Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration

The University of Illinois Springfield's Alfred O. and Barbara Cordwell Therkildsen Field Station at Emiquon and its partners will host the third annual Midwest-Great Lakes Society of Ecological Restoration (SER) Chapter Meeting on April 1-3, 2011.

http://events.uis.edu/2011/03/uis-hosts-midwest-great-lakes-society.html

Are we making progress on plant conservation in the United States?  BGCI US and the Plant Conservation Alliance are working to answer this question, and we've developed a survey that lets everyone involved in plant conservation in the U.S. easily report their efforts and help guide future plant conservation activities. Please visit

www.bgci.org/usa/PCAProgress to read more and take this short 20 question survey.

NOAA and other federal and state agencies are leading efforts to assess impacts to, and determine appropriate restoration for, Gulf resources injured by the Deepwater BP oil spill. We are in the process of identifying the types of restoration activities that will be appropriate to restore the natural resources impacted by the spill. The public scoping process provides an opportunity for your input.

http://www.gulfspillrestoration.noaa.gov/restoration/give-us-your-ideas/

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/

An Investment Forum: Mobilizing Private Investment in Trees and Landscape Restoration in Africa - Achieving the 'triple win' of improving rural livelihoods, increasing resilience in the face of climate extremes, and mitigating climate change - Nairobi 25- 27 May 2011

http://www.profor.info/profor/sites/profor.info/files/FORUM-ADVISORY-NOTE.pdf

Ramsar is launching a call for nominations for the Ramsar Wetland Awards, which will be presented at the next Ramsar COP in Romania, June 2012.

http://iucn.org/about/union/members/resources/news/?7045/Call-open-for-Ramsar-Wetland-Awards&utm_campaign=1107418314&utm_content=1023835583506&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Emailvision

4th International ESP Conference - 4 - 7 October 2011- Wageningen, The Netherlands

http://www.fsd.nl/esp/77938/5/0/30

This issue will focus on research that addresses these various ways that urbanization can be a positive factor in biodiversity preservation at the local, regional and global scales.

http://www.mdpi.com/journal/diversity/special_issues/urban_bcr/

The first full-length, high-definition documentary film ever made about legendary environmentalist Aldo Leopold, Green Fire highlights Leopold's extraordinary career, tracing how he shaped and influenced the modern environmental movement.

http://www.greenfiremovie.com/

Paul Stamets on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world

Local participation in forest management may simultaneously promote biodiversity and sustainable resource use for household livelihoods. Contrary to popular belief, the biodiversity of a tropical forest may be conserved while its resources are used to support local household livelihoods, according to a new study published in the March 25 issue of Science. But biodiversity and resource use are most likely to successfully co-exist in forests that are managed under systems that receive inputs from local forest users or local communities.

A UC team is unveiling groundbreaking research on the agroforestry and water-management practices of the Maya over a 1,500-year period. See this flyover of the Tikal site developed by the UC team. It shows developments of homes (in brown), temples (in orange), reservoirs (in blue) and roadways (in white) from the pre-Maya period at about 100 BC to the start of the Late Classic period in about 600 AD.

http://www.uc.edu/news/NR.aspx?id=13319

Agroecology, a science-based, ecological approach to agriculture, has been underestimated by policymakers even though it could play a vital role in boosting crop yields and advancing economic development, says a UN report. The approach relies on the natural environment to boost soil productivity and protect crops against pests, instead of using external inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides.

http://www.scidev.net/en/news/agroecology-a-spectacular-success-says-un-expert.html

Mitigation Banking has enabled such an improvement in wetland protection and mitigation practices that it has grown substantially, and as of January 2010, over 960,000 acres of wetlands have been restored and protected. The Army Corps of Engineers is now stipulating Mitigation Banks be used for all its development projects, if there are banks available. Unfortunately, as you know, each year development and construction projects continue to damage thousands of acres of American wetlands, and there are too few mitigation banks to cover all the impacts