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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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Attention SER Members
Funding Opportunity for Students of Ecological Restoration! - Closes January 15, 2010
The Society of Ecological Restoration Northwest Chapter (a chapter of Society for Ecological Restoration International) is still accepting grant applications from students conducting research on the restoration of natural systems (e.g., forests, wetlands, shrub-steppe) within the Pacific Northwest eco-region (WA, OR, MT, ID, BC, Northern CA). Social or natural science graduate and upper-level undergraduate students are encouraged to apply. Three grants of up to $1,000 will be awarded. The Application deadline is January 15, 2010. Preference will be given to applications from student members of SERNW (visit www.sernw.org) or a SERI student guild. Students can become a member of SERI for $10 and add SERNW membership for only $5 by visiting https://www.ser.org/member_registration.asp. For more scholarship details and application procedures, see: https://www.ser.org/sernw/studentgrants.asp.
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
Oregon: Tryon Creek Internships Teach Students More than Ecology
Six students from Oregon City Service Learning Academy, a public charter school that emphasizes learning through service projects, have spent two mornings each week this fall at Tryon Creek. Three of the students have studied up on the park's plants and wildlife to become nature guides, narrating fact-packed tours for groups of visiting schoolchildren on field trips. The other three spent weeks learning about the park's ecology, conducting tests measuring water quality in numerous creeks and designing their own restoration project.
http://www.oregonlive.com/lake-oswego/index.ssf/2009/12/tryon_creek_internships_teach_students_more_than_ecology.html
Florida: Volunteers to Plant Mangroves at Ibis Isle Jan. 9 and Jan. 23
On Saturday, January 9 and January 23, 2010, 100 volunteers will gather at Phipps Ocean Park in Palm Beach to plant more than 12,000 mangroves as part of the Ibis Isle Restoration Project.
http://utalknews.blogspot.com/2009/12/volunteers-to-plant-mangroves-at-ibis.html
Illinois: CJB Students Assist Orland Grassland Project
Eighth grade students recently inducted into the National Junior Honor Society at Cardinal Joseph Bernardin School completed the first of many service projects planned for the school year in November, when they volunteered with Orland Grassland. Orland Grassland is spearheading a restoration plan that calls for restoring the mix of prairie, wetland, oak savanna and oak woods to a 960 acre expanse of ponds, meadows, woods and rolling hills located in and near Orland Park, Orland Hills and Tinley Park.
http://www.opprairie.com/Articles-c0in112113_School_News_December_17.html
Louisiana: The Gulf Restoration Network Needs You to Help the Gulf
The Gulf Restoration Network is a network of individuals and environmental groups whose mission, according to a GRN news release, is to restore the Gulf of Mexico to "an ecologically and biologically sustainable condition." The group attempts to help reduce polluted runoff, limit coastal development and protect threatened species, among other tasks. If the GRN sounds like your kind of group, apply for one of their spring 2010 volunteer internships.
http://www.bhamweekly.com/2009/12/20/the-grn-needs-you-to-help-the-gulf/
Conferences & Workshops
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People in the News
Illinois: Local Conservation Projects Honored for Leadership
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Chicago Wilderness have recognized conservation projects in several northwest and western suburbs for their leadership in promoting different aspects of environmental friendliness. This year's winners for outstanding conservation, native landscaping and sustainable design projects include the Grigsby Prairie in Barrington Hills, Mill Creek Community Park in Geneva, the Butler Lake Ecosystem Restoration in Libertyville and the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County's Springbrook Prairie Forest Preserve Stream Restoration in Naperville.
http://www.dailyherald.com/story/?id=344973&src=2 |
| New Books & Articles
Can Restoration Be Too Small? Negative Effects on Avian Behavior
Many conservation practitioners operate with a common assumption that all ecosystem restoration is good no mater the size of the project area. A new study in the Journal of Applied Ecology contradicts this notion by showing that when it comes to tropical reforestation and the effect on birds, bigger is better and too small may be bad.
http://www.conservationmaven.com/frontpage/2009/12/16/can-restoration-be-too-small-negative-effects-on-avian-behav.html
Quantifying the Environmental Benefits of Wetland Restoration
Researchers have developed a model that could make the job of restoration planners much easier. Wanhong Yang and fellow scientists created and tested a prototype for quantifying the amount that prospective restoration projects would reduce flooding and retain sediment and nutrients. This model can serve as a tool for decision makers to calculate and compare the environmental benefits to watersheds from different wetland restoration scenarios.
http://www.conservationmaven.com/frontpage/2009/12/21/quantifying-the-environmental-benefits-of-wetland-restoratio.html
NYC Audubon Lecture and Book Signing: Salt Marshes: A Natural and Unnatural History
This lecture will be an exploration of the natural history of marsh plants and marsh animals, and the "unnatural history" of how humans have altered and damaged marshes physically, chemically, and biologically. Additionally, the presentation will focus on marsh restoration and describe how in just a few decades, the Hackensack Meadowlands has changed from a severely degraded habitat into a marsh that is home to increasing biodiversity and a haven for birders and ecotourism.
