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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
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
Washington: Volunteer Opportunities at Duwamish Alive! Habitat Restoration Event
There's a boatload of opportunities to help restore fish and wildlife habitat along the Duwamish River by participating in the third-annual Duwamish Alive! habitat restoration and clean-up event, Saturday, Oct. 11. Habitat clean-up and restoration activities are scheduled at eight locations along the Duwamish on Oct. 11 - from Herring's House Park, just south of Harbor Island, to Codiga Park, several miles upstream in Tukwila. Volunteers will help the environment by pulling weeds, mulching, planting native vegetation and picking up debris from along the banks of the Duwamish.
http://www.kingcounty.gov/environment/dnrp/newsroom/newsreleases/2008/september/0924Duwamish-Alive.aspx
Hawaii: Workshop's Focus on Conservation, Restoration of Private Lands
The Department of Land and Natural Resources, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is offering a free workshop on conservation and restoration of private lands. "Landowner Assistance: Environmental Conservation and Restoration" will be from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Oct. 9 at Kapa'a's Aloha Beach Hotel.
http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2008/09/28/news/news05.txt
Pennsylvania: Volunteers Needed to Plant Trees in Camden
The New Jersey Tree Foundation is looking for volunteers to help Camden community groups plant roughly 275 trees on streets and in open spaces around the city. More than 5,400 volunteers have planted over 2,900 trees since 2002 as part of the Urban Airshed Restoration Program. The program has scheduled 11 planting days, most on weekends, through November. The first is Saturday when volunteers will assist students from the Leap Academy plant 21 trees. Tools and gloves are provided and projects are supervised by staff from the New Jersey Tree Foundation.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20080926_Volunteers_needed_to_plant_trees_in_Camden.html
Woodland Forests and Rare Species in New Jersey Preserve
Seventeen thousand trees planted, thousands more to go, Louis Cantafio tallied while handing out tools at the Franklin Parker Preserve near Chatsworth. "When you unload 25,000 trees on 14 square miles, you think, 'Oh my God, I'll never get this done,' " said Cantafio, senior land steward of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation. But thanks to volunteers from groups including the New Jersey Youth Corps in Camden, and Rutgers and Kean Universities, the preserve's former cranberry bogs off Route 563 in Burlington County are getting a boost in reverting to their natural swampy state.
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20080929_Woodland_forests_and_rare_species_in_N_J__preserve.html
California: Volunteers Restoring Burned Habitat
Habitat restoration efforts in the San Dieguito River Valley Park are underway to save the coastal cactus wren, an imperiled bird species unique to Southern California whose population was hit hard by the October 2007 wildfires. The cactus scrub around Lake Hodges and the San Pasqual Valley is considered a stronghold for the coastal cactus wren and the federally threatened gnatcatcher. The wren nests in prickly pear cactus and the gnatcatcher in low, woody sage scrub.
http://www.delmartimes.net/news/249023-volunteers-restoring-burned-habitat |
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People in the News
Cape Ecologist to Retire after Pivotal Tidal Restoration Role
It's not every man who has the kind of influence that could last 100 years. But it's fair to make that claim about Cape Cod National Seashore ecologist John Portnoy. On Tuesday, Portnoy will retire after 30 years with the federal agency. He is stepping down just as his baby of sorts, the massive Herring River tidal restoration project in Wellfleet and Truro is taking flight. The project is the largest restoration attempted along the Northeast coast.
http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080926/NEWS/809260329
A Rare Devotion to Native Plants
Shannel Courtney cares about plants no home gardener can ever hope to encounter. He talks to Hayley Gale about his passion for plants and the lessons they offer for our environmental guardianship. Scutellaria novae-zelandiae - shovel mint, to use its common name - is a small plant that most people have never heard of, let alone seen. That could be either despite or because of it being near the top of a list of 320 threatened or at-risk plants in the Nelson region.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/nelsonmail/4708161a19260.html |
| New Books & Articles
Comparing Ecosystem Goods and Services Provided by Restored and Native Lands.
