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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 is SDP18
http://www.wiley.com
Discount on Island Press/SER Book Series: Code is 2SER
http://www.islandpress.org/ser/index.html
Get Involved/Community-based Restoration
Hawaii: Final EA for Pu'u Wa'awa'a Restoration, Research Facility
The couple that's planning a program of native forest and bird habitat restoration and scientific research on their Pu'u Wa'awa'a land parcel have completed a final environmental assessment, and it has been given the go ahead.
http://www.bigislandvideonews.com/2009/09september/20090926puuwaawaa.htm
Australia Unveils Massive Aboriginal Nature Reserve
Australia on Thursday said it has created a massive nature reserve in the country's far north that will be managed by Aborigines. The so-called Indigenous Protected Areas in the Northern Territory contain rock art sites that are 50,000 years old and wilderness areas rivalling the nearby World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, officials said. The new reserve covers almost 20,500 square kilometres (7,900 square miles) near the city of Darwin -- an area more than twice the size of America's Yellowstone National Park.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hZtHZeg6Crz4ovsgxNl3E_TPptfQ
Texas: Volunteers Get Hands Dirty to Restore Native Landscape
More than 50 volunteers worked Saturday to spruce up the grounds of the Blair Woods, a 10-acre tract of land between Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and U.S. 183 in East Austin. The effort was one of several volunteer days the Travis Audubon Society has held at the sanctuary in the past year, organizers said. The group has won $29,000 in grants to restore the land, and during previous gatherings workers have removed about 165 yards of non-native plants and 25 bags of trash, constructed two trails and planted 68 native plants.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/2009/09/27/0927blairwoods.html
Florida: Bay Grasses in Classes Restores Tampa Bay Coastal Habitats
Terra Ceia- On Sept. 23, 2009, 240 students from Tampa Bay Watch's Bay Grasses in Classes Program (BGIC) planted 7,130 plugs at Terra Ceia Aquatic Preserve from their own school nurseries and Port Manatee Fish Hatchery donor site.
http://www.madduxpress.com/education/2009/09/28/bay-grasses-in-classes-restores-tampa-bay-coastal-habitats-1991
Conferences & Workshops
Video: Dead Ecosystem Sketch at SER2009 World Conference on Ecological Restoration
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAep2nyV5hI
Society for Ecological Restoration, BC (SER-BC) Chapter Conference:
Shared Responsibility for a Sustainable Landscape, Nov. 5-7 2009, Naramata, British Columbia
Registration is now open for the SER-BC's annual restoration conference. Major themes of this conference include: Enhancing biological diversity and protecting species at risk through ecological restoration; public involvement in restoration; restoration of aquatic and wetland habitats; managing the threats of invasive exotic species; and First Nations eco-cultural restoration initiatives.
http://www.ser.org/serbc/events.asp
RIACRE: Latin American Network for Ecological Restoration - November 9-13, 2009
La Red Iberoamericana y del Caribe de Restauración Ecológica (RIACRE) en conjunto con la Sociedad Brasilera de Recuperación de Áreas Degradadas (SOBRADE y la Fundación de Investigaciones Forestales de Paraná (FUPEF), con apoyo de la Universidad Federal de Paraná (UFPR) y la Empresa Brasilera de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (EMBRAPA), programaron para el período del 9 al 13 de Noviembre de 2009, en Curitiba, Estado de Paraná, Brasil, el Congreso Iberoamericano y del Caribe sobre Restauración Ecológica.
http://www.sobrade.com.br/riacre/
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
Video: Tribute Lecture for Tony Bradshaw
http://www.liv.ac.uk/public-lectures/webcasts/smit.htm
Evo Morales tells UN to protect the Mother Earth
Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma was in New York to take part in the Secretary-General's Climate Change Summit ahead of the General Assembly's annual general debate, Mr. Morales focused exclusively on environmental responsibility, arguing that "Mother Earth" was sacred and should not be turned into private enterprise by the "capitalist system".
