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 RESTORE is a weekly e-bulletin, published by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER), 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 members. Please send your news stories and articles to the RESTORE editor at info@ser.org. |
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Get Involved / Community-Based Restoration
Missouri: Chesterfield is seeking volunteers to help Oct. 29 with habitat restoration in Central Park
The restoration will be done in cooperation with Operation Wild Lands (OWLs), which prepares volunteers of all ages to restore and maintain public lands throughout the region.
http://www.stltoday.com/suburban-journals/metro/news/article_b0e5eb28-9a06-5111-9e0d-cc58d1f34afb.html#ixzz1Y7tkrDZL
Canada: You can build a forest!
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is seeking volunteers for two events focussing on forest restoration efforts. Taking place on Friday, November 18th on Pelee Island, these events provide volunteers with a chance to visit a globally rare habitat while helping to build a healthy and lasting forest community.
http://www.leamingtonpostandshopper.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3318811
SER Members receive 25% off Island Press purchases. Contact Caroline Bronaugh at caroline@ser.org for details!
SER Southeast Chapter "New Trajectories and References for Ecological Recovery" - October 17-21, 2011
http://www.ser.org/cpc/events.asp
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People in the News
New Zealand: Urban forests forgetting epiphytes Two University of Waikato ecology students spent the summer in the forest canopies of Waikato and Taranaki conducting research they hope will lead to better conservation and restoration of native forests nationwide. Catherine Bryan and Fiona Clarkson both graduate this October with first class honours and are looking forward to more time in the field, having taken full-time positions as research assistants at the University of Waikato Environmental Research Institute. http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/ED1110/S00017/urban-forests-forgetting-epiphytes.htmBend Backyard Collective Moves Forest Restoration Forward Almost 50 volunteers joined us in the Metolius Preserve for the Bend Backyard Collective on Thursday, September, 29th. Employees from Ruff Wear, Inc., GearTribe, REI, Stanley, a brand of PMI, and QuickFeat International spent the morning lending a hand with forest restoration to help meet the Land Trust's long-term goal of restoring old-growth ponderosa pine forests. Among the volunteers were representatives from Conservation Alliance Grantees: The Deschutes Land Trust, Central Oregon Land Watch, and Oregon Natural Desert Association. http://www.conservationalliance.com/blog/2011/10/03/bend-backyard-collective-moves-forest-restoration-forward |
| New Books & Articles
Forest structure, services and biodiversity may be lost even as form remains
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-10/osu-fss092911.php A forest may look like a forest, have many of the same trees that used to live there, but still lose the ecological, economic or cultural values that once made it what it was, researchers suggest this week in articles in Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences. One study outlines services and functions that are disappearing in mountain ash forests in Australia, and a commentary in the journal pointed out that many of the same issues are in play in forests of the Pacific Northwest, the grasslands of the Great Basin, and other areas. |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Putting people to work: restoring our ecosystems, sequestering carbon
A public works ecosystem restoration agenda would support the surest tool-namely, healthy ecosystems-that sequesters carbon and lessens the impacts of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. The other great benefit is that healthy ecosystems best deliver the ecosystem services, such as water, fisheries, pollination, and flood protection, on which we depend. Fortunately, we do have great paradigms for such an initiative. For example, in the United States in the 1930s, the New Deal's Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) employed millions during the Great Depression in conservation and ecological restoration projects.
http://news.mongabay.com/2011/1002-blaustein_jobs_restoration.html
Indonesia: Government to Grant Business Permits for Ecosystem Restoration
The government says it will grant permits to businessmen wanting to restore the ecosystem. The Forestry Ministry's secretary-general Hadi Daryanto has targeted 2.5 million ha to be restored between 2000 and 2014.
http://www.tempointeractive.com/hg/nasional/2011/09/29/brk,20110929-359009,uk.html
Better business decisions through ecosystem valuation
In order to help business better cope with these issues, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) created the Guide to Corporate Ecosystem Valuation (CEV), an innovative framework designed to enhance understanding of the value of ecosystem services such as fresh water, food, fibre and natural hazard protection. This framework, which is the first of its kind, helps companies to consider the benefits and values of these services, providing new information and insights to include in planning and financial analysis.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sustainable-business/better-business-decisions-through-ecosystem-valuation?newsfeed=true
Conservation offers better rewards than plantations: UNEP
A United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) report says conserving rainforests in Indonesia can generate three times more revenue than clearing them for palm oil plantations. The report estimates that the carbon value of peat-rich forests ranges from US$3,711 and $11,185 per hectare over a 25-year period, which is a higher value than the revenue from any other land uses such as - among others - agroforestry, sustainable logging and oil palm.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2011/09/29/conservation-offers-better-rewards-plantations-unep.html |
| Agro-Ecology
India: Green energy takes toll on green cover
For two decades people from eight villages in Kalpavalli region in Andhra Pradesh's Anantapur district laboured hard to turn a vast expanse of wasteland into a forest. But the effort seems to have gone waste as the green cover is being ruthlessly destroyed to set up wind farms. Enercon Wind Farms (Madhya Pradesh) Pvt Ltd, a group company of Enercon (India) Ltd, a subsidiary of the German company Enercon GmbH, is setting up a 20 MW wind energy project in the area.