An analysis of eight categories of goods and services associated with native and restored lands in the lower 48 states finds that restored lands offer 31 percent to 93 percent of native land benefits within a decade of restoration, depending on the biome and the goods and services of interest. The results indicate conservation should be the first priority in planning, but that restoration can have substantial value across broad regions.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/aiob-bts092408.php
Everglades Rescue Progress "Scant"
The most ambitious ecosystem restoration project attempted in this country -- and probably the whole planet -- is the effort to rescue the overdrained and polluted Florida Everglades. But a new report out today from the National Academy of Sciences says the effort is "making only scant progress toward achieving its goals."
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/environment/archives/148864.asp?from=blog_last3
The New Economy of Nature
Why shouldn't people who deplete our natural assets have to pay, and those who protect them reap profits? Conservation-minded entrepreneurs and others around the world are beginning to ask just that question, as the increasing scarcity of natural resources becomes a tangible threat to our own lives and our hopes for our children. The New Economy of Nature brings together Gretchen Daily, one of the world's leading ecologists, with Katherine Ellison, a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, to offer an engaging and informative look at a new "new economy" - a system recognizing the economic value of natural systems and the potential profits in protecting them.
http://makemoneymyself.com/the-new-economy-of-nature-gretchen-daily-katherine-ellison/
Effects of Forest-dune Ecotone Management on the Endangered Heath Grasshopper,
This population is threatened by dense growth of deciduous trees and litter accumulation. We analyzed changes in the distribution of this population after the implementation of conservation measures (thinning out the forest and removal of leaf litter). Moreover, we examined dispersal distances of the species in order to assess its colonization potential. We also studied the microhabitat preferences of C. vagans to assess key factors influencing its local distribution. Our data show a substantial growth in population size, which might be a consequence of the conservation measures. New patches on the dune were colonized, promoting dispersal between the subpopulations. We propose that restoration of forest-dune ecotones should be considered more often in landscape planning and conservation management.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2322460 |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Swapping Plantations for Biodiversity
Specifically, the state banned the multi-billion dollar moneymakers of logging and oil palm plantations within its 80,000-acre Malua Forest Reserve. This area, roughly the size of Detroit, Michigan, is composed of totally logged, partially logged and completely preserved rainforest. And it launched the first-ever tropical rainforest conservation bank last month, a distant cousin to conservation banks that have sprung up over the past decade in the United States, making investing in endangered-species protection a potentially big money maker for the savvy green investor. Scientists and environmentalists praised this environmental market innovation.
http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/article.news.php?component_id=6041&component_version_id=9013&language_id=12
Virginia: Kaine Announces Findings of Agriculture/Forestry Study
Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine unveiled a new comprehensive study, revealing that agriculture and forestry contribute about $79 billion annually to Virginia's economy. "This affirms the strength and importance of these industries and represents a significant increase from the last study, done 10 years ago, when the combined impact was $47 billion," Kaine said. "The agriculture and forestry sector is an economic engine that drives much of the economic activity in other Virginia industries, such as manufacturing, retail and wholesale trade, as well as public and private services."
http://www.washingtoncontinent.com/TWCstories/TWCnewspages2008/kaine_announces_findings_of_agri_08_091000315.htm |
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Links between Biological and Cultural Diversity
Recent years have seen the emergence of integrative fields of inquiry (resilience thinking, ecosystem health, ethnoecology, deep ecology, etc.) that have sought to improve our understanding of the complex interactions between culture and nature, to incorporate insights from both the biological and the social sciences, and to integrate traditional and local knowledge systems and worldviews with conventional scientific approaches. Over the last decade, the Biocultural Diversity paradigm has emerged as a unifying platform rooted in life-sustaining interdependencies and coevolution of various forms of diversity. Academic ethnobiology has legitimized the vital link between culture and nature and highlighted the need to save the wealth of biodiversity-related traditional knowledge, wisdom, and practices that for millennia have been maintained by indigenous peoples.