http://www.paxmundi.info/2009/09/23/evo-morales-tells-un-to-protect-the-mother-earth/
Questions and Answers: Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta
Prof. Anil Kumar Gupta, vice chairman of National Innovation Foundation (NIF) and founder of the Honey Bee Network, a knowledge network for augmenting grassroots innovation, has been diligently scouting for and documenting traditional practices as well as encouraging technologies in rural India since establishing this initiative in 1989. His efforts, which promote and cross-pollinate grassroots entrepreneurships, have resulted in more than 120,000 inventions so far. Prof. Gupta is also a top faculty at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, one of the best business schools in the country, for nearly three decades.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125376926792036847.html
Oregon Native Seed
Since 2003, Lattig has operated a native plant nursery, specializing in grasses, shrubs and trees that come from seeds he collects locally. And most of the company's business comes from organizations like the Upper Deschutes Watershed Council and land management agencies who restore riverbanks and other ecosystems, Lattig said. They're looking for plants that will do well in Central Oregon's specific environments, and so Lattig and his employees provide thousands of plants from seeds found close to home.
http://www.bendbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090923/BIZ0102/909230347/1004/NEWS01&nav_category=NEWS01 |
| New Books & Articles
The Ecological Restoration Movement: Diverse Cultures of Practice and Place
The purpose of this essay is to introduce and take a critical look at the emerging Ecological Restoration (ER) movement. The typical characterization of the ER movement is that it focuses on restoring ecosystems to pre-European settlement conditions, even in urban environments; thus neglecting social justice issues and alienating the disadvantaged people living in these environments. The restoration movement is often accused of redefining these spaces from a culturally and ideologically privileged standpoint-a standpoint with historical links to the exclusionary preservationist discourse of the mainstream environmental movement. On the contrary, I argue that the ER movement has closer ties to the Environmental Justice (EJ) movement than previously recognized.
http://oae.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/185
International Scientists Set Boundaries for Survival
Human activities have already pushed the Earth system beyond three of the planet's biophysical thresholds, with consequences that are detrimental or even catastrophic for large parts of the world; six others may well be crossed in the next decades, conclude 29 European, Australian and U.S. scientists in an article in the Sept. 24 issue of the scientific journal Nature. Both Arizona State University and the University of Arizona are represented on the international list of co-authors of this groundbreaking report.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-09/asu-iss092309.php
Study Finds One-time Herbicide Use Decreased Native Plants
Rinella and his colleagues found that, due to an application of the herbicide Tordon made 16 years prior, native wildflowers--including Missouri goldenrod and yarrow--had been reduced to precipitously low levels and the target invasive weed (leafy spurge) had potentially increased. Although the herbicide dissipated after a few years, the plant community was permanently altered.
http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=7522
Help Students Think like Soil Scientists
Emphasizing cross-disciplinary concepts in teaching soil science courses, such as mass-volume relationships, can help undergraduates learn real-world, problem-solving skills that are crucial to their success in soil science careers. Drs. Josh Heitman and Michael Vepraskas, North Carolina State University Soil Science Department, highlighted this need for quantitative measurement skills in an article detailing the importance of teaching mass and volume relationships at the undergraduate level. The article is published in the recent issue of the Journal of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Education.
https://www.agronomy.org/news-media/releases/2009/0928/292/\ |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Oregon: Innovative Water-rights Program Helping Restore Northwest Streams
A few years ago, he realized he couldn't keep irrigating all of the 100 acres of hay he farmed. But today, that has changed. Evans Creek has a healthy flow again, thanks to an innovative program by the Bonneville Environmental Foundation that aims to recharge once-thriving Northwest streams. The program, which acts similar to carbon offsets, essentially pays water-rights holders to leave the water in the stream. Because rights are based on a use-it-or-lose-it model, many users continue to draw water even if they don't need it or their irrigation is ineffective -- rather than lose their claim.
