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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
Conferences & Workshops
Announcing the 2009 Natural Areas Stewardship Training! Deadline Nov 3, 2008
The 2009 Natural Areas Stewardship Training has been developed by the Washington Native Plant Society in collaboration with the Cascade Land Conservancy and the Green Seattle Program. Funding for the implementation of the Training in Perce County in has been provided by the Pierce Conservation District and the City of Tacoma through the Green Partnership Fund - as coordinated by the Greater Tacoma Community Foundation. In-kind services are also provided members, staff and experts affiliated with the Washington Native Plant Society, the Cascade Land Conservancy, and Metro Parks Tacoma.
http://www.wnps.org/npsp/npsp.htm
IUFRO World Congress: Seoul, Republic of Korea, 23-28 August 2010
The International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) will hold its 23rd World Congress in Seoul, Republic of Korea from August 23-28, 2010. The title of the Congress is "Forests for the Future: Sustaining Society and the Environment". The Congress Scientific Committee invites submission of technical session proposals until 15 January 2009. Session proposals are welcome from all organizations and individuals with an interest in the future of forests from all forest-related scientific disciplines. An open call for papers will be available in February 2009 and abstracts will be accepted from March through September 2009. For more information on the IUFRO World Congress, including the First Announcement, Congress Themes and Call for Session Proposals, please visit the Congress website at http://www.iufro2010.com or the IUFRO website at http://www.iufro.org.
Illinois: Attend the Healthy Woodlands Symposium
Interested in conserving woodlands and the plants and animals that live there? On October 31 The Morton Arboretum will be hosting a symposium on Managing Tree and Shrub Cover for Healthy Woodlands. Ecological restoration in oak forests: Fire and thinning effects on structure, composition and diversity by Todd Hutchinson, Ecologist, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station.
http://mortonarb.czcommunity.com/areas-of-interest/arb-happenings/attend-the-healthy-woodlands-symposium/267/
Get Involved/Community-based Restoration
Global Ecological Restoration: Yes We Did It, and We Can Undo It
Two wonderful commentaries today are worthy of merit for communicating well the urgency of climate and global ecological change, while proposing sufficient solutions (both to which Ecological Internet is committed). The Yale Environment360 site notes the "urgency of the current situation cannot be overemphasized" and thus urges the next President of the United States to immediately wield powers under the clean air act to regulate carbon dioxide. And environment heavy-hitters including Thomas E. Lovejoy and Tim Flannery note that while atmospheric carbon levels at 387 are already past the dangerous level of 350, that tremendous potential exists to ecologically restore degraded lands, returning carbon to safe levels while staunching hemorrhaging of biodiversity. There is much more work to be done on the social incentives and policies necessary to make it equitable and just, but it is a global ecological necessity that we strongly and immediately commit to an era of ecological restoration.
http://www.climateark.org/blog/2008/10/indeed_we_did_it_we_can_will_a.asp
New Mexico: Projects Teach Students Science of Restoration
The young people get paid while working with Tori Derr, who contracts through her one-person business, Crane Collaborations, to do work on restoration projects around the state, and Anna Marie Nuñez a youth coordinator who works in the high school office. "This gives them the ability to learn about multiple things. Not just seed collection. They get the bigger picture of forest health - before, during and after the fire. They acquire an ability to understand the way a forest works," Derr said.
http://www.emtelegraph.com/index.php/news/404-projects-teach-students-science-of-restoration.html
New Zealand: Landowners Help Protect the Landscape
Since 2003, 41 new projects across Marlborough have been funded on private land and 15 of these have been covenanted. Projects included wetland restoration work, restoration planting, fencing and pest, plant and animal control. "The programme has gained strong momentum with many landowners approaching the Council for assistance voluntarily," Ms Eade said.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlboroughexpress/4738317a6563.html
Illinois: Scout Project Benefits Prairie Restoration
Gathering seeds for next year's plants, flowers and crops is as important as the sowing, caring, harvesting and enjoying the fruits of everyone's labor whether they were yesteryear's farmers or today's urban dwellers. Seed pickers come in all sizes, shapes and ages at the Spring Valley Nature Center. Scouts, friends, families and other volunteers make their way into the prairie-styled land to become hunters and gathers. The hunting is finding the right plants and grasses, and the gathering is seed picking seeds for planting the following year.
