Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration

The Awards Committee of the Society for Ecological Restoration is now soliciting nominations from SER members for our society awards which will be presented at the SER World Conference to be held in Merida, Mexico from August 21-25, 2011.

http://www.ser.org/content/ser_awards_program.asp

This year's Restoration Institute, held in partnership with the Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), will bring together ecosystem experts and policy-makers from around the world to discuss the practical and policy issues arising from novel or no-analogue ecosystems.

http://www.restorationinstitute.ca/

Denver puts water fees toward forest conservation
 Like many cities around the world, Denver gets its drinking water from rivers and reservoirs, which in turn get their water from forests. Many of those forests, however, are in trouble - thanks to funding cuts, climate change, and a horde of opportunistic beetles. That puts the city's water supply at risk as well, so Denver teamed up with the U.S. Forest Service to funnel money it collects from water fees into forest restoration.

http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0306-emm_denver.html

Oregon: Southern Blues forest proposal advances to DC

The project aims to improve forest conditions, restore wildlife habitat and support jobs in the local economy. "Restoring large portions of the Malheur National Forest is good for the land, and it's good for local industries.  We have learned a lot from one another in the collaborative process, and now its time to put that knowledge to work in the forest," said Mike Billman, timber manager for Malheur Lumber Company, a BMFP partner

http://www.bluemountaineagle.com/news/local_news/southern-blues-forest-proposal-advances-to-dc/article_ef65efa2-44fb-11e0-884d-001cc4c03286.html

Eco-farming can double food output in developing world

Many farmers in developing nations can double food production within a decade by shifting to ecological agriculture from use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, a U.N. report showed on Tuesday. Insect-trapping plants in Kenya and Bangladesh's use of ducks to eat weeds in rice paddies are among examples of steps taken to increase food for a world population that the United Nations says will be 7 billion this year and 9 billion by 2050.

The European Commission today adopted a roadmap for transforming the European Union into a competitive low carbon economy by 2050. At the same time, the Commission said if business continues as usual, the EU will achieve only half its target of 20 percent improvement in energy efficiency above 2005 levels by 2020.

The oil may have stopped gushing from the Macondo well, but as evident from comments voiced by Gulf Coast residents at the Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Task Force meeting in New Orleans, the disaster is far from over. Emotions rose to the surface as public participants - many of them leaders of regional community groups - shared their concerns about the restoration process and long-term impacts of the oil during the hour of the day-long meeting devoted to

public comments.

http://scienceblogs.com/thepumphandle/2011/03/will_gulf_coast_ecosystem_rest.php

One of the tenets of conservation management holds that alien species are ecologically harmful. But a new study is pointing to research that demonstrates that some non-native plants and animals can have beneficial impacts.

A federal judge in Anchorage Friday reinstated roadless rule protections for Alaska's Tongass National Forest that had been blocked since 2003. The country's largest national forest, the Tongass in southeast Alaska covers 16.8 million acres. A coalition of Alaska Native, tourism industry, and environmental organizations had sued the federal government in December 2009, challenging the Bush-era exemption of the Tongass National Forest from the 2001 Roadless Area Conservation Rule.