http://thecornishdemocrat.blogspot.com/2008/09/cultural-and-biological-diversity.html |
| Agro-Ecology
Audio: Wes Jackson Says Soil Must be Saved
Because agriculture is "where the initial break with nature began," it's also where changes must begin as people "participate in the creation of the new earth," Wes Jackson told a large crowd Sunday at the Land Institute. Jackson, the Land Institute founder, spoke Sunday about the importance of sustainable agriculture and his vision for a 50-year farm plan. He was the final presenter at the 30th Prairie Festival.
http://www.salina.com/rdnews/story/092908jackson
Massachusetts: Farmers on Hook for Wetlands Restoration
Orchard owners agreed to pay at least $7,000 in fines and replace wetlands destroyed when they built a barn years ago, the state said yesterday. Restoration work, which will have to be finished by Halloween to avoid further fines, will replace about 9,000 square feet of damaged wetlands with some 14,000 square feet of wetlands, Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joe Ferson said yesterday. The land was damaged when the farm's owners built a metal barn at 252 Rowley Bridge Road. State employees discovered the barn when they looked at aerial photos from 2001 and 2005, Ferson said.
http://www.salemnews.com/punews/local_story_269233414.html
Experiment Demonstrates 110 Years of Sustainable Agriculture
In 1896, Professor J.F. Duggar at the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Alabama (now Auburn University) started an experiment to test his theories that sustainable cotton production was possible on Alabama soils if growers would use crop rotation and include winter legumes (clovers and/or vetch) to protect the soil from winter erosion. Today, his experiment on the campus of Auburn University is the oldest, continuous cotton experiment in the world and the third oldest field crop experiment in the United States on the same site. The experiment, known as "the Old Rotation," has continued with only slight modifications in treatments and was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1988.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/09/080929123945.htm |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
UN Millennium Development Goals Expand to Include Biodiversity
For the first time, the United Nations Millennium Development Goals is monitoring the world's plants and animals using the Red List Index developed by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN. Based on the comprehensive IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, the index shows trends in the overall extinction risk for sets of species at global, regional and national levels.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-29-01.asp
Seeing Beyond the Trees in the Riddle of Carbon Capture
Putting a price on carbon stored in the landscape is a double-edged sword. If implemented with foresight and planning it could be a critical tool in the fight against climate change and also a dynamic mechanism for breathing new life into restoration of our rural landscapes. If implemented poorly, its effectiveness in combating climate change will not only be reduced but will lead to less water for our parched rivers, the loss of productive farmland and more pressure on our declining biodiversity.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/news/opinion/editorial/general/seeing-beyond-the-trees-in-the-riddle-of-carbon-capture/1322210.aspx
Australia: Grazing Livestock a Way of Life that's Hard to Kick
Around Bourke, where the climate has been extreme for as long as anyone can remember, there are plenty of people who do not believe in man-made climate change. And out on the mulga country of Western NSW yesterday, the grazier Don Le Lievre was just as incredulous about Ross Garnaut's suggestion he should make a living from growing native vegetation for carbon credits instead of running cattle and sheep. "It's just seems a joke," Mr Le Lievre said of Professor Garnaut's final report, which also advocates outback kangaroo farming. More than half of agriculture's greenhouse emissions come from sheep and cattle belching methane, while kangaroos "emit negligible amounts", the report said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/grazing-livestock-a-way-of-life-that-is-hard-to-kick/2008/09/30/1222651083049.html
Science and Stewardship in a Nonmonolithic Conservation Movement
Conservation has a long history of bringing together diverse interests around a common cause. But "the conservation movement" is, of course, neither singular in what is to be conserved nor in the philosophical principles underpinning it. Here I attempt to explore some of the variations in conservation ethics that have made the conservation movement complex, compelling, and challenging to those involved.