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/schaumburg/news/1237122,sc-COLbain-102308-s1.article
Delaware: 120 Volunteers Collect Acorns to Help Restore Delaware Habitat
Volunteers from across Delaware joined with scientists from DNREC's Division of Fish and Wildlife Landowner Incentive Program to collect acorns that will be used to help private landowners enhance or establish wildlife habitat. More than 120 volunteers took part in the 4th Annual Acorn Collection Day Oct. 18, held at three locations - Rockford Park in Wilmington, Smyrna Rest Area and Holts Landing State Park near Ocean View.
http://outdoornewsdaily.com/index.php/archives/5406
Idaho: Detention Basin Planting Planting Day
13 volunteers planted 325 trees and shrubs, as well as native grasses, in 6 stormwater detention basins as part of a township-wide wetland habitat restoration program. As chair of the Andover Township Environmental Commission, this is a project very close to my heart. Directed by US Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Brian Marsh, the project is a joint effort, with the federal Partners in Wildlife program providing the plants and technical assistance and the township providing the labor. Later on, the Township will plant wildflowers and perennials, and install nest boxes and interpretive signs.
http://loisdevries.blogspot.com/2008/10/detention-basin-planting-day.html
California: Aspen Regeneration Meadow Restoration Volunteer Work Day Being Organized
The Calaveras County Ranger District is organizing an Aspen Regeneration/ Meadow Restoration Volunteer Work Day on the Calaveras Ranger District of the Stanislaus National Forest. This will be a great opportunity to not only build upon the partnership between the USFS and Calaveras County residents, but to also give back to the forest. We will be hosting our Volunteer Work Day Saturday, November 8th, 2008 from 7:30am - 2:00pm.
http://thepinetree.net/index.php?module=announce&ANN_user_op=view&ANN_id=9057 |
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People in the News
Interview with Alfredo Quarto, Executive Director of the Mangrove Action Project
Twenty-eight years ago, while working as an aeronautical engineer for Boeing, Alfredo Quarto seized an opportunity to become a full-time Greenpeace activist. Now, as the founder and executive director of the Seattle-based Mangrove Action Project, Alfredo has found his own critical mission: saving the Earth's mangroves.
http://www.13point7billion.org/2008/10/interview-alfredo-quarto-executive.html
Prairie Nuts Give Nature a Leg Up
"They call 'em 'prairie nuts,'" says Jim Rachuy. "I guess I'm one of those." This could explain what Rachuy was doing out in the hot early-autumn sun, wading through waist-high grass and hunting for rosenweed and rattlesnake master seeds. And Rachuy isn't alone. He's part of a whole organization of people who are willing to clomp through prairies collecting the next generation of midwestern wilderness. They are aptly called the Prairie Enthusiasts, and Rachuy is executive director of the northwest Illinois chapter.
http://www.galenagazette.com/main.asp?SectionID=142&SubSectionID=344&ArticleID=12675&TM=34627.14
Pine Forests to Get Help from WUSTL Biologists
WUSTL biologists will play a key role in helping restore the longleaf pine communities of the southeastern United States. Ellen Damschen, Ph.D., and John Orrock, Ph.D., both assistant professors in biology in Arts & Sciences, are the lead principal investigators on the ambitious project that hopes to restore one of the most unique ecosystems in the country. "We will examine the mechanisms that limit the recovery of longleaf pine understory plant communities at three separate government installations in the southeastern United States," Orrock said.