http://www.greenedgenyc.org/events/nyc-audubon-lecture-and-book |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
Adapting to Climate Change? Try Adapting to Water Change
How can we adapt to climate change? One way to focus thinking on this challenge is to rephrase the question: How can we adapt to water change? Because of all the various disruptions that scientists predict could occur due to a warming planet, changes in how water melts, falls and flows are among the most consequential for humanity. So how do we even begin to address these potential problems? One such idea is called "ecosystem-based adaptation," or helping society respond and adjust to disruptions caused by climate change through the restoration or conservation of functioning ecosystems.
http://www.forestwander.com/news/2009/12/17/adapting-to-climate-change-try-adapting-to-water-change/ |
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U.S.: Threatened Forests and Grasslands and the Need for Action
The Forest Service mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of the nation's forests and grasslands to meet the needs of present and future generations. "Restoration" is a common way of describing much of the Forest Service's work aimed at addressing these issues on National Forest System lands. The Forest Service has conducted restoration-related activities across many programs for decades and the concept of restoration is threaded throughout existing program directives and collaborative efforts such as the National Fire Plan. However, an internal Forest Service study, Ecosystem Restoration: A Framework for Restoring and Maintaining the National Forests and Grasslands, also known as the Restoration Framework, determined that the concept of ecological restoration has not been well understood nor consistently implemented within the agency. The Framework's key recommendation was to establish broad restoration policy, guidelines, and definitions.
http://www.fs.fed.us/restoration/ |
| Wetland Restoration
Making the Most of the Billions Spent on Wetlands Mitigation
In keeping with the requirements of Section 404 of the Clean Water Act, approximately $2.9 billion is spent each year to reconstruct, restore or replace wetland habitats that have been damaged or destroyed by development. Yet the effectiveness of these mitigation efforts has been called into question, as regulations have favored attempts to recreate wetlands at sites selected primarily on their proximity to the one that had been degraded. In 2008, USACE and EPA took aim at these issues and adopted a new watershed approach, which will now favor conserving natural wetlands at sites selected for their importance to local ecology and surrounding communities. The challenge now is to find the best possible way to implement this new and promising approach.
http://www.nature.org/pressroom/press/press4332.html
Michigan: Wetlands Restored at Refuge Gateway
The so-called Monguagon Daylighting and Wetland Restoration project at Wayne County's Refuge Gateway in Trenton has been completed. The improvement re-created six acres of wetlands in an area that had lost 97 percent of its coastal wetlands to development, according to John Hartig, manager for the Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge. The project will improve the quality of urban stormwater entering the Detroit River through creation of a stormwater treatment basin and prairie wetland that naturally filters stormwater, restoring the natural hydrology of the site. Additional benefits include wildlife habitat creation and opportunities for hands-on environmental education and natural resource interpretation, Mr. Hartig said.
http://www.monroenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091221/NEWS01/712219969/-1/NEWS |
River & Watershed Restoration
UK: Government Funding in Wales to Restore Carmarthenshire Rivers and Wetlands
The Carmarthenshire Rivers Trust (CRT) project, which has been awarded over £525,000 in funding from the Welsh Assembly Government and the European Fisheries Fund (EFF), will focus on delivering improvements to water quality, habitat restoration and to restore access for migratory fish through the creation of easements and fish passes. The Carmarthen Rivers Trust project is one of seven projects that have been awarded Welsh Assembly Government and EFF funding so far, awarded as part the second round of funding worth more than £4m that was announced by the Rural Affairs Minister in November.
http://thegovmonitor.com/world_news/britain/government-funding-in-wales-to-restore-carmarthenshire-rivers-and-wetlands0inhtml
Florida: Kissimmee River Rebirth Helps SW Fla.
The successful restoration of the Kissimmee River north of Lake Okeechobee has earned world renown; wildlife, plant life and water quality have come roaring back in a once-magnificent river system that had been straightened in the 1960s into a sterile flood-control canal.
http://www.news-press.com/article/20091221/OPINION/912210314/1015
Washington: Auburn Receives $300K Grant to Move Levee, Restore Floodplain
The City of Auburn will receive $304,103 in grant funds from the state Salmon Recovery Funding Board to set back the Fenster levee in east Auburn and restore habitat in the Green River and its floodplain. Combined with work previously done, the final project reconnects the floodplain to the river, providing off-channel habitat for large numbers of juvenile salmon and steelhead.
http://www.pnwlocalnews.com/south_king/aub/news/79453967.html |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
U.S.: Reauthorized Estuary Restoration Act Aids Threatened Coastal Habitats
Restore America's Estuaries president, Jeff Benoit, praised Congress today for passing the reauthorization of the Estuary Restoration Act within the Water Resources Development Act. The Estuary Restoration Act will extend a program that pulls five federal agencies together into an Estuary Restoration interagency council to set habitat restoration protocol and partner with states, municipalities and non-profits to develop and support successful estuarine habitat restoration projects on all our coasts.