http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/1565870/science_and_stewardship_in_a_nonmonolithic_conservation_movement/
New York: "Lost" Salt Marsh Species Discovered in Syracuse
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF) researchers have found thriving populations of a plant, native to inland salt marshes, that was previously thought to have vanished from the region. The once abundant seaside goldenrod was discovered in unlikely locations: in the median of Interstate 81 south of Syracuse and along the northbound lane of I-81, and one lone plant in the concrete median at the end of the Adams Street exit off I-81.
http://www.esf.edu/communications/news/2008/09.25.goldenrod.htm |
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Brazilian Government Largest Illegal Logger in the Amazon
A Brazilian government agency that provides land to settlers is the largest illegal logger in the Amazon rainforest and could face criminal prosecution, Environment Minister Carlos Minc said Monday. Minc blamed Institute of Colonization and Agrarian Reform, or Incra, for occupying the top six places on a new government list of the 100 largest illegal loggers. Today, he backed off a little, giving another government agency 20 days to analyze information presented by Incra contesting the legality of the deforestation.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-30-02.asp |
| Wetland Restoration
Idaho: Fading Pack River Delta to be Restored
"We are green to go," Kathy Cousins, the Idaho Department of Fish & Game's staff mitigation biologist for the Panhandle, told the Pend Oreille Basin Commission last week. The form and function of the 574-acre delta has been changed and muted by the Albeni Falls Dam over the last 50 years. The multi-million dollar project, which is anticipated to begin this winter, aims to "get the delta acting as a delta again," said Cousins.
http://www.bonnercountydailybee.com/articles/2008/09/29/news/doc48df0004e747d995155517.txt
US Department of the Interior Provides $26 Million for Wetlands Grants
The Department of the Interior's Migratory Bird Conservation Commission has approved more than $26 million in funding to protect and restore more than 135,000 acres of U.S. wetland areas and wildlife habitats under the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), accord to a Sept. 15 press release. The commission also approved $4.1 million in funding to add more than 4,400 other wetland acres to seven national wildlife refuges. The grants will support 27 projects in 20 states. The grants were awarded under NAWCA's U.S. Standard Grants Program administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. Partners in these projects will contribute an additional $86 million in matching funds to help support these conservation efforts.
http://www.eponline.com/articles/67729/
Paine Field Wetland Bank Earns First Washington Accreditation
Today, the Washington Department of Ecology extended its highest honor to both Snohomish County and Paine Field Airport Deputy Director Bill Lewallen for innovation and leadership in successfully completing the first fully accredited wetland mitigation bank in the state. State and federal laws prohibit the loss of most wetlands due to development. A wetland bank is a pre-existing wetland restoration project. Projects that must offset wetland losses may purchase credits at a wetland bank in the same watershed - subject to regulatory approval. Wetland bank credits represent portions of completed restoration projects.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-24-091.asp |
River & Watershed Restoration
New Mexico: Richardson Announces $2.8 Million for River Work
Some of New Mexico's major watersheds will get a boost from $2.8 million in capital outlay funding. Gov. Bill Richardson announced the funding Wednesday, saying 15 agencies and conservation groups will use the money to help restore and improve the health of New Mexico's river ecosystem.
http://www.lcsun-news.com/ci_10549258
Canada: River Restoration Work Begins
The restoration project is slated to come in three phases, and Van Hinte says yesterday's work was the beginning of the first phase. Phase one is expected to take two years, and it will involve preparing the riverbank for tidal action by installing filter fabric and a layer of rock along the shoreline, improving drainage around the causeway and preparing dykes and aboiteaux upstream from the causeway for changes in river flow. Once the causeway gates open in 2010, phase two will involve monitoring the river for up to two years to study how tidal flow is impacting the fish population and surrounding habitat and to ensure erosion controls are working. Phase three is the construction of a 280-metre long, four-lane bridge to replace the causeway, a project that is expected to take three to four years.