http://record.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/12729.html |
| New Books & Articles
500 Places to See Before They Die
The first guidebook of 'last chance saloon' holidays will be published tomorrow for travellers who want to visit the most endangered tourist destinations across the world. Frommer's 500 Places To See Before They Disappear provides a list of sites where it is still possible to see rare and vulnerable animal species, special landscapes and unique cultural sights in their unspoilt glory. Co-author Holly Hughes, a former executive editor of Fodor's Travel Publications, said: 'The devastation wrought by climate change and direct man-made interference is familiar to all of us. But this book is a carefully chosen list of last-chance destinations that eco-conscious travellers can enjoy - if they move sharpish - for possibly the last time.'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2008/oct/26/travel-conservation-heritage
Restoring the rare forb Erodium macrophyllum to exotic grassland in southern California
A study in Endangered Species Research looks at a rare forb called the large leaved filaree or storksbill - scientifically Erodium macrophyllum. Historically, the species was common across California and other parts of western North America. But competition with alien species has restricted its distribution to clay soil in California, earning it a "rare and endangered" status. In the study, the researchers tried to restore the native plant in experimental plots to examine whether it could compete with other native or introduced species. This technique is common to plant ecology studies, allowing a way to look at the relative importance of different factors on plant establishment.
http://www.aboutmyplanet.com/science-technology/grassland-restoration/
Jeffrey St. Clair's "Born Under A Bad Sky"
What the astronomers and laboratory physicists were to Einstein and Bohr, St. Clair is to "theoretical" environmentalists like James Lovelock and Kirkpatrick Sale, and even Sitting Bull and Black Elk, who warned long ago about the inevitable burn-out of "The American way of Life." BAD SKY is an example of on-the-ground, muckraking journalism that proves not only that the warnings of what the likes of Bush and Company slandered as "the environmental fringe" were right on target, but that "The American Way of Life" is indeed "non-negotiable," for Nature does not "negotiate" with terrorists. From the view-point of all flora and fauna in this once abundant land, including humans, that is exactly what the corporations and government agencies that aid and abet them are: terrorists.
http://www.countercurrents.org/engel231008.htm
Urban Park Restoration and the "Museumification" of Nature by Paul Gobster
Ecological restoration is becoming an increasingly popular means of managing urban natural areas for human and environmental values. But although urban ecological restorations can foster unique, positive relationships between people and nature, the scope of these interactions is often restricted to particular activities and experiences, especially in city park settings. Drawing on personal experiences and research on urban park restorations in Chicago and San Francisco, I explore the phenomenon of this "museumification" in terms of its revision of landscape and land use history, how it presents nature through restoration design and implementation, and its potential impacts on the nature experiences of park users, particularly children. I conclude that although museum-type restorations might be necessary in some cases, alternative models for the management of urban natural areas may provide a better balance between goals of achieving authenticity in ecological restorations and authenticity of nature experiences.
http://nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/8905
Organizational Resilience
What is resilience and what benefits does it offer? Is it an attempt to re-brand business continuity - to give it a new coat of paint? Or, is it an enabler for business continuity practitioners to provide an enhanced level of service to their stakeholders? The second definition emphasises conditions without an equilibrium steady-state, where instabilities can change a system into another state or behaviour. In this case resilience is measured by the magnitude of disturbance that can be absorbed before the system restructures into something new. This Holling termed as ecological resilience and it's this term that's challenging some business continuity practitioners.
http://www.continuitycentral.com/feature0618.html |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Texas: Pineywoods - One Big (and Potentially Lucrative) Filtering Forest
The Conservation Fund has spearheaded an effort to preserve a swath of rare and endangered river-swamp forest by cashing in on the ecosystem's natural ability to filter water. This massive mitigation bank shows that bigness has its environmental benefits, but can it turn a profit? They say that everything is bigger in the US state of Texas - the money, the houses, the cars, the hair - and now the largest wetland mitigation bank in the world, a 19,000-acre, 45-mile long preserve called the Pineywoods Mitigation Bank, where developers that destroy wetlands in the same watershed can purchase shares to compensate for the loss they create.
