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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
SER Southeast Chapter "New Trajectories and References for Ecological Recovery" - October 17-21, 2011
http://www.ser.org/cpc/events.asp
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!
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People in the News
Native American activist takes fresh look at environmental problems
"We have botched some things up, because that's what humans do," she said. "The question is if you have the humility and commitment to fix it." Laduke said her Anishinabek religion emphasizes a cyclical view of the world that focuses on renewal and long-term environmental conservation, rather than the linear view focused on short-term financial gain that currently dominates our society. According to Laduke, this cyclical view is one through which our society can begin to focus on "how to work with the land instead of how to own it, transform it, and change it."
http://www.dailycardinal.com/news/native-american-activist-takes-fresh-look-at-environmental-problems-1.2636572
Fishing film nets documentary prize
A film about the effects of overfishing has won a new award set up to honour films that have made a significant impact on society. The End of the Line received the first Puma Creative Impact award, worth 50,000 euros (£43,737), at a London ceremony hosted by newsreader Jon Snow. Director Rupert Murray said he hoped the prize would "inspire more people to make films that make a difference". http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15270216 |
| New Books & Articles
And a Song: Lucky Break
This song came after the singer/songwriter John Quinn took part in the 4th World Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration in Mexico in August 2011 and heard Imelda May at the Bunbury Blues and Roots Festival. Its a call to restore the planet's ecosystems that provide the lucky break we are gambling with through climate change, land abuse and pollution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I57JxLmasI4
Can Ecological Corridors Heal Fragmented Landscapes?
Conservationists have long called for creating corridors that would enable large mammals and other wildlife to roam more freely across an increasingly developed planet. But now scientists are taking a closer look at just how well these corridors are working and what role they might play in a warming world.
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/ecological_corridors_connecting_fragmented_pockets_of_wildlife_habitat/2450/
Can we make nature even better?
Emma Marris asks these and other icon-busting questions her new book Rambunctious Garden -- potentially the most optimistic and controversial work about the future of nature to appear in years. Marris, a former correspondent for Nature magazine, takes big issue with enviro doom-and-gloomers and last-great-places conservationists, arguing in Rambunctious Garden that pristine wildness has been a myth for at least 13,000 years and that we live on a thoroughly domesticated planet whose nature it's up to us to manage ... and even improve upon. It sounded so heretical that I had to call her up and ask her to explain.
http://www.grist.org/cities/2011-10-09-can-we-make-nature-even-better-inside-the-rambunctious-garden |
| Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Why the Civilian Conservation Corps Should be Restablished
Last month I was reminded of the impressive accomplishments of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) while touring California National Parks. The CCC was a public works program that operated from 1933 to 1942 as part of FDR's New Deal. It provided manual labor jobs related to the conservation and development of natural resources in rural lands owned by federal, state and local governments. The American public made the CCC the most popular of all the New Deal programs.
http://www.enn.com/environmental_policy/article/43381 |
| Agro-Ecology
EU: Eco-farming rules 'will not help wildlife'
The European commission is set to announce proposals for reforming subsidies to farmers this week, and is pledging to "green" the system in a bid to legitimise the spending of billions of pounds a year in taxpayers' money on the grants. But UK officials are concerned that the measures likely to be unveiled, including a return to leaving land fallow as "set aside", ensuring a mix of different crops on each farm and preventing permanent pastures being ploughed up, will not work.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/oct/10/farming-wildlife-europe |
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Will new LEED standards allow for clearcut timber?
He's referring to proposed changes to the rules that would, he and other green groups argue, allow developers to use just about any old two-by-fours -- including wood "from some of the worst clearcuts in North America" -- and still get their houses LEED certified (as long as they still meet the gazillion other requirements, of course). Up to now, the LEED rules have given points ("credits" in green building speak) to homebuilders who use lumber that is certified by the nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council, which ensures that the trees were grown and harvested sustainably. The new rules could allow builders to get points for lumber that is certified through other less strict outfits, such as the timber-industry-backed Sustainable Forestry Initiative -- and, the greens argue, wood that is not certified at all.
http://www.grist.org/green-home/2011-10-10-will-new-leed-standards-allow-for-clearcut-timber |
| Wetland Restoration
US: Wetlands at a 'tipping point'
The latest comprehensive national wetlands survey showed a net loss of 82,300 acres between 2004 and 2009, and even though the rate of wetlands losses slowed, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the trend is alarming, especially for places like the Mississippi River Delta. The report compiled by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service underscores the need for continued conservation and restoration efforts and showed significant losses in forested wetlands and coastal wetlands that serve as storm buffers, absorb pollution that would otherwise find its way into the nation's drinking water, and provide vital habitat for fish, wildlife and plants.
