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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 or can be subscribed to for only $20/year by visiting: www.ser.org/content/restoration_network.asp. Please send your news stories and articles to the RESTORE editor at info@ser.org. |
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Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration
Attention SER Members
Discount on Wiley-Blackwell Products: Code SDP18
www.wiley.com
Discount on Island Press/SER Book Series: Code 2SER
http://www.islandpress.org/ser/index.html
Get Involved/Community-based Restoration
Birthplace of Ecological Restoration Celebrates 75 Years
On Sunday, June 21, 75 years later, the university and Madison community will celebrate that visionary decision - and the muddy, multigenerational effort to prove that farmland can be regenerated to a close semblance of its "natural" state. At 8:30 a.m. on June 21, a naturalist will lead a tour of Arboretum wetlands, starting from the Visitor Center, 1207 Seminole Highway. Other events at the Visitor Center will begin at 12:30 p.m.
http://www.news.wisc.edu/16819
Colorado: Volunteers Needed for Forestry Project on June 20
Boulder County is recruiting volunteers to help with a forest restoration project on June 20. Volunteers will learn about Colorado forest ecology while working on open space land outside of Nederland, where the wildflowers should be plentiful.
http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2009/jun/10/volunteers-needed-forestry-project-june-20/
New York: MARSH! Work Day: Pulling the Invasive European Frogbit - June 27
Thick mats of frogbit inhibit light penetration and can hinder the movement of fish, and waterfowl. Work for the day will involve pulling frogbit from refuge impoundments. The Montezuma Alliance for the Restoration of Species & Habitats is part of a larger effort to restore, protect, and enhance wildlife habitat on nearly 50,000 acres in the Montezuma Wetlands Complex.
http://blog.syracuse.com/outdoors/2009/06/montezuma_wildlife_center_offe.html
South Africa: Wild Coast Forest to be Cleared, Replanted
A group of Eastern Cape scientists and ecologists have embarked on a project to replant an entire Wild Coast forest with the help of local communities. Denuded by years of subsistence use by villagers, the Matiwane forest from Port St Johns in the north to the Mbashe River mouth in the south will gradually be replanted and restored to its former glory.
http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=322820
Maryland: Chenango Forks Swamp Restoration
Students at Chenango Forks are taking steps to restore Casey Swamp behind the high school. Approximately 20 environmental science students removed weeds and invasive species, built trails and did general clean-up work. Students have created a wetland nursery through funds given by the Baltimore Aquarium.
http://www.newschannel34.com/news/local/story/Chenango-Forks-Swamp-Restoration/lvBNi2xP3kagpVMrXPndnw.cspx
Burma: Local People Key to Mangrove Forest Restoration
Local people have taken up the effort to restore the mangrove forests devastated in the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis in the Irrawaddy delta, say local environmentalists. "Now, people have come to understand the importance of the mangrove forests while facing natural disasters, which is what we solely needed in our restoration efforts," an official with the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.
http://www.irrawaddy.org/highlight.php?art_id=15969
Oregon: Assessing the Watershed
The Coos Watershed Association wants to take a snapshot of the condition of the Coalbank and Isthmus Slough sub-basin areas. It's asking property owners and land managers to help. The group is inviting all landowners in the 21,800-acre region, including Davis Slough and Noble Creek drainages south of Coos Bay, to a series of information-gathering meetings this month. The goal is finding projects to help improve the watershed.
http://www.theworldlink.com/articles/2009/06/10/news/doc4a2ff3f093b66954970866.txt
Florida: Chicken Island Becomes Testing Ground for Mangroves and Oysters
Early morning traffic on the South Causeway rumbled by as the dozen or so volunteers hopped off the pontoon boat and into the salty waters of the Indian River Lagoon last Wednesday. Fiddler crabs scattered into the oyster shell beds that line the shore of Chicken Island as volunteers unloaded their supplies for the day: PVC pipes, hammers and scores of mangrove trees.