http://ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/article.news.php?component_id=6316&component_version_id=9377&language_id=12 |
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Australia: Indigenous Rangers, Marine Scientists Team Up to Map Seabed
For the first time, traditional Indigenous knowledge has been combined with the latest technology to map underwater habitats off north-east Arnhem Land. Indigenous sea rangers and Northern Territory marine scientists have this week been using an underwater video camera to map the seabed around Bremer Island off Nhulunbuy. The group's lead scientist, Professor Karen Edyvane, says the information is crucial for managing fisheries, aquaculture and development - and the rangers have a lot to contribute.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/25/2401047.htm
CBD Secretariat Posts List of Participants to Receive Funding for Participation in Indigenous Peoples' Consultation on REDD
The Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), in collaboration with the UN University's Traditional Knowledge Initiative and Tebtebba, has announced the beneficiaries of financial assistance for participation in the Global Indigenous Peoples' Consultation on Potential Impacts of "Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD)" on Indigenous and Local Communities (12-14 November 2008, Baguio City, Philippines).
http://www.climate-l.org/2008/10/cbd-secretari-2.html
Conservation Key to Sustainable Livelihood
Conservation of biodiversity and its sustainable management is becoming an important issue for addressing sustainable management of natural resources and sustainable livelihood of human societies, both in the developing and the developed world. Prof PS Ramakrishnan, in his annual day lecture - Knowledge systems and sustainability concerns in the context of global change and globalisation, at National Botanical Research Institute (NBRI), said that this concern is getting intensified to a great extent in the existing context of rapidly depleting natural resource base and the environmental uncertainties that are getting exacerbated due to climate change.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Lucknow/Conservation_key_to_sustainable_livelihood/articleshow/3641622.cms |
| Agro-Ecology
Permaculture Design Mimicks Nature to Boost Local Agriculture
"Make food, not lawns" is a key principle in permaculture design, which encourages home gardens and local agriculture. Josh Robinson, the president and permaculture designer of the ecological landscaping company Eden on Earth, lectured on the basics of permaculture design and its agricultural systems that mimic the earth's ecosystems at the Applied Research and Development building on Thursday, Oct. 9. Ideas of permaculture design offer sustainable living techniques that are possible to achieve in Flagstaff.
http://www.jackcentral.com/news/2008/10/permaculture-design-mimicks-nature-to-boost-local-agriculture/ |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
US: CO2 Emissions And Imperiled Species
The memos support recent Bush Administration statements and proposed regulatory changes to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that would block the Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service from considering the impact of greenhouse gas emissions from a single large CO2 source on endangered species. This is a sharp reversal for the wildlife agencies, says Kassie Siegel, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. "Under ESA, agencies that approve large sources of greenhouse gas emissions must analyze the impact of these emissions just like they analyze anything else that impacts endangered species," she says.
http://www.enn.com/wildlife/article/38504
Maryland: Climate Change Will Hamper Bay Restoration
The Chesapeake Bay ecosystem will be significantly impacted by climate change during the next century, according to a new report released by the Chesapeake Bay Program's Scientific and Technical Advisory Committee. "Climate Change and the Chesapeake Bay: State-of-the-Science Review and Recommendations," details the potential consequences of climate change for the Chesapeake Bay and recommends adapting restoration and resource management to account for the environmental changes.
http://www.newarkpostonline.com/articles/2008/10/27/news/doc4905cf67076fd689962768.txt
Restoration of Saltwater Marshes is a Sure Bet for Sequestering Carbon
This summer, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) announced that it was launching a $12.3 million project to capture carbon by growing tules (a species of sedge also known as bulrushes) and cattails in wetlands created on abandoned farmland on islands in California's Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta. Two months later, the carbon-storing capacity of wetlands headlined 2 days of workshops at the September 16 meeting of the Association of State Wetland Managers in Portland, Ore. The USGS project has captured eye-popping amounts of carbon-an average of 3000 grams of carbon per square meter per year (g-C/m2/yr) over the past 5 years. For comparison, reforested agricultural land, eligible for carbon credits under the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, socks away carbon at a rate much less than 100 g-C/m2/yr, says Gail Chmura, a biogeochemist at McGill University (Canada).