http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/innovative_water-rights_progra.html |
Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)
Australia: Declaration Recognises Indigenous Land Managers
The recent declaration of the Djelk and Warrdeken Indigenous Protected Areas (IPAs) in western and central Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory demonstrates a growing recognition by the Australian Government of the crucial role Indigenous people play in managing northern Australian ecosystems. North Australian Indigenous Land and Sea Management Alliance (NAILSMA) Chief Executive Officer Joe Morrison believes the growing recognition of Indigenous land and sea management is due to the success of Indigenous land management organisations in northern Australia, and a high level of commitment shown by Traditional Owners.
http://ext.cdu.edu.au/newsroom/a/2009/Pages/090928-Indigenous-land-managers.aspx
Australia: Aboriginal Ecology to be Included in Assessments
Aborigines are claiming a landmark victory after the West Australian government told BHP Billiton to incorporate their ecological knowledge into future land clearing at its giant Yeelirrie uranium prospect. The Ngalia people of the state's eastern goldfields, who use the land for food gathering and tribal ceremonies, lost an appeal to stop a small 10ha site being cleared, but won government support for their knowledge to be part of any future decisions.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/business/story/0,28124,26116237-5005200,00.html |
| Agro-Ecology
Africa Doesn't Need a Green Revolution. It Needs Agroecology
Agricultural ecology, or agroecology, provides a shorthand for this complex understanding of the biological, socio-economic and cultural elements that embody an agricultural ecosystem. Hence agroecology introduces agricultural systems that mimic the natural ecosystems they have replaced, and maintains the link between the cultivation of the land and the culture of the people who farm it. In direct contrast to the universalising message of the New Green Revolution, agroecology is particular, contextual and nuanced. It strikes a balance between production, stability and resilience through diversification rather than intensification.
http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/other_comments/325307/africa_doesnt_need_a_green_revolution_it_needs_agroecology.html
Focus On The Wild Could Avert Plant Pollination Threat
The global threat to the pollination of flowers and food production crops, highlighted by a dramatic decline in honeybee colonies, could be eased by a renewed focus on 'wild' pollinators. Agri-environment schemes that encourage farmers to create bee-friendly habitats could be the key to increasing numbers of valuable wild pollinators like bumblebees in the wider countryside.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/09/090928095500.htm |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
Copenhagen Negotiating Text: 200 pages to save the world?
It is a blueprint to save the world. And yet it is long, confusing and contradictory. Negotiators have released a draft version of a new global agreement on climate change, which is widely billed as the last chance to save the planet from the ravages of global warming. Running to some 200 pages, the draft agreement is being discussed for the first time this week as officials from 190 countries gather in Bangkok for the latest round of UN talks. There is only one short meeting after this before they meet in Copenhagen aiming to hammer out a final version.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/sep/28/copenhagen-climate-text
UK: Ecological 'Motorways' to Help Endangered Species
A year-long review, due to be announced on Monday, has concluded that the measure is essential to the survival of many indigenous species. Experts believe the ecological "motorways" will also slow the dramatic loss of species caused by decades of intensive farming and urban development.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6236900/Ecological-motorways-to-help-endangered-species.html |
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Alaska: Forest Restoration Helps Heal Tongass' Scars
Loggers who for decades clear-cut large swaths of old trees from the nation's largest national forest left behind a legacy of destruction. Now, with the logging industry dying a slow death in southeast Alaska, most of those outfits are out of business. But a budding, new industry is returning the noise of chainsaws, backhoes and excavators to the Tongass National Forest. This time, however, those are the healing sounds of restoration.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AK_FOREST_RESTORATION_NMOL-?SITE=NMSAN&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Colorado: Vail Resorts to be Involved in 3-year Hayman Restoration Project
A three-year project to restore Colorado lands scorched by the 2002 Hayman fire, with Vail Resorts Inc. and other private and public groups involved, is to be announced Monday evening at a news conference. According to the office of Gov. Bill Ritter, the multimillion-dollar project seeks to restore forest land, repair habitat and protect watersheds within the Hayman fire's massive burn area.