http://timestranscript.canadaeast.com/news/article/428114
Colorado: River Gets Repairs in Minturn, Edwards
Restoration work will begin Tuesday on a warm, wide and shallow stretch of the Eagle River in Edwards, an area notoriously unwelcoming to fish. So, you can expect to see construction crews and heavy equipment actually in the river, moving rocks and dirt. Restoration has already started on a stretch of the Eagle River running through Minturn that was badly damaged by early development in town.
http://www.vaildaily.com/article/20080927/NEWS/809269868/1078&ParentProfile=1062&title=River%20gets%20repairs%20in%20Minturn,%20Edwards
Minnesota: Grant to Assist with Watershed Restoration, Partners to be Utilized
The Osceola Soil and Water Conservation District has won a grant worth more than 5.6 million dollars for a project that will utilize many partners in Osceola and Dickinson counties in Iowa and Jackson and Nobles counties in Minnesota. Through a grant from the Watershed Improvement Review Board, the Osceola SWCD will seek to restore up to 900 acres of wetlands and upland areas in the Silver Lake Watershed.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20144099&BRD=2204&PAG=461&dept_id=431379&rfi=6 |
| Grassland Restoration
California: Fire Danger from Eucalyptus should Fuel Consensus
Groves of towering eucalyptus trees in Tam Valley pose a fire danger that would put hundreds of neighboring homes at risk in a wildfire. The trees should be removed, but county and federal officials also need to do a better job of reassuring residents that there is a plan to restore the area once that happens. The Marin County Fire Department is teaming up with the Golden Gate National Recreation Area to remove the trees, which will dramatically alter the land-scape of the area along Highway 1. Removing the eucalyptus also will create an opportunity to restore grasslands that have been crowded out by dense stands of the non-native trees.
http://www.marinij.com/ci_10591124?source=most_emailed
Minnesota: Fall Colors of the Praire
The "Arb," as it is known on campus, stretches along the Cannon River and ranges from floodplain forest to oak savannah to tall-grass prairie. This last area is what interested me the most on this trip. When I was at Carleton 23 years ago the prairie consisted only of a hillside that began to be restored in the 1970's. Work on this area continued, and restoration of nearby areas that were originally oak savannah began in the 80's. I didn't pay much attention to further restoration efforts, so I was amazed and delighted to see that prairie restoration has exploded. When I was there in the mid-80's, Carleton owned a lot of land that was still used for crop production, but apparently not only has the land been taken out of production, but it has been aggressively restored with prairie plants. The scope of restoration, given the small hillside they started with, is breathtaking! And at this time of year, a visual delight! The photos don't really do justice to the riot of color and texture on the landscape. Remember, 20 years ago these were cornfields.
http://wovenwire.blogspot.com/2008/09/fall-colors-on-prairie.html |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
California: Filmmaker Brings Story of Bolinas Lagoon to Festival
For the past five years, Chayes and his camera have followed efforts by Bolinas and Stinson Beach residents to save Bolinas Lagoon. On Sunday, "Call It Home: Searching For Truth on Bolinas Lagoon" will premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival. One week later, public television station KQED will feature the film as part of its "Truly California" series. "He has done an excellent job of capturing the different viewpoints in the community regarding Bolinas Lagoon, and done it in an unbiased manner, showing the different perspectives everyone had and the rationale behind those perspectives," said Maria Brown, superintendent of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. "It's also an interesting movie, looking at a community in which people had the same goal in mind, but were divided about how to get there."
http://www.marinij.com/westmarin/ci_10570792 |
Wildlife Restoration
California: Stalled Restoration of Skaggs Island
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| Extractive Industries
Philippines: We Aim to Surpass Mt. Apo Success
The Energy Development Corp., which is now under fire from environmentalist groups for its geothermal development within the 169-hectare buffer zone of the Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park, said it aims to replicate, if not surpass, its success in Mt. Apo, in Negros Occidental. EDC reported that one of its efforts to protect biodiversity can be observed in the Mt. Apo Natural Park, including the conversion of cogonal lands to forest lands, restoration of 701 hectares of open grassland, which is now serving as habitat and nesting place for birds and other wildlife species.