http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=58629
Conferences & Workshops
For a complete listing of conferences related to ecological restoration, please visit:
http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/conferences/ |
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People in the News
Restoration Ecologist Steven Handel Wins 2009 'National Award for Research'
Orange County Great Park Design Team Member and lead Ecologist Steven Handel, Ph.D., was the only person to receive a 2009 "National Honor Award for Research" from the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA). Dr. Handel was honored for his research project titled, "Restoration Ecology Processes to Advance Natural Landscape Design." The project was chosen by a jury composed of senior members of ASLA and members of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/06-11-2009/0005042501&EDATE=
Wolf River Restoration To Be Recognized Today
The Wolf River Environmental Restoration Project will be recognized today in Nashville with the 2009 Governor's Environmental Stewardship Award. Thirteen other projects across the state of Tennessee also will be recognized for their positive impact on the state's natural resources.
http://www.memphisdailynews.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=43033
UCSB Restoration Project Provides Model for Future Efforts
When UC Santa Barbara built the Manzanita Village student housing project in 1999, the California Coastal Commission required that it mitigate the project's impact on the neighboring wetlands by replacing lost habitat at a ratio of at least three to one. UCSB's Cheadle Center for Biodiversity and Ecological Restoration (CCBER) worked with a Santa Barbara landscape architectural firm and civil engineers to go beyond these requirements, restoring six acres of California grassland, vernal pools, meadows, and marshes. The restoration site was awarded the American Society of Landscape Architects' 2008 General Design Award, and was featured in an eight-page section of the April issue of Landscape Architecture magazine.
http://aquafornia.com/archives/9336
Bullets Don't Stop Guatemala Green Activist
If you think it's not easy being green, try doing it in a place as violent as Guatemala, where environmentalism is often viewed as a radical pursuit and the rule of law remains a distant goal. Speaking out can bring a hit man to your door. For the last nine years, Melini has spoken out a lot. Using a mix of grass-roots activism, lawsuits and old-fashioned lobbying, his organization tackles issues from illegal logging in protected forests and the impact of a growing mining industry to the supply and cleanliness of water.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-guatemala-enviro11-2009jun11,0,3203312.story
Interview with Os Schmitz
People have done economic valuation of ecosystems and ecosystem services, and they find that estuarine systems, as well as lakes, forests, and grasslands, are probably, economically, the most valuable to human kind both in terms of our ability to derive our livelihoods from those ecosystems and as providers of earth's support services. So, if you were going to prioritize it based on these sort of economic valuations certainly -- estuaries, forests, grasslands, croplands, and lake systems --would probably be the highest priority to restore.
http://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=22966
Bruce Babbitt Joins Board of Directors of Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
Former Arizona governor, chairman of World Wildlife Fund brings expertise and experience in land policy, planning, natural resources, and infrastructure.
http://sev.prnewswire.com/environmental-services/20090611/DC3040611062009-1.html |
| New Books & Articles
Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States
The report summarizes the science and the impacts of climate change on the United States, now and in the future. It focuses on climate change impacts in different regions of the U.S. and on various aspects of society and the economy such as energy, water, agriculture, and health. It's also a report written in plain language, with the goal of better informing public and private decision making at all levels.
http://www.globalchange.gov/publications/reports/scientific-assessments/us-impacts
Amazon Conservation Policy Working in Brazil
Contrary to common belief, Brazil's policy of protecting portions of the Amazonian forest from development is capable of buffering the Amazon from climate change, according to a new study led by Michigan State University researchers. The study, to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, contends state and federal governments in Brazil have created a sustainable core of protected areas within the Amazon. And even if the remaining Brazilian Amazon is deforested, the climate will not significantly change - thereby protecting the Amazon's ecosystems.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/msu-acp061509.php |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
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Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Economic Peril Unless Green Cover is Increased
Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh has warned that the country's economic future will be in danger unless its green cover is increased from 23 per cent to 33 per cent. He was presiding over the inaugural function of the four-day meeting of an expert group on Traditional Knowledge of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) here on Tuesday.