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=ACBJ&date=20090928&id=10428536 |
| Wetland Restoration
Minnesota: Wetlands Loss Outpacing Restoration Efforts
State and federal officials are using science to help target areas for wetland restoration as part of the state's 50-year plan to add 2 million acres of waterfowl habitat in the state; however, even though Minnesota is spending millions to restore wetlands, the state is still losing more than it restores. The western third of Minnesota was once covered with wetlands; hundreds of thousands of small potholes and large marshes. Now, more than 90 percent are drained.
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2009/09/24/wetlands-restoration/
Florida: Army Corp Friend or Foe?
Mitigation is a terrible idea. What it does is trade natural wetlands for preserving wetlands somewhere else, or, worse, CREATION of fake wetlands somewhere else. They have mitigation banks. That mitigation can work sort of like NYC developers buying air space from neighboring buildings. So now the imaginary developer in the Model Lands can also turn to a mitigation bank to get more developmental use of what should be unusable wetlands. The Army Corps' policies has backed State agencies into a corner. If the State want to save wetlands, they have to purchase them at inflated prices because the Army Corps just won't say no. They give developmental value to land that shouldn't have that kind of value. They think of one scheme after another to get around the Clean Water Act instead of doing their job and enforcing the Act.
http://eyeonmiami.blogspot.com/2009/09/army-corps-friend-or-foe-by.html |
River & Watershed Restoration
California: River Revival
It all starts Thursday with a gentle surge of water to be released from Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River. A massive, unprecedented and unpredictable river restoration project will begin, reawakening miles of dried riverbed and salmon runs that have been extinct for six decades. Since the dam east of Fresno was built in the 1940s, long stretches of the river have been dry. Parts have become a gutter for the San Joaquin Valley, collecting muddy seepage, trash and abandoned cars.
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/870815.html |
| Grassland Restoration
Prairie Science Thrives at the Chicago Botanic Garden
For thousands of years, the area we now call Illinois was home to some 20 million acres of prairie. Native grasses and wildflowers thrived until the railroads were built and a man named John Deere developed a new kind of plow. Now, just a small fraction of prairie is left in the Prairie State. But the science of conserving the plants native to Illinois and the Midwest got a boost this week: a new research center north of Chicago is using science to save the prairie.
http://www.wbez.org/Content.aspx?audioID=36980 |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
Video: Mangrove Restoration in Colombia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zML6FA22CnQ
New York: Restoring Oyster Habitat to the Raritan Estuary
"This is the only oyster project of this scale in northern New Jersey waters and the New York City area," said Baykeeper Debbie Mans, executive director of the NY/NJ Baykeeper. "Oysters are in a steep decline in the harbor area. They are not harvesting oysters anymore from the Raritan Bay, but we still have a clam industry here. We would like to do future restoration efforts to make sure we don't lose the oysters in the New York Harbor area."
http://independent.gmnews.com/news/2009/0924/front_page/001.html |
Wildlife Restoration
China/Vietnam: Safe Havens for Rarest Primates
Two of the world's rarest primates are to be helped by the creation of new nature reserves in south-east Asia. One reserve in Vietnam will protect the critically endangered Tonkin snub-nosed monkey, of which fewer than 200 remain. The other in China will help safeguard some of the last 110 cao vit gibbons, the second rarest of all primates.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8271000/8271375.stm
Canada: Pink Salmon Thrive after Quinsam River Restoration
Community partnerships are the engines of success. Important community partnerships were in place to lead up to a 2005 fish restoration project on the Quinsam River within the Campbell River system, that four years later, has resulted in a record number of adult pink salmon returns. In 2005, about 30,000 pinks returned to the Quinsam. Last year there were about 100,000, and this summer, approximately 800,000 pinks returned. How did this happen?