http://www.visayandailystar.com/2008/September/30/businessnews2.htm |
| Urban Restoration
Maryland: One Man's Grassland is his Neighbor's Annoyance
Dean Joyce calls the 7-foot grasses on his property a study of native species. His neighbors call them weeds and want them cut. The Washington County Commissioners agree with the critics and have ordered the three-acre lawn mowed, despite expert opinions that Joyce's yard in a Sharpsburg subdivision is an impressive and valuable example of grassland management.
http://www.examiner.com/a-1610859~One_man_s_grassland_is_his_neighbor_s_annoyance.html
Tiffany Announces Grants to Restore & Beautify Urban Environments
In support of its mission to preserve the natural heritage that distinguishes great urban centers, The Tiffany & Co. Foundation today announced grants to three organizations-Hermann Park Conservancy in Houston, Parkways Foundation in Chicago, and The Vizcayans in Miami-for the restoration of parks and gardens in their individual cities. These grants expand the Foundation's urban parks program that originated with support for New York City's parks through the Battery Conservancy and Friends of the High Line and now includes parks in other major cities, as well.
http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/fashion-news/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=63918
Minnesota: 9,000 Acres in Dakota County Could be a Paradise for Recreation
Private mining operations next to public ski trails. A bustling dog park, a popular trout stream and a small cattle farm. All bordering hundreds of acres set aside for prairie restoration and cutting-edge crop research within a stone's throw of open hunting grounds. If that sounds like an avalanche of uses for one area, it is. State, Dakota County and University of Minnesota officials are making no secret of the fact that their wide-ranging plans for 9,000 acres of green space in Empire Township, south of Rosemount, are dizzying, ambitious and complex. Some may even seem a bit contradictory.
http://www.twincities.com/ci_10575719?nclick_check=1 |
| Recreation & Tourism
California: Restoration Plans Begin for Tenaya Lake in Yosemite
The National Park Service intends to take the Tenaya Lake experience to a new level with its plan to improve virtually all aspects of the visitor experience, while also providing greater protection to the lakeside environment. And through Oct. 18, the park service is accepting public comment and ideas for improving the lake. "Tenaya is really beloved," said Linda Dahl, chief of planning for Yosemite. "And the use has grown, but it's grown in ways we really haven't planned for." Visitors often park on the highway shoulder after spotting the lake, endangering themselves and other motorists. Moreover, established parking areas are not well defined.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/localnews/ci_10578024?nclick_check=1
California: Conservation Group gets $515,000 for Fernandez Ranch
The California Coastal Conservancy has given a Martinez-based conservation group the final funding it needs for a $3 million environmental restoration and trail building project on 702 acres of open space in the hills between Hercules and Martinez. The $515,000 grant for work on the Fernandez Ranch was announced Monday by the Muir Heritage Land Trust. The announcement caps a three-year drive by the group to raise enough money from grants and private contributions to repair erosion on Rodeo Creek and its tributaries, and to build 3.5 miles of hiking and riding trails for public use.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10593028?nclick_check=1
California: Saving Snow Creek
Jacqui Grandfield of Agate Bay drives by the Snow Creek wetland in Tahoe Vista several times a week, so she's had a chance to admire the fruits of her labor. Unfortunately, so has the general public. "This summer I noticed less wildlife using the area," Grandfield said of the wetlands that she helped restore eight years ago while working under contract to the California Tahoe Conservancy. "That's because it's getting a lot more public use. That's what happens when a natural area is restored like that. It's pretty and nice and the wildlife start coming back and so do the people."
http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20080926/NEWS/809269990/1066&ParentProfile=1051&title=SAVING%20SNOW%20CREEK |
| 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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