http://www.hindu.com/2009/06/17/stories/2009061755271100.htm |
| Agro-Ecology
Farm Gives Hope to UK Flora and Fauna
An optimistic vision for the future of the British countryside has been revealed by the National Trust today, after a study on a Cornish farm, 30 years after the first biosurvey was conducted there. The number of varieties of plants, insects and birds, many of them extremely rare, has increased threefold or more on the farm that is being seen as a model of how agricultural land can be managed in an environmentally sensitive way.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jun/12/national-trust-farm-wildlife
Carbon Farming on Rise in Australia
Australian "carbon farmers" hope to sell their soil carbon credits in the fight against climate change. Australia plans to have an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) running by 2011, with agriculture possibly included in 2015.
http://www.reuters.com/article/internal_ReutersNewsRoom_BehindTheScenes_MOLT/idUSTRE55G01B20090617
Central Texas Ranch is Honored
Standing on a hilltop on his Blanco County ranch, J. David Bamberger throws his arms in the air like a tent-revival preacher. "Hallelujah!" he shouts to a group of visitors, mainly Texas Parks and Wildlife Department employees who are touring the property and inspecting a series of low-stacked rock berms that snake around the ridgeline. The berms slow runoff and allow the land to soak up more water, all part of Bamberger's plan to capture as much of the rain that falls here as possible.
http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1432092.html |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
New Zealand: Project Rameka
A local response to global climate change ... Situated in Golden Bay, New Zealand, Project Rameka is a carbon sink that focuses on forest restoration, biodiversity and non-motorised recreation. The 50-hectare property was bought in 2008 by Jonathan Kennett and Bronwen Wall. It is managed by an incorporated society.
http://www.kennett.co.nz/rameka/2009/06/its-official.html
Ministers Focus Low-Carbon, Green Growth
The environment ministers of Korea, China and Japan agreed on the need to make joint efforts to cope with climate change at their 11th regular meeting in Beijing Sunday. Zhou Shengxian, minister at the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection, and Tetsuo Saito, minister of the environment in Japan, participated in the meeting with Lee Maan-ee, their Korean counterpart.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/06/117_46792.html |
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Fiji: Birdlife Kadavu Workshop Yields Results
BirdLife International has introduced a new conservation initiative on the island of Kadavu that could help protect forests in island countries around the South Pacific. BirdLife International's Senior Technical Advisor for the Pacific Region, James Millett, said that the initiative was launched in a three-day workshop on the island that had focused on the introduction of a model farm and a forest restoration programme.
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| Wetland Restoration
Ohio: $50K Needed to Open Rare Wetland Site to Public
Joel Thrash, an ecological specialist with consultant JF New in Cincinnati, has helped plant 3,000 plant plugs at the fen this season. There are 6,200 more to go. Many plants were painstakingly cultivated from other fens in the region, Enright said. Alkaline fens, as they are known, are prized worldwide for their ability to host rare plants.
http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/dayton-news/50k-needed-to-open-rare-wetland-site-to-public-159832.html?showComments=true
Illinois: A legacy of Green with Ducks Unlimited's Greenwing Program
Unfolding here at the Sanganois State Fish and Wildlife Area is generational compounding of a deep environmental ethic. For grandparents like the Caplingers who want to pass on more than money or material possessions to their grandchildren, the Greenwing Legacy program of Ducks Unlimited provides a forum. Ryan and Katelyn became Greenwingers early in life. They and their Greenwing cohorts don't build their environmental consciousness alone from ground zero. They stand on the shoulders of their grandparents, who hope a generational boost means heightened awareness, understanding and responsibility.
http://www.pjstar.com/features/x1592251292/A-legacy-of-green-with-Ducks-Unlimiteds-Greenwing-program
UK: Cash Boost for Manchester Peat Land Project
Environmental engineering company and water expert MWH has made a donation to Lancashire Wildlife Trust to enable them to restore peat land and bogs across the Northwest, helping to reduce CO2 release from degraded peat, and protecting unique wildlife habitat.