http://www.downtoearth.org.in/content/green-energy-takes-toll-green-cover
Creating an agro-ecological system to feed 9 billion people
A report by Olivier de Schutter, the UN's Special Rapporteur on the right to food, argues that conventional ways to increase food production, such as using high-yielding crops, disease resistant varieties and pesticides, do not benefit the poorest farmers, who cannot keep up with the increasingly high and unpredictable costs of these methods.
http://www.peopleandplanet.net/?lid=30010§ion=34&topic=27
Desert's Wealth is Wasted in Mexico
The deserts of northern Mexico are home to various plant species that have been largely ignored, despite the considerable social, economic and environmental contributions they could make.
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=105347 |
| Biodiversity & Climate Change
SCS Verifies Rainforest Reforestation Carbon Offset Project in Uganda to VCS Standard
A Ugandan carbon offset project that will help preserve one of the country's last remaining tropical forest areas has been verified and validated by Scientific Certification Systems (SCS) to the Verified Carbon Standard (VCS). The project, developed by Face the Future, will help preserve habitat in Uganda's Kibale National Park, home to the largest Chimpanzee populations in the world, more than 300 bird species, wild cats and elephants. The project focuses on the restoration of natural forest using native tree species and fire control methods.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/09/28/prweb8837158.DTL#ixzz1ZLjlg3sl
Why protecting the world's wildlife is good for our wallets
The IPBES is based on the increasingly influential concept of ecosystem services, that forests rivers or peat bogs are not just parts of the natural world, but produce oxygen, provide food and store atmospheric carbon, vital in the fight against climate change. The new body, which all the major global nations back, follows on the heels of two reports: the Millennium Ecosystems Assessment of 2005, which showed that most of the world's ecosystems are in serious decline, and the report on The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity released last year, which estimated that nature and the services it provides are worth trillions of dollars annually to society. http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/nature/why-protecting-the-worlds-wildlife-is-good-for-our-wallets-2364701.html
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Arizona: Thinning Fort Valley can't afford to wait
That's the message the U.S. Forest Service is sending out as it pursues the next major forest restoration project on the San Francisco Peaks. Thousands of acres northeast of Schultz Pass were set to be thinned several years ago as a way to grow healthier trees and protect the forest from a catastrophic crown fire. But appeals meant delays in getting final approval, and, when combined with a softening of the economy, the plans were shelved. And now it's too late -- nearly the entire project area was burned up in the 15,000-acre Schultz fire in the summer of 2010.
http://azdailysun.com/news/opinion/editorial/thinning-fort-valley-can-t-afford-to-wait/article_10d92b74-432e-5b4c-a39f-48246d17ef2e.html#ixzz1ZLkJ8686
California: Forest Hailed as Model for New Management Paradigm
The San Francisco-based nonprofit is rewriting the rules of forest economics by proving that stands like this can remain ecologically valuable while also generating significant income for their owners -- goals that have pitted logging communities against environmentalists in the Pacific Northwest for decades.
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/09/29/29greenwire-calif-forest-hailed-as-model-for-new-management-5930.html
A Revolutionary Technology is Unlocking Secrets of the Forest
A new imaging system that uses a suite of airborne sensors is capable of providing detailed, three-dimensional pictures of tropical forests - including the species they contain and the amount of CO2 they store - at astonishing speed. These advances could play a key role in preserving the world's beleaguered rainforests.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/carnegie_airborne_observatory_technology_unlocks_secrets_of_the_rain_forest/2447/
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| Wetland Restoration
Australia: Transformed - From decommissioned water storage to 8750ha wetland
The southern hemisphere's largest wetland restoration project - Winton Wetlands in the Murray-Darling basin - is attracting international interest. Since the former Lake Mokoan was decommissioned in 2009 the wetland is now full of water and the birds and people are flocking back. This $20million project of international significance is run by a community board and is on track to achieve scientific, cultural and environmental outcomes with a focus on education, research, tourism, recreation and community development.
