoring the creek as a suitable habitat for Steelhead Trout should they ever return". She also states the creek will be "designed to look natural."
http://www.lagunabeachindependent.com/news/2008/0919/letters/007.html
Virginia Beach's Crystal Lake Ecosystem is Focus of Restoration
A new environmental group officially launched itself here Thursday with a difficult mission and a very un-environmental name: the Crystal Club. The group - its membership today is basically three guys - hopes to spread a green ethic in a wealthy old North End neighborhood and restore Crystal Lake to a marsh-lined, oyster-rich ecosystem off the Lynnhaven River.
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/09/virginia-beachs-crystal-lake-ecosystem-focus-restoration |
| Recreation & Tourism
Tennessee: New Wolf River Recreational Site to Keep Wildlife Intact
The sight of deer bounding through the woods may not have surprised Larry J. Smith, but the half-dozen or so wild turkeys that popped their heads up out of the tall grass to gaze curiously at intruders certainly did. Deep in the bottomlands north of Collierville, it's clear that Shelby County's newest recreational site -- the "Wolf River Wildlife Area" -- is aptly named. "This is how it's going to stay -- what you see here," said Smith, a county environmental official and former conservation group leader who helped direct the efforts that resulted in the establishment of the site.
http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2008/sep/21/keeping-wildlife-intact/
Florida: Grant to Restore Habitats
A restoration plan at Tom Bennett Park calls for removing invasive plants and bringing back upland and wetland habitats. Manatee County recently received a $30,000 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that will help move the project forward. The county could eventually receive up to $100,000 from the agency, said Maggie Marr, the county's grant coordinator. The plan is to restore 50 acres of upland and 25 acres of wetland at the park, just west of Interstate 75 and north of State Road 64. Nature trails and a canoe and kayak launch, which would connect to the Blueways Trail, are planned near the nature preserves area of the park.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20080918/ARTICLE/809180308/2193/SPORTS&title=Grant_to_restore_habitats |
| Funding Opportunities
MS/PhD Graduate Student Opportunities in Biogeographic Aspects of Land-Use Change and Terrestrial Biogeochemistry
One to two graduate assistantships are available to prospective students interested in global change impacts on biogeochemical cycling and biodiversity in the Department of Geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, starting Fall 2009. Students with interests in the following are encouraged to apply: land-use/land-cover and climatic change effects on biogeochemical cycling, mechanisms of soil organic matter stabilization, restoration of ecosystem goods and services, legacies of human disturbance on tropical forest structure and species composition, and physical and human dimensions of land-use and land-cover change. Opportunities exist for fieldwork in tropical as well as local and regional ecosystems. For more information on the
graduate programs, please visit:
http://www.geography.wisc.edu/admissions/index.htm
Connecticut: Clean and Clear Offers Ecosystem Restoration Grants - Closes October 10, 2008
Governor Jim Douglas announced that the Center for Clean and Clear at the Agency of Natural Resources is making up to $500,000 in grants available for its Ecosystem Restoration Program. Governor Douglas said the newly expanded program broadens the range of eligible projects to more fully encompass the multitude of strategies and techniques available for improving water quality in the state, with special emphasis on reducing phosphorus and sediment pollution associated with wet weather runoff.
http://www.vermont.gov/portal/government/article.php?news=564
US: New Forest-Health Grant Cycle Begins - Closes October 10, 2008
With $1 million federal funding boost, the Colorado State Forest Service has up to $2 million available for forest restoration proposals that protect critical water supplies and address related forest health challenges such as wildfire risk reduction, community protection, ecological restoration and woody biomass utilization. Grant applications are due by 4 p.m., Oct. 10 and awards will be announced in early November.
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20080810/NEWS/372732661/1078&ParentProfile=1055
Seed Grants from the Organization for Tropical Studies - Closes October 15, 2008
To promote further research at LCBS and surrounding areas, there is a post-workshop call for seed grants (for graduate students at US and Costa Rican institutions) to conduct interdisciplinary pilot studies on themes related to the workshop. Preference will be given to graduate students who attended the workshop and research proposals are restricted to projects that would be undertaken at LCBS and the surrounding vicinity. The application deadline is October 15, 2008. For further information on LCBS or the call for seed grants visit the OTS website (www.ots.ac.cr) and click on the link for Las Cruces.
Washington: Nearshore Restoration Projects - Closes October 17, 2008
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) is accepting proposals from organizations seeking state funds for projects that would protect and restore natural shorelines and estuaries in Puget Sound. Applications and additional information about submitting proposals are available at http://www.pugetsoundnearshore.org/esrp.htm or by contacting Jenna Norman at 360-902-2658 or ESRP@dfw.wa.gov. http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/5075
Oregon: Grants Available for Watershed Restoration - October 20, 2008
The Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board is accepting grant proposals for what it calls "on-the-ground restoration projects that approach natural resources management from a whole-watershed perspective." The organization will continue to accept proposals until Oct. 20. Interested landowners can contact the Umatilla County Soil and Water Conservation District at 276-8131. Project examples include weed control, native plant reseeding, streambank planting to slow erosion, off-stream livestock watering facilities or fencing stream areas to restore riparian function, restoring or enhancing natural wetlands, improving fish habitat and culvert removal or replacement.
http://www.eastoregonian.info/main.asp?SectionID=13&SubSectionID=48&ArticleID=82634&TM=72801.63
Oregon: Watershed Restoration Funding Announcement - Closes October 24, 2008
NOAA Restoration Center funding is available to support community-based habitat restoration through our funding partner, Ecotrust, and the Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative (WWRI). In partnership with NOAA, Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board (OWEB), and the Pacific Northwest Region of the U.S. Forest Service, Ecotrust is currently accepting proposals for funding through the 2009 cycle of the WWRI.
http://jcmrc.blogspot.com/2008/09/watershed-restoration-funding.html | |
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