http://carbon-based-ghg.blogspot.com/2008/10/restoration-of-saltwater-marshes-is.html
Diversity of Trees in Ecuador's Amazon Rainforest Defies Simple Explanation
Trees in a hyper-diverse tropical rainforest interact with each other and their environment to create and maintain diversity, researchers report in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal Science. This study was conducted in the Yasuni forest dynamics plot of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, the most diverse tropical forest site associated with the Center for Tropical Forest Science/Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory network (CTFS/SIGEO). It is difficult to determine the effects of climate change, habitat fragmentation and species extinctions on life's diversity without a coherent model of how communities are organized; but a unified theory of diversity patterns in ecological communities remains elusive.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/stri-dot102308.php |
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Does George Washington National Forest Need 130,000 More Wilderness Acres?
The Forest Service is in the process of writing a new forest plan for the GWNF. Public workshops are being held and public comments are being accepted while the plan is being developed. The plan will be released down the road for formal public comment. Of importance is a proposal to designate 130,000 acres of forestlands as wilderness. This is in addition to 42,000 acres of existing wilderness and thousands of other acres under limited management.
http://swacgirl.blogspot.com/2008/10/does-george-washington-national-forest.html |
| Wetland Restoration
Partnership Eyes Wetland Restoration in Marlyand
State and federal environmental agencies and four Maryland businesses are launching a joint effort to restore wetlands around the state's coastal bays and around the Chesapeake Bay.
The Corporate Wetlands Restoration Partnership to be announced Friday in Queenstown will use $2.9 million in private and public funds for the first six projects. The four companies include Constellation Energy, Covanta Energy, the Brick Companies and Biohabitats Inc. The projects include replacing invasive weeds at North Point State Park in Baltimore County and restoring eroding shoreline on the Chester River.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2008/10/24/ap5602484.html
Northern California Wetlands are Getting Back to Natural
A $10-million project by the National Park Service aims to fully restore a Marin County estuary, which was turned into pastureland more than 60 years ago. Reporting from Point Reyes Station, Calif. -- Conservationists often speak of restoring landscapes as erasing the "hand of man." But sometimes the job of undoing decades of human manipulation requires wielding an even heavier hand. It took eight years of planning, of which two were spent bulldozing and excavating to knock down levees and redirect creeks, to re-create the "naturalness" of the Giacomini Wetlands, one of the most extensive restoration projects of its kind undertaken by the National Park Service.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-wetlands26-2008oct26,0,7736899.story
US: Over 2 Million Acres Now Enrolled in Wetlands Reserve Program
Agriculture Under Secretary of Natural Resources and Environment Mark Rey announced landowners have enrolled more than 2 million acres in U.S. Department of Agriculture's Wetlands Reserve Program, a significant contribution toward increasing the Nation's wetlands. "We have gained wetland acreage, thanks to the stewardship ethic of the Nation's farmers and ranchers," Rey said. "Because of this achievement, USDA was able to help President Bush exceed his goal of improving, restoring, and protecting at least 3 million acres of wetlands in less than five years."
http://www.wisconsinagconnection.com/story-national.php?Id=2469&yr=2008
Hawaii: Kailua Marsh's Transfer of Ownership from City Allows for Restoration
On Friday, the state officially became the sole owner of the 800-acre Kailua wetland. The transfer clears the way for restoration work, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to begin restoring an 80-acre pond that is home to four endangered and endemic water birds. Work could begin as early as late 2009.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20081026/NEWS11/810260337/1001/localnewsfront
Valuable Baltic Wetlands Still Lack Protection
Only 3% of the area of all wetlands and inland waters around the Baltic Sea have legal protection according to the RAMSAR convention, WWF reveals in a new report. Denmark, Estonia and Latvia are exceptions with between 7 and 20 % protected. Over the years, wetlands have been drained for agriculture and forest production, used for peat extraction, landfills or for other kinds of exploitation and construction works. Increasingly, calls have been raised to protect and restore existing wetlands and even to recreate lost wetland areas.