http://www.wintonwetlands.org.au
Florida: Everglades restoration program imperiled by monitoring cuts
The agencies in charge of restoring the Everglades are set to gut a science program critical to determining whether work they're doing is helping or hurting plants and animals that live there - from algae that anchors the bottom of the food chain to alligators that feast at its top. The budget for the long-running monitoring program, which assesses key "indicator" species that serve as the vital signs of complex, interconnected Everglades ecosystems, is being slashed by almost 60 percent overall, with nearly a dozen research projects eliminated completely. http://www.evergladesfoundation.org/news/entry/everglades-restoration-imperiled-by-monitoring-program-cuts-experts-say/
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River & Watershed Restoration
River restoration project help protect forest, enhance local economy
As the completion of the Four River Restoration project approaches, experts predict that the project will have a tremendous effect on the local economy. They expect the project will revitalize the local economy by enhancing the tourism and leisure industries, creating more jobs, and increasing household income. The project was initially designed to boost tourism and leisure sectors. In this regard, the 16 reservoirs scheduled to open later this year are built with not only water management facilities but also with various cultural and sports facilities like riverside parks, bike roads, eco-tourism areas, and campsites.
http://www.korea.net/detail.do?guid=58398 |
| Grassland Restoration
South Africa: Grassland Restoration in Kruger National Park
Did the experiment work? On September 18, 2010, shortly after the planned firestorm occurred, ALI revealed a black, charred landscape. Nearly one year later, on August 20, 2011, the ALI acquired a new image of the park. This image, shown in the center, shows no sign that a fire ever occurred. Previously charred land is now indistinguishable from the tan land around it. Adapted to fire, the savanna grasses recovered very quickly.
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=52333 |
| Arid Land Restoration
Oman: ESO, EEG to contribute to 1m tree campaign
The Environment Society of Oman (ESO) joined the Emirates Environment Group's (EEG) endeavour to promote sustainable green spaces in its Million Tree Campaign. Initiated in the year 2007 in the UAE, under the United Nations Environment Programme's One Billion Tree Campaign, EEG's Million Tree Campaign aimed to aid in mitigating the impact of carbon emissions and combating desertification.
http://main.omanobserver.om/node/67238
Lake Restoration
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| Coastal & Marine Restoration
Florida: Clam Bayou mangrove restoration a success
An effort to restore habitat on Sanibel Island in under way. In 2005, the ecosystem around the Clam Bayou area was almost destroyed by hurricanes and human destruction. Now, thanks to a volunteer program, it's back and flourishing.
http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2011-09-28/Clam-Bayou-mangrove-restoration-a-success |
| Extractive Industries
Massachusetts: $6m in hand, coast restoration is next
A $6 million settlement from the company responsible for an oil spill in Buzzards Bay eight years ago will be used to fund restoration projects such as rehabilitating the environment of a small island off Mattapoisett, removing a dam from the Weweantic River in Wareham, and acquiring more shorefront property for public use.
http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-02/news/30235687_1_piping-plover-terns-restoration |
| Invasive Species
Florida's Invasive Species Problem Worst in the World
Florida has the world's worst invasive amphibian and reptile problem, and a new 20-year study led by a University of Florida researcher verifies the pet trade as the top cause of the non-native species introduction into the state's environment.
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/oct2011/2011-10-01-091.html |
| Funding Opportunities
The Gulf of Mexico Foundation's Community-based Restoration Partnership has reached a milestone by providing grants for now more than 75 different projects in coastal areas throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Restoring a total of about 15,000 acres over the past decade, these CRP projects have improved a wide variety of habitat types, including coastal dunes, coral reefs, oyster reefs, marshes, seagrass beds, mangrove forests and artificial reefs. Funding from NOAA and EPA make it possible for the GMF to provided more than $3 million to projects. Other partners have contributed an additional $5.5 million in funding. The GMF is offering a new round of CRP funding for 2012. http://www.gulfmex.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/GCRP2012RFP.pdfCalifornia: 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.htmlTamarisk Related Grant Opportunities The Tamarisk Coalition has developed a list of available Grant Opportunities to address tamarisk issues and riparian restoration. This list was revised as part of the Colorado River Basin Tamarisk and Russian Olive Assessment. http://www.tamariskcoalition.org/FundingResources.html |
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