http://summitcountyvoice.com/2011/10/09/environment-u-s-wetlands-at-a-tipping-point/
Taiwan: Wetland, forest park design wins American landscape award
The project, carried out by Sun Yat-sen University in Kaohsiung, southern Taiwan, is located on land that was reclaimed from the sea in Chiayi County's Dongshih Township in the 1960s but later became a wetland. The plan is designed to help the wetland function as both a water resource and a flood plain. The project also includes ecological restoration through which the park can become a habitat for migratory birds, including the highly endangered black-faced spoonbill, said Lu Shiau-yun, a marine environmental and engineering assistant professor at the university.
http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aLIV&ID=201110060020
Wisconsin: Long Lake restoration project a success
"Through this project we were able to take an area that had been degraded by an invasive grass and create a shallow wetland that will provide valuable habitat for a variety of fish and wildlife species," Van Vreede said. Van Vreede said the project involved the excavation of one to two feet of material from an area of degraded wetland adjacent to Long Lake. This effort resulted in the creation of a half-acre spawning basin connected to Long Lake and an inlet stream with 450 feet of channel, providing an additional ½-acre of spawning habitat.
http://www.htrnews.com/article/20111009/MAN0901/110090332/Long-Lake-restoration-project-success
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River & Watershed Restoration
US: Obama speeds permitting of West Coast habitat restoration
The Obama administration said today that a Northern California habitat restoration projects will get expedited permitting and environmental review, among a group of 14 infrastructure projects around the country. The projects are an outgrowth of the August Presidential Memorandum to cut red tape, part of President Obama's defense against Republican charges that regulations are stifling the economy. (Sen. Barbara Boxer has opened a campaign to block GOP deregulatory bills coming out of the House, and issued a report defending environmental rules.)
http://blog.sfgate.com/nov05election/2011/10/10/obama-speeds-permitting-of-west-coast-habitat-restoration/ |
| Coastal & Marine Restoration
US E.P.A. Panel Issues Plan for Gulf Coast Restoration The strategy, which is being made available for a period of public comment before being submitted to the president, lays out several broad goals and specific means to achieve them. To restore coastal habitat, for example, the report advises using strategic dredging and river diversions to rebuild the rapidly disappearing wetlands of the Mississippi Delta. It also proposes placing ecological restoration on equal footing with flood control and navigation interests in making Mississippi River management decisions. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/06/us/task-force-releases-plan-for-battered-gulf-of-mexico.html?_r=1 |
| Urban Restoration
Urban forest benefits: UN calls for maximization of urban forest benefits
'The accelerating rate of natural disturbances affecting cities such as storms, droughts, floods and landslides reminds us that resilience to disasters is of critical importance and that trees play an important role in protecting city environments,' said FAO Assistant Director-General for Forestry, Eduardo Rojas-Briales. 'Good practices in urban and peri-urban forestry can contribute to building a resilient city in terms of mitigation and adaptation to the effects of climate change,' Rojas-Briales said. Urban forests also improve the well-being and health conditions of citizens by cooling the environment, particularly in arid zones.
http://www.afriquejet.com/maximization-urban-forest-benefits-2011100524090.html
Korea: ChonGae Canal Restoration Project
The ChonGae Canal Restoration Project is an ambitious redevelopment initiative that transformed the urban fabric of Seoul, Korea. This design was the winning project in an international competition and celebrates the source point of cleansed surficial and sub grade runoff from the city at the start of this seven mile green corridor. The main competition requirement was to highlight the future reunification of North and South Korea. The project symbolizes this political effort through the use of donated local stone from each of the eight provinces of North and South Korea.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/227241/20111007/chongae-canal-restoration-project-mikyoung-kim-design.htm
California: Presidio's Dragonfly Creek undergoing restoration
"We have these little fragments of San Francisco heritage that are all spread around," said Mark Frey, the supervisory ecologist for the Presidio Trust, which was created in 1996 to preserve and enhance the Presidio after it was transferred from the Army to the National Park Service. "What we are doing is taking all those little fragments, connecting them and making an intact ecosystem."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/07/BA8Q1LCV4D.DTL#ixzz1aNv1vl6J |
| 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.
Terra Viva Grants develops and manages information about grants for agriculture, energy, environment, and natural resources in the world's developing countries.
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.
Tamarisk 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.
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