http://www.clickgreen.org.uk/events/events/12245-cash-boost-for-manchester-peat-land-project.html |
River & Watershed Restoration
California: Trinity Projects Wrapping Up
The restoration effort on the Trinity River is nearing the end of a first wave of projects intended to reshape the dammed river and improve fish habitat. The Trinity River Restoration Program expects to start on the first of six final sites targeted for work this summer, and once all six are done, to take a step back to evaluate the changes.
http://www.times-standard.com/localnews/ci_12599115
Wisconsin: Native Mussel Restoration Program
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says it's one of the most successful programs in the country. It's called the native mussel restoration program. They're re-populating native mussels wiped out, or whose numbers have been significantly diminished by the destructive, non-native mussel called the zebra. In the past five years, Tony Brady of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says they've re-stocked the Mississippi with 35-thousand endangered native mussels. He says those mussels are vital to the health of the river. Since they have not found a way to eradicate the zebra mussels without affecting the native mussels, they'll continue this restoration program.
http://www.wxow.com/Global/story.asp?S=10535419
Illinois: Cache River History Ebbs and Flows
Driven by a grassroots conservation movement, much of the area has been restored. Thousands of acres of land have been reforested and wetlands have been restored. However, an ongoing dispute over management of water levels has put the Cache River at still another crossroads in its existence. Years of logging, agricultural clearing and drainage had literally taken the life out of the river. The construction of the Post Creek Cut-off in 1916 essentially turned the Cache River into two systems - the upper Cache drains into the Ohio River, the lower Cache into the Mississippi.
http://www.southernillinoisan.com/articles/2009/06/13/front_page/29071646.txt
Colorado: Pitkin County Commissioners Wading into Controversial River Restoration
A plan to restore a stretch of the Roaring Fork River east of Aspen that initially pitted some environmental organizations against others and drew objections from neighbors will resurface Monday, when Pitkin County commissioners visit the site in preparation for their review of the project later this month. Four landowners are involved in the proposal to dredge part of the river channel and stabilize eroding banks, including the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, Aspen Valley Land Trust, landowner Ed Bass (Mountain Valley Cabin LLC) and Fall Line Properties LLC.
http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20090615/NEWS/906159992/1077&ParentProfile=1058
California: San Joaquin Soon will Begin Flowing Year-round
The San Joaquin River will finally flow year-round as a long-awaited restoration begins in October. And officials finally have figured out what to do with a 20-mile stretch of the river that has been choked with brush and unused for decades. A new environmental document answers years of questions about the bottleneck, northeast of Los Banos. It will simply be bypassed for now using a flood-control channel, but the stretch later may be restored as a functioning part of the river at a multimillion-dollar cost yet to be determined.
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/1470974.html |
| Grassland Restoration
North Dakota: Landowner Turns to Belgian Horses for Prairie Restoration
He is the owner of the property, but originally his father Ray and a friend had joined to acquire the 160-acre site. It's one of the larger, native prairie tracts within a 50-60 mile radius, and Gary and his father remain committed to keeping it that way. It holds a diversity of native prairie plants, enough so that a Department of Natural Resource specialist with the Scientific and Natural Area program described it as a prairie of "high statewide significance."
http://www.morrissuntribune.com/articles/index.cfm?id=17762
Canada: Feds Back B.C. Grassland Restoration
Plans to restore grasslands in the Cranbrook area and control and contain invasive plants are among the projects in British Columbia sharing $5.5 million in federal Community Adjustment Fund cash. The CAF money, announced Monday, includes $3.415 million in federal contributions toward a $6.83 million invasive plant control project across "multiple B.C. communities." The invasive plant project is expected to create 200 jobs and "help restore local ecosystems," the government said Monday.
http://www.country-guide.ca/west/issues/ISArticle.asp?aid=1000329958&PC=FBC&issue=06092009 |
| Lake Restoration
New York: Marsh Plants being Planted Around Onondaga Lake
They may have the look of some meager blades of grass, but experts say they are a first step in a major historical restoration project. The aim is to return as many as 60 species of plants that once thrived in the salt marshes surrounding Onondaga Lake.