http://www.panda.org/news_facts/newsroom/index.cfm?uNewsID=148882 |
River & Watershed Restoration
Delaware: Scientists Stress Need to Preserve Watershed
There are birds like the brown-headed nuthatch. The Nanticoke is one of the northern most points in the bird's range. And there is the yellow-throated warbler, a bird that is doing fairly well in the pine and oak woods of the Nanticoke. To protect such rare species is one reason a team of state environmental scientists and biologists on Thursday outlined key issues facing the Nanticoke and urged Seaford area residents to get involved in preservation and restoration efforts. Meanwhile, the state environmental agency is working on a restoration plan for the watershed.
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20081024/NEWS08/810240351
New York: French Creek Restoration Underway
A metal monster of a machine is proving to be a fish's best friend at a remote site in Jefferson County. Wednesday morning the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service hosted a demonstration of an amphibious excavator at the French Creek Wildlife Management Area in the Town of Clayton.
Workers are utilizing the machine to remove cattails and to dig out meandering channels and shallow pools in the marshy area in hopes of restoring habitat suitable for spawning and nursery areas for various species of fish.
http://www.newswatch50.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=e6638763-3e9f-4e7b-8d5a-f8c45273ab9e
California: Movement on the Salt, Pilot Project Looks at Quality of River Silt
After decades of conceptualizing, planning, searching for funding and wrangling with regulations, a pilot project that will shape the way the old river is restored is under way. The larger project has as much to do with dirt as it does with water, because a staggering 500,000 to 600,000 cubic yards of sediment will have to be removed to restore tidal function and drainage to the decrepit tributary of the lower Eel River.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_10821110
Nevada: River Restoration Project Breaks Ground Monday
A groundbreaking ceremony will mark the start of the "Lockwood River Restoration Project" Tuesday. It is all part of a continuing effort to help stabilize the river, restore habitat, and provide more open space and recreational opportunities to the 28 acre Lockwood property, said officials at the Truckee River Flood Project.
http://www.krnv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9244613&nav=menu113_2 |
| Grassland Restoration
Canada: Cariboo Forest Region Works to Restore Grasslands
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| Coastal & Marine Restoration
California: Wetland Restoration will be First in Delta History
The first wetlands restoration project in the Delta promises to turn Dutch Slough into a learning laboratory that will provide scientists and the public a glimpse into the region's early ecology. After years of planning, environmental documents for the project will be released in November and the initial funding has been secured. The 1,166-acre former cattle grazing and dairy operations in Oakley will be transformed into habitats for freshwater tidal marsh and sand dunes.
http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10840062?nclick_check=1
Maryland: Group Sues Government over Bay
Pointing to more than two decades of failure to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the region's largest environmental group is threatening to sue the federal government for shirking its legal responsibility to reduce water pollution in the troubled estuary. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation says it will formally notify the Environmental Protection Agency today that it intends to sue the agency for not living up to the latest in a series of bay restoration agreements. The pact calls for cleaning up the bay by 2010, a deadline the EPA acknowledges is unlikely to be met.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.bay29oct29,0,4286268.story
Mexico: Mangroves at Playa Viva
Yet these trees are also very vulnerable and have become increasingly in danger of extinction in Mexico and throughout the world. Mangroves are destroyed mainly by discharge of Chemical contaminants, drainage, and by cutting them to build waterside developments. There are currently around 2,191,233 acres of Mangroves in Mexico with more than 54,364 acres being destroyed every year. In Playa viva we are restoring and preserving 125 acres, The United Nations determined that the environmental services of 1 acre is around 300,000 US dollars per year. The real question here is: How can we develop the land while also restoring and preserving our valuable mangrove system?