https://www.estuaries.org/reauthorized-estuary-restoration-act-aids-threatened-coastal-habitats.html
Florida: Cultured Coral Reproducing for First Time in Florida Keys
Marine scientists in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary have documented the first known case where Atlantic-Caribbean, farm-raised coral has reproduced to serve as a foundation for future reefs. The discovery is significant because it proves that cultured staghorn corals can not only survive, but also reach sexual maturity and naturally help with coral restoration, marine researchers said.
http://www.lockout.me/lock-out-keys/cultured-coral-reproducing-for-first-time-in-florida-keys
Maryland: Oyster Plan May Provide Missing Pieces of Restoration Puzzle
Over the past decade, billions of oysters have been planted in the Chesapeake Bay, pushed off of boats by the thousands to settle on sanctuaries and managed reserves throughout the watershed. While these plantings are a much-needed ecological improvement for an unhealthy bay, it is unclear whether planting alone will be enough to restore the bay's native oyster population. But on the heels of a federal mandate to clean up the bay, Gov. Martin O'Malley has announced a multi-faceted oyster restoration approach that may provide several missing pieces of the restoration puzzle.
http://somd.com/news/headlines/2009/10998.shtml |
Wildlife Restoration
Alabama: Endangered Alabama Beach Mouse Recovers, Slowly
When it comes to rare and endangered species, charismatic megafauna - including the big and scary, or alternatively, cute and cuddly - get the most press, but thousands of less "exciting" plants and animals still vie for attention. So it is with the federally endangered Alabama Beach Mouse (Peromyscus polionotus ammobates), a subspecies of "old field mouse" that lives in coastal sand dunes. In all the world, this endangered critter lives only in the rolling white sand dunes on a sliver of habitat along Alabama's coastline, incorporating the area known as the Alabama Gulf Shores. When Hurricane Ivan hit in 2004 followed by Hurricane Katrina in 2004, it was almost 'curtains' for the little mouse.
http://blogs.discovery.com/animal_news/2009/12/endangered-alabama-beach-mouse-recovers-slowly.html
UK: Festive Gift of Life for Endangered Species
An endangered species has been given what could be the best Christmas present imaginable - the gift of life. The rare freshwater pearl mussel is a globally-endangered species with numbers dwindling worldwide. A small collection lives in the River Esk in the North York Moors National Park but the population is ageing and increasing levels of sedimentation means the creatures could be gone for good in the next 25 to 30 years. But new hope has been raised for their survival with a concerted £112,500 effort to protect the rare bivalves and help them thrive in the future.
http://www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/northyorkshire/4816575.Festive_gift_of_life_for_endangered_species/ |
| Urban Restoration
Canada: Waterfront Restoration in Toronto Canada
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| Funding Opportunities
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Accepting Proposals for Great Lakes Restoration Funding - Closes January 22, 2010
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is requesting project pre-proposals that focus on the restoration of fish and/or wildlife resources and their habitats in the Great Lakes Basin. Supported in part by President Obama's Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, a total of $8 million will be available to support projects this fiscal year. This represents the largest amount appropriated for this effort since the grants program began in 1998.
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/Fisheries/glfwra-grants.html
New Hampshire: Coastal Program Announces Grant Funding Opportunity - Closes February 1, 2010
The New Hampshire Coastal Program (NHCP) at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services is currently accepting applications for its 2010 competitive grant round. The deadline is February 1, 2010 by 4 p.m. Through federal funding, NHCP enables projects that address coastal resources, like water quality protection, habitat restoration and climate change adaptation. Grants are offered on a competitive basis to eligible applicants, and at least a one to one match is required.
http://savegreatbay.wordpress.com/2009/12/03/coastal-program-announces-grant-funding-opportunity/
Landowners Urged to Apply for Funds - Closes February 1, 2010
Landowners with eligible acreage are encouraged to apply for technical and funding assistance available through the Wetlands Reserve Program. The program is voluntary and seeks to provide the opportunity to create, restore, and enhance wetlands for long-term conservation and wildlife habitat protection. The deadline to apply is Feb. 1. Landowners who choose to participate may sell a conservation easement or enter into a cost-share restoration agreement with the USDA.
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/dec/20/landowners-urged-apply-funds/
The Five Star Restoration Program - Closes February 11, 2010
A new funding opportunity exists for the Five Star/NRT Restoration Program. Applications are due via Easygrants (www.nfwf.org/easygrants) by Thursday, February 11, 2010. The Five Star Restoration Program seeks to develop community capacity to sustain local natural resources for future generations by providing modest financial assistance to diverse local partnerships for wetland, riparian, and coastal habitat restoration. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF), National Association of Counties (NACo), Wildlife Habitat Council (WHC), in cooperation with the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA), Southern Company, and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), are pleased to solicit applications for the 2010 Five Star Restoration Pro-gram and Nature Restoration Trust (www.nfwf.org/nrt). The 2010 RFP and proposal narrative are available for viewing on our website at http://www.nfwf.org/fivestar | |
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