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/central_new_york/474829/marsh-plants-being-planted-around-onondaga-lake/?RegionCookie=1013
'Restore' our Great Lakes? To what?
The concept is ridiculous if "restore" means returning the lakes to the way they were when the only people around were Native Americans. Are we going to run all the farmers off the tens of thousands of square miles of agricultural land we've created on Great Lakes watersheds the past 400 years and return that land to dense forest? Will we rip out the thousands of dams we've built on the rivers that feed the Great Lakes and empty out the villages, towns and cities?
http://www.freep.com/article/20090610/SPORTS10/90610065/+Restore++Great+Lakes?+To+what
Arizona's Stillman Lake Getting Native Fish Restoration
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and the Arizona Game and Fish Department - with assistance from Prescott Flycasters, The Nature Conservancy, and other volunteers - are set to begin a native fish restoration effort at Stillman Lake. The 'lake' is actually a large pool of the Upper Verde River, and will undergo restoration and enhancement of native fish, including the razorback sucker, roundtail chub, and other native species.
http://www.wfn.tv/gogreen/blog.php?blog=2679 |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
Indonesia: Jakarta to Restore 320 Hectares of Mangrove Forests
The Jakarta administration plans to restore 320 hectares of mangrove forests along the city's north coastal in a program dubbed "Green Belt Mangrove", Governor Fauzi Bowo said Tuesday. "[We] have started planting. [We are aiming to have] a total of 320 hectares," he said at the city hall, as quoted by state news agency Antara. Fauzi said the restoration of the mangrove forest would involve the city's Maritime Affairs and Agriculture Agency, the Forestry Agency and two private companies.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/06/16/jakarta-restore-320-hectares-mangrove-forests.html
India: Adyar Poonga- Civic Consciousness In Action
The Government of Tamil Nadu has initiated an ambitious Rs 100 Cr project to restore the ecological balance in the Creek. As a first step, nineteen crore have been allotted to convert the 58 acre area into a gorgeous Park, the Adyar Poonga. It is hoped that by end 2010, this would be opened to public. The proposed restoration aims expressly to protect and re-establish the flora and fauna of this region. The Adyar wetland reserve is a significant link in the regional chain of stopovers for birds on their great annual migrations, particularly the wading birds who feed on the coastal mudflats.
http://www.chennaionline.com/Columns/DailyDose/June09/67Adyar-Poonga-Civic-Consciousness-In-Action.aspx
Maryland: Army Corps recommends native-only oyster efforts
The Army Corps of Engineers says its final environmental impact statement recommends native-only oyster restoration efforts for the Chesapeake Bay. The decision had already been announced earlier this year, but the statement begins the final public comment period before the formal publication of the decision.
http://www.examiner.com/a-2062124~Army_Corps_recommends_native_only_oyster_efforts.html
South Carolina: Nature Gets Helping Hand
State Ports Authority employees put on their mud boots and slogged through the marsh Wednesday afternoon, stacking mesh bags of oyster shells along the shoreline behind the Wando Welch Terminal in Mount Pleasant. With help from the S.C. Department of Natural Resources, the agency kicked off the second year of its $1 million oyster habitat restoration.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/jun/11/nature_gets_helping_hand85626/
Washington: Port Plans Habitat Restoration Project
The Port of Tacoma plans to develop the Hylebos Creek area on Port Parcel 88, formerly known as Parsons Property, into a habitat renewal project. The project aims to reverse environmental damage caused by former landowners and to reserve land for future habitat expansion. The project fulfills three parts of the port's immediate existing habitat obligations, resulting in approximately 21 acres of new, restored or enhanced upland habitat and associated buffers.