http://playaviva.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/mangroves-at-playa-viva/
Massachusetts: Audubon & TNC Launch First Oyster Reef Restoration Effort in
They're often called the "coral reefs of the Northeast," nursing the next generation of oysters while offering a labyrinth of habitat where fish and other animals can grow, feed and hide. Now, Mass Audubon, The Nature Conservancy and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have launched an innovative oyster reef restoration project - the first of its kind in Massachusetts - at Mass Audubon's Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary on Cape Cod. The project's aim is two-fold: to restore oyster reef habitat and the ecological services it provides, and to boost local populations of the wild American Oyster, famously known on restaurant menus as the "Wellfleet Oyster."
http://www.nature.org/wherewework/northamerica/states/massachusetts/press/press3748.html
Maryland Offers Environmental Restoration Work to Watermen
"Temporarily employing watermen for environmental restoration projects will help preserve Maryland's fishing industry infrastructure while the Chesapeake Bay's blue crab population is rebounding," said Governor Martin O'Malley. "Utlizing their existing skills and equipment, watermen will help us improve more than 1,000 acres of oyster bars." The Maryland Watermen's Association and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources collaboratively developed specific work projects designed to utilize the industry's existing equipment and skill set. In addition to oyster bar rehabilitation projects, land-based job opportunities are also available in order to accommodate individuals who do not own boats and dredge gear.
http://www.chesapeake-bay.org/index.php/10-2008/23/maryland-offers-environmental-restoration-work-to-watermen/ |
Wildlife Restoration
Arkansas: Restoration of Elk/Geese Causing Problems
Two varieties of Arkansas wildlife, both restoration success stories, are becoming unpopular in some circles. Elk and Canada geese are causing problems, and they both were targets of significant projects starting in 1981. They were restored to Arkansas, elk after more than a century of absence and Canada geese after several decades of not being found in the state to any extent.
http://www.arkansasnews.com/archive/2008/10/25/JoeMosby/348676.html
Amur Leopards Benefit from Russian Conservation Concession
For the first time ever, a partnership between WWF and a for-profit timber company has been awarded a "conservation concession" to restore approximately 10% of the critically endangered Amur leopard's habitat. The Forest Department of Primorskii Province in the Russian Far East has leased out a forest area of 45,000ha in the south-west of Primorye, which straddles Vladivostok and the Chinese boarder, to the Nerpinskoye Cooperative Society (also known as Nerpinskii rybcoop) for the next 25 years.
http://www.panda.org/index.cfm?uNewsID=148521 |
| Extractive Industries
Bolivia To Tap Huge Lithium Deposit In Salt Lake
Bolivia is moving ahead with plans to tap potentially huge lithium reserves at Uyuni, the world's biggest salt lake and one of the country's top tourist attractions, as demand for lithium-ion batteries surge. Stretched between distant Andean peaks like a shimmering white carpet, the Uyuni salt lake is home to pink flamingos, 1,000-year-old cacti, rare hummingbirds and hotels built entirely from blocks of salt.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/50782/story.htm
UK: 'Amazing' Landscape's Lottery Aid
Red grouse and mountain ponies will be among the beneficiaries of a proposed lottery grant to preserve an historic landscape in the south Wales valleys. Blaenavon won world heritage status in 2000 to recognise its part in the growth of the iron and coal industries. Now it has been earmarked for £1.6m Heritage Lottery Fund money to "protect and promote" the surrounding area. Welsh fund chairman Dan Clayton Jones said it would help to conserve an "amazing and diverse landscape".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_east/7691795.stm |
| Invasive Species
California: Beachgrass Battle
According to the NPS, the problem is that European beachgrass, Ammophila arenaria, was brought to the U.S. as a beach stabilizer. The reason that the three agencies have joined forces to destroy the grass is that it is an invasive species that damages dune habitats for a number of native and threatened plant and bird species. "European beachgrass is an aggressive colonizer of beach areas that forms a dense mat of grass and rhizomes, unlike any of the native dunemat species," reports the NPS Web site.