http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_north/campbellrivermirror/news/61209167.html
Giant Pandas Should be Allowed to Die Out, BBC wildlife expert
The television presenter said that the species was not strong enough to survive on its own and that the millions spent preserving them could be better spent elsewhere. Mr Packham, who hosts BBC2's Springwatch, also argued that breeding the animals in captivity for later release was pointless because there is not enough habitat left to sustain them.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/wildlife/6216775/Chris-Packham-Giant-pandas-should-be-allowed-to-die-out.html |
| Extractive Industries
Restoration Works
Advanced science is being applied to the reclamation of mines and polluted industrial sites, returning them to pristine condition, writes PADDY WOODWORTH. If you knock down a forest and strip the minerals beneath it to a depth of several metres, can you really put the forest back again afterwards, with all its constituent species? Scientists working for Alcoa's bauxite (aluminium) mines near Perth in Western Australia (WA) claim to have shown that they can indeed restore the rich biodiversity of the threatened Jarrah ( Eucalyptus marginata ) forest after mining, at least in the short term, right down to the last obscure species of sedge or sundew, many of which are endemic to the region.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/sciencetoday/2009/0924/1224255124980.html |
| Invasive Species
Immigrant Species Aren't All Bad
Naturalists have long been aware of this bio-globalisation, but widespread research on introduced species did not begin until the early 1980s. In those days, the message from invasion biologists was clear and simple: introduced species were bad news. They were referred to as invaders, aliens, exotics or even "biological pollution". A common refrain was that invasive species were one of the greatest extinction threats for native species, second only to habitat destruction.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20327275.900-immigrant-species-arent-all-bad.html |
| Recreation & Tourism
Giant Forest Restoration in Sequoia National Park Balances Tourism, Preservation
A quarter-century ago, this plot of land was the heart of a small city. Situated inside the 3-square-mile grove of 8,000 ancient sequoia trees called Giant Forest, the so-called Giant Forest Village was a complex of nearly 300 buildings, some dating from the early 20th century. It included cabins, motel units, employee housing, a cafeteria, gift shops, a market, and, years earlier, four campgrounds and a gas station. Today, nearly all those structures are gone, their removal part of an ambitious $85 million restoration project that installed thousands of native trees and plants in the ancient grove, reintroduced fire to the forest and provided new overnight accommodations at Wuksachi Lodge, a less sensitive, sequoia-free site 6 miles away.
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/article/20090926/NEWS01/909260311 |
| Funding Opportunities
$5,000 Grants for Indigenous Peoples' Videos on Climate Change until October 31, 2009
First Peoples Worldwide is awarding three $5,000 grants for videos documenting Indigenous communities using traditional knowledge to adapt to, or mitigate the impacts of climate change on their lands and waterways. Indigenous Peoples must submit their entry in video format in order to be considered for this grant. Successful videos will show the impacts of climate change through the eyes of the community and present the ways Indigenous Peoples are adapting to these changes or working to lessen their impacts. Upload the video to YouTube and send the link to Jessica Friswell (jfriswell@firstpeoplesworldwide.org and jessica_friswell@yahoo.com)
Dolores River Watershed (Colorado) Tamarisk Control Funding Available
http://targetednews.com/disp_story.php?s_id=999436
Lake Tahoe Restoration Funding Available
http://targetednews.com/disp_story.php?s_id=998976
EPA Grants Available for Research on Soils and Plant Ecology
http://targetednews.com/disp_story.php?s_id=997814
Neotropical Migratory Bird Protection and Habitat Restoration Grants Available
http://targetednews.com/disp_story.php?s_id=997925
Redwood Forest and Watershed Restoration Funding to be Awarded in California
http://targetednews.com/disp_story.php?s_id=1000291
2010 St. Andrews Prize for the Environment - Closes October 31, 2009
Applications are invited from individuals, multi-disciplinary teams or community groups for the 2010 annual prize, consisting of an award of $75,000 USD for the winner and $25,000 USD for each of the two runners-up. Aimed at helping ordinary people find solutions to environmental problems, the Prize was launched 11 years ago and is recognized as a prestigious international initiative by the University of St Andrews, Scotland and ConocoPhillips, one of the world's leading energy companies, attracting entries from around the world. The focus is on environmental initiatives, but of course the most innovative and important usually come with gains to people in their locality.
http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/ | |
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