http://www.tacomaweekly.com/article/3200
Dredged Mud can Save Louisiana Coast
All of the extracted mud, if strategically dumped back into areas of threatened coastline, could do wonders to revive the state's dying marshes -- once its primary defense against hurricanes. But the corps rebuilds marsh with only 12 percent of the 60 million tons of sediment it removes from the river each year.
http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/06/dredged_mud_can_save_louisiana.html |
Wildlife Restoration
Australia: Dingoes 'Could Help Rare Species'
Re-introducing dingoes across tracts of Australia could have benefits for wildlife and possibly cattle farmers. Researchers found that dingoes suppress populations of kangaroos and red foxes, which are big consumers of vegetation and small mammals respectively.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8104955.stm
New Mexico: Gila River's West Fork will Close for Fisheries Project
A 20-mile stretch of the west fork of the Gila River will be temporarily closed for a Gila trout restoration project being conducted by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.
http://www.scsun-news.com/ci_12582733 |
| Extractive Industries
Texas: Habitat Restoration
For the first time in South Texas, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service is restoring habitat on abandoned oil and gas well pads. The two four-acre tracts are located west of Raymondville near the Sal del Rey lake. Approximately, 36,000 native plants are being put in the ground at each site and while one area is being watered by hand, the other is a high tech green project.
http://www.valleycentral.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=313829
Florida: CF Promises 'Stewardship' in New Mine
CF Industries, on its next phosphate mine, will be required to preserve as much of the natural streams and wetlands as feasible and replace those resources destroyed acre-for-acre, according to a Florida Department of Environmental Protection official. And CF Industries, which is planning to strip out 1,475 acres of wetlands on its 7,500-acre proposed South Pasture Extension mine, understands the importance of following those guidelines, according to Richard Ghent, CF director of community affairs.
http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/pnnews.aspx?NewsID=438996&a=newsarchive2/061409/ch1.htm&pnpg=0
India: The Real Face of Vedanta
The Real Face of Vedanta a film highlighting the pollution caused by Vedanta's refinery in Lanjigarh, Orissa was released today. This 30-minute film has been made by independent film maker Surya Shankar Dash and draws attention to the plight of the communities suffering from the pollution caused by the one million tonne per annum aluminium refinery plant of Vedanta.
http://jijomurali.blogspot.com/2009/06/press-release-environment-award-for.html
UK: Land Restoration Award Presented to Lafarge and the National Memorial Arboretum
Lafarge Aggregates and the National Memorial Arboretum have scooped the top national award for land restoration. Presented by the Mineral Products Association (MPA) in London, the accolade celebrates the environmental, social and economic benefits resulting from the development of the Arboretum on the site of one of Lafarge's former sand and gravel quarries.
http://www.spaghettigazetti.com/2009/06/top-award-for-land-restoration.html |
| Invasive Species
Utah: Salt Cedar Beetle Recruited to Abate Tamarisk Growth
Until recently the war on tamarisk in Washington County was slow going as City and contracted crews mowed their way through densely populated tamarisk stands along the riverways with large equipment only to see the deciduous shrub sprout up again three weeks later. This past summer changed all that as new recruits were introduced into Southern Utah in a tactical attempt to combat the tamarisk naturally. Since the introduction of the salt cedar beetle in 2006 along the Virgin River, the City of St. George has fielded a number of calls from residents with questions about the beetle and its characteristics.
