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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. | |
Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration
Attention SER Members
The US Department of Labor's Occupational Information Network is seeking assistance from expert members of SER in the occupational category of Environmental Restoration Planners, with at least 5 years experience, to complete a series of occupational questionnaires, providing input for the O*NET database. This database is a service to employers, human resource professionals, job counselors, students, job seekers and labor market analysts across the country, providing information about the skills, abilities, activities and work context for about 900 occupations nationwide and is free to the American public. If you have questions about the project please contact Traci E. Davis, Business Liaison O*NET Operations Center, RTI International at 877-233-7348, Ext. 109 or by email tdavis@onet.rti.org. Further information about this initiative can be found at www.doleta.gov/programs/onet or https://onet.rti.org.
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
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| New Books & Articles
Regreening the Bare Hills
In Regreening the Bare Hills: Tropical Forest Restoration in the Asia-Pacific Region, David Lamb explores how reforestation might be carried out both to conserve biological diversity and to improve the livelihoods of the rural poor. While both issues have attracted considerable attention in recent years, this book takes a significant step, by integrating ecological and silvicultural knowledge within the context of the social and economic issues that can determine the success or failure of tropical forest landscape restoration. http://www.springer.com/life+sciences/forestry/book/978-90-481-9869-6
Wolves Will Not Provide Small-scale Ecological Restoration
Licht and colleagues (BioScience 60: 147-153) proposed a paradigm shift in wolf management to include the introductions of small, highly manipulated groups of wolves (Canis lupus) to confined natural areas to facilitate ecosystem recovery. Certainly, reductions or losses of apex predators from many regions worldwide have had profound effects on ecosystem characteristics (Soulé et al. 2003). Numerous efforts to restore or enhance predator populations through policy change or reintroductions have occurred, often with the intent to restore ecosystem function http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/full/10.1525/bio.2010.60.7.18. |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
The hidden battle behind formal gardens
On reflection, many people would probably add that their national or local gardens play a role in horticultural research and education in general. So it may come as a surprise to learn that many leading botanic gardens today, from Kew to Guangzhou, see their great mission in the 21st century as conserving biodiversity, though they still embrace their more traditional roles. And they are talking not only about preserving rare plants within their collections but about restoring degraded ecosystems across the planet, so that the plants in their collections will survive in the wild. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0710/1224274381645.html |
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Restoring forests 'an international priority'
Regardless of the effects of climate change, the world needs to tackle deforestation as a priority. This is the view of the British Forestry Commission, which said urgent action is needed to restore lost and degraded forests. Speaking at the Commonwealth Forestry Conference in Edinburgh, the organisation's director general Tim Rollinson said that as well as environmental benefits, forest restoration can also have social benefits. http://www.kms.ee/articles/Restoring_forests_an_international_priority?193
Arizona: Landscape-scale thinning only hope for forest's future
These fires, which occurred despite the past winter's record snowfalls, have reminded us in no uncertain terms that northern Arizona's ponderosa pine forests are in need of ecological restoration and thoughtful fuels reduction - in areas surrounding communities, where lives, structures, and neighborhood well-being is at stake, and in more remote forest areas where large and unnaturally severe fires can threaten the very ecosystems and associated values we care deeply about. http://www.azdailysun.com/news/opinion/columnists/article_d0a5fc8e-241a-5764-9324-1ce4fc431079.html |
| Wetland Restoration
US: Midwest areas chosen for wetlands funds
Wetlands restoration funds will be awarded to sponsors of projects in five states. They'll share the nearly $10 Million in financial assistance from the USDA to protect and restore 24-hundred acres of wetlands. In Monday's news release, Ag Secretary Vilsack said wetlands preservation is a priority at USDA. The Natural Resources Conservation Service administers the Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP). Vilsack says the importance of wetlands is not only in supporting diverse wildlife and plants but "in sustaining healthy ecosystems." http://brownfieldagnews.com/2010/07/13/midwest-areas-chosen-for-wetlands-funds/
California: AmCan marshland restoration succeeding
The American Canyon restoration project, estimated at $13.4 million, entails the restoration of the 1,400-acre south Napa County site the state Department of Fish and Game has owned since 2003. Over the next few months, amphibious excavators will get to work, equipped with GPS equipment to spot mapped historical sloughs. Over the past two years, levees have been breached gradually to re-establish historical tidal flows that had disappeared over the decades. In August, the main levee is scheduled to be breached. http://www.sthelenastar.com/articles/2010/07/10/news/saturday_update/doc4c37690ceb592407134038.txt
California: $3.5 million Lake Forest stream restoration moving forward