http://www.triplicate.com/news/story.cfm?story_no=10609
Colorado: San Miguel River is Finally Tamarisk-Free
An eight year conservation project to rid the San Miguel River of the invasive species, tamarisk, has finally come to completion. Yesterday marked the final day of the cleanup effort that has involved volunteers, agency staff and contractors from various organizations since the start of the decade. The tamarisk control project, which was led by The Nature Conservancy, has involved agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, county weed management programs, Marathon Oil Company, the Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Tamarisk Coalition. Thanks to the tamarisk removal project, around 200 kilometers of previously tamarisk-infected river is now tamarisk-free.
http://www.natural-environment.com/blog/2008/10/25/san-miguel-river-is-finally-tamarisk-free/
Maryland: Columbia Parks and Recreation Fights Back against Invasive Callery Pear Trees
Wild Callery pear trees have taken over a field along Scott Boulevard and are sprouting up along Grindstone Parkway, the wetlands in Forum Nature area and an untold number of other locations in and around Columbia. Callery pear trees - Pyrus calleryana - were first introduced to the United States by the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Glenn Dale, Md., in 1960. These trees, which originated in China, were snapped up as an attractive ornamental tree that could succeed well in urban areas.
http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2008/10/24/columbia-parks-and-recreation-fights-back-against-invasive-callery-pears/ |
| Recreation & Tourism
Indonesia: Prince Charles Scheduled to Visit Jambi
British Prince Charles on November 2, 2008 is scheduled to visit an Eco-Tourism Restoration project to be developed in Bungku village, Kuang Jaya, Batanghari district, Jambi, a spokesman said. M Nazli of the Harapan Rainforest-Sumatera foundation, who is in charge of organizing the security and protection of the restoration project area said that Prince Charles upon his arrival at Sultan Thaha airport would proceed by land to the location. Covering 49,000 hectares of land in Jambi (and another 52,000 hectares in South Sumatra), the restoration project site has been handed over to the government to be converted into an ecosystem restoration location.
http://www.antara.co.id/en/arc/2008/10/23/prince-charles-scheduled-to-visit-jambi/
Rhode Island: Warwick's Rocky Pt. Deal Final at Last
City officials, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed and U.S. Rep. James R. Langevin visited Rocky Point this morning to celebrate the preservation of 41 acres of pristine shoreline at the former amusement park site. "I am so pleased to be here today with Senator Reed, who was instrumental in securing the federal funds that enabled us to purchase this mile of shoreline property," Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian said in a statement. "I am excited to move forward to develop our plan to provide public access to the property, so that Rhode Islanders can enjoy walking, fishing, hiking and other activities here.
http://www.pbn.com/stories/35983.htm |
| 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
Australia: Funding for Areas of High Conservation Value - Closes November 14, 2008
The Western Catchment Management Authority (CMA) has $400,000 available for people willing to manage areas of high conservation value for 15 years. They include culturally significant sites, uncommon vegetation types or landscapes, including artesian mound springs, native animal habitat, wetlands and riverine corridors. The deadline for applications is November 14 and works funded through the program need to be completed by the end of May 2009.
http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/state/agribusiness-and-general/general/funding-for-areas-of-high-conservation-value/1333259.aspx
Fulbright Scholar Grants in Environmental Science Research in Norway
Applications are still being accepted for Fulbright 2009-10 research awards to Norway in environmental science: http://www.cies.org/award_book/award2009/country/EuroNorNO.htm. Grantees will conduct collaborative research on issues related to polar studies in conjunction with the International Polar Year. A Ph.D. and U.S. citizenship are required, and the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board has recently adopted new eligibility requirements. For details of eligibility requirements and an online application, visit our website: www.cies.org. For further information, contact Jean McPeek, jmcpeek@cies.iie.org or 202.686.6246. | |
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