http://www.mainstreetbusinessjournal.com/articleview.php?articlesid=4380
Alaska: Poison Campaign Kills the Invasive Rats of Rat Island, but Kills Eagles Too
More than 220 years since a ship wrecked on the rocks surrounding a remote Aleutian island, biologists believe they may have finally cleaned up the resulting mess. Rats have ruled the island since 1780, when they jumped off a sinking Japanese ship and terrorized all but the largest birds on the island. The voracious rodents feed on bird eggs and even chicks and small adult birds, and they so dominated the tiny island that it was given the name Rat Island. Biologists embarked on an ambitious effort to wipe out the rats last year, and now say they may have accomplished their task-but the campaign may have resulted in some avian casualties. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/06/15/poison-campaign-kills-the-invasive-rats-of-rat-island-but-kills-eagles-too/ |
| Urban Restoration
New Orleans City Park Wins $50,000 Grant to Restore Forest
Friends of City Park has won a $50,000 grant to restore Couterie Forest, a 62-acre arboretum that was lost to Hurricane Katrina, it was announced Monday. City Park won the "Greater Outdoors Project" grant, sponsored by Redwood Creek wines and Planet Green, in a national vote.
http://blog.nola.com/sheilastroup/2009/06/new_orleans_city_park_wins_500.html
Indiana: First Phase of Creek Restoration Completed at the Grove
Plans for the Grove on Kickapoo Creek call for restoring a nearly mile-long stretch of creek that flows through the 450-acre subdivision. About 900 houses will be built in the subdivision, along Ireland Grove Road east of Towanda Barnes Road. Roughly 88 acres along two branches of the creek will be turned into a wetlands area and park, the creek beds will be returned to a more natural flow pattern and native plantings will line the banks. The area will be maintained by the city of Bloomington once it is finished.
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2009/06/09/news/doc4a2ed6f7e334a936832635.txt |
| Funding Opportunities
FishAmerica Foundation Request for Proposals - Closes June 22, 2009
FishAmerica Foundation annually requests proposals from public and private organizations and local, state and tribal governments to fund projects that result in on-the-ground habitat restoration and clearly demonstrate significant benefits to marine, estuarine or anadromous fisheries resources. Projects must involve community participation through an educational or volunteer component tied to the restoration activities. FishAmerica also requests that applicants strive for a 1:1 non-federal match (cash or in-kind) on project proposals.
http://www.nmfs.noaa.gov/habitat/restoration/projects_programs/crp/partners/fishamerica.html
Australia: $900,000 Foreshore Restoration Funding Announced - Closes June 26, 2009
Environment Minister Donna Faragher today announced $900,000 for shoreline protection and rehabilitation projects in the Swan Canning Riverpark. The Swan River Trust's annual Riverbank Grants Scheme provided funding for community and local government partnership projects that improved the condition of, and access to, the Swan and Canning shorelines. Since 2002, more than $5.4million has funded 124 Riverbank projects, restoring kilometres of previously degraded shorelines along the rivers.
http://www.bymnews.com/news/newsDetails.php?id=55683
National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program - Closes June 26, 2009
The National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program provides States with a means of protecting and restoring these valuable resources. Projects can include (1) acquisition of a real property interest (e.g., easement or fee title) in coastal lands or waters from willing sellers or partners (coastal wetlands ecosystems) for long-term conservation or (2) restoration, enhancement, or management of coastal wetlands ecosystems for long-term conservation.
http://www.grants.gov/search/search.do?mode=VIEW&flag2006=false&oppId=44928
Nebraska: USDA Offers Grassland Reserve Program Sign-up - Closes July 1, 2009
Nebraska landowners wishing to maintain grazing land in grass, including range and pasture land, can apply for funds through the Grassland Reserve Program by July 1, 2009 at any USDA Service Center according to a USDA official. "Applying for GRP is continuous however, ranking dates are established to evaluate and select applications for funding," said Steve Chick, State Conservationist for the Natural Resources Conservation Service. GRP is implemented jointly by the NRCS and the USDA Farm Service Agency. Landowners can start their applications at either USDA office.
http://www.chadrad.com/newsstory.cfm?story=14278
Pennsylvania: DEP Accepting Applications for Watershed and Flood Protection Grants - Closes July 17, 2009
Environmental Protection Secretary John Hanger today announced that DEP is now accepting grant applications for watershed protection and restoration and flood protection projects under the Growing Greener Plus program, which allows applicants to seek funding for a variety of projects through a single application process.
http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/05-19-2009/0005029275&EDATE= | |
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