After nearly a decade of planning, one Placer County restoration project appears on track to return the Lake Forest Meadow back into a wetland habitat, its previous condition before it was filled in during the 1960s. The Placer County Department of Public Works Tahoe Engineering Division began the second phase of a restoration project last May and is currently working to rechannel water back through the meadow with an outlet to Lake Tahoe at Pomin Park. http://www.sierrasun.com/article/20100701/NEWS/100709989 |
River & Watershed Restoration
California: LA River granted status that offers protections
The federal government on Wednesday designated Los Angeles River a full-fledged navigable waterway, affirming the river's tributaries qualify for Clean Water Act protections and settling a long-running dispute over its status. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson said the waterway's use by watercraft, plans for restoration and other factors qualify it as a "traditional navigable water." She announced the designation at a news conference on the banks of south Los Angeles' Compton Creek, which feeds into the river. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/ap/la-river-granted-status-that-offers-protections-97977504.html
New England: River wild
Eco-restorationists like Rauseo argue that removing these dams and thousands of others around New England would benefit not only small-boaters, but also entire ecosystems that thrive around flowing fresh water. But these small dams, which once powered the grain and textile mills of the Industrial Revolution, are now as iconic a part of the Northeastern landscape as covered bridges, white church spires, and the low stone walls that slice the region's rolling hills - and in Andover, they have many defenders. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2010/07/11/river_wild/ |
| Grassland Restoration
Soil microbial communities are not fully restored after 30 years of tallgrass prairie restoration
Microbial communities had a transitional bacterial community forming during restoration that differed from both cropland and native prairie. The microbial communities of RG98 and RG00 grasslands were also significantly different, even though only restored two years apart and managed similarly. This is attributable to differences in soil type and soil chemistry. Effects of burning and season (of soil collection) had little effect on microbial communities. Even after 28 years the microbial community was not fully restored. http://www.conservationevidence.com/ViewSummary.aspx?ID=12300 |
| Lake Restoration
Wisconsin: Ecological restoration on lakeshore working on historic groundThe ongoing ecological restoration along the shoreline of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has reached a hillside near Eagle Heights that was once the summer home to hundreds of graduate students. The goal in the Tent Colony Woods, which is cut by gullies and invaded by exotic trees and shrubs, is to create a sustainable and ecologically diverse tract of sloping lakeshore forest. http://www.wisbusiness.com/index.iml?Article=202300 |
Wildlife Restoration
Thailand: Flight of the Gibbon Conservation Project
Flight of the Gibbon Conservation Project is working closely with Dr. Stephen Elliot, an expert on tropical forest restoration, and the Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU) of the Biology Department at Chiang Mai University to properly carry out the habitat restoration. The Primate Habitat Restoration Project have grown 3000 saplings in anticipation of this event. The first 1500 will be planted on sunday, and the rest will be planted as some of the originals die, which is a natural reforestation process. In addition, two weeks after the planting, specialists from FORRU will measure the saplings to gauge their success. Next April, villagers have agreed to build firebreak to protect the young trees. All groups involved; the villagers, the temple, the Forest Service, and the Flight of the Gibbon Conservation Project will continue to monitor the reforestation progress throughout the year. http://askfamilys.com/sub/g718921062282141oi/c90381572422 |
| Urban Restoration
New York: restoration ecology at Fresh Kills
We just dug up this great story from the New York Times in 2000 that features the work of Rutgers restoration ecologist Steven Handel at the Freshkills Park site. Dr. Handel and his students had completed a 16-acre study at the old landfill in the New Jersey Meadowlands when they entered into agreement with the NYC Department of Sanitation to study the rehabilitation of native ecology at the not-yet-closed Fresh Kills Landfill. The group performed two primary studies, one of tree growth on the capped landfill mounds, and one of seed dispersal of native plantings by pollinators like birds and bees. Both studies have been valuable in the continued planning and design of Freshkills Park. http://freshkillspark.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/from-the-archives-restoration-ecology-at-fresh-kills/ |
| Funding Opportunities
California: Ecosystem Restoration on Agricultural Lands (ERAL) Grant funding applications are accepted on a year-round basis. The WCB meets four times each year, normally in February, May, August, and November to consider approval of funding for projects. http://www.wcb.ca.gov/ERAL/grants.html
CIAP Protection and Restoration of Critical Forested Habitats - Closes July 31, 2010 Approximately $16M of the CIAP funds allocated to the state of Louisiana are being used to develop and implement a Coastal Forest Conservation Initiative (CFCI) to conserve critical coastal forest habitat for storm damage reduction and the protection and restoration of rare, declining, or ecologically significant habitats. http://www.lacpra.org/index.cfm?md=pagebuilder&tmp=home&nid=72&pnid=2&pid=61&fmid=0&catid=0&elid=0
Gulf of Mexico Community-based Restoration Partnership - Closes September 1, 2010 The Gulf of Mexico Community-based Restoration Partnership (GCRP) invites proposals for its tenth round of citizen-driven habitat restoration projects. The partnership is seeking to fund on-the-ground projects to restore marine, estuarine, and riparian habitats to benefit living marine resources and to provide educational and social benefits by significantly involving the community. http://www.gulfmex.org/documents/y10/gcrp_rfp.pdf |
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