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 RESTORE is distributed to current SER members. Make sure you don't miss a single issue! |
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RESTORE is a free weekly e-bulletin provided to current members of SER. RESTORE links you to the latest breaking news stories keeping you up-to-date on a wide variety of topics related to ecological restoration. To contact the editors, please email info@ser.org.
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SER in the News
SER will send a delegation to CBD SBSTTA15 meeting in Montreal, Canada November 7-11. Read the SER2011 Call to Action in English, Spanish and French | |
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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.
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. | | Don't forget! 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
Designer Anne Fontaine Launches Environmental Philanthropic Foundation
On October 20th, Franco-Brazilian fashion designer Anne Fontaine will launch her 501 (c) (3) non-profit environmental charity, The Anne Fontaine Foundation. The Foundation's mission is to contribute to the protection and restoration of the Bahia region of the Atlantic Rainforest in Brazil, also known as the Mata Atlantica. | |
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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. | |
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Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
| Oregon: Restoration of forests: Collaboration lifts rural areas
To be sure, the work ahead is difficult and time-consuming. The federal government has an obligation to care for its assets, which requires a drastically increased investment in forest restoration on our public lands -- a hard sell in today's economic climate. There is widespread agreement that science-based restoration can increase timber harvests on these lands, but that is not the only unit of measure: providing ecosystem services such as clean water and wildlife habitat, establishing a consistent program of work that retains and builds employment in the forestry sectors, and providing for carbon storage are only a few of the metrics by which we should be evaluating the success or failure of forest management.
Maryland: Final Report On Market-Based Approaches To Recovering Ecosystem Services
The study was launched to address the fact that the full value of Maryland's ecosystem services are not being adequately replaced as a result of land use changes, as evidenced by the health of the Chesapeake Bay and other environmental indicators. For instance, although Maryland has one of the most protective forest conservation laws in the nation, the State continues to lose approximately 7,000 acres of forests each year to development. Further, the actual value of the lost environmental benefits of these forests is not included in the price of restoration.
Conservation Groups Turn to Big Business for HelpWhen you look at the banking crisis, it was about investing in things that had no value. In contrast, a good economic case can be made that investments in natural infrastructure, such as flood plains and mangroves, are tangible investments that will last if you do it right. If we make the argument that we are not trying to protect nature but are instead investing in nature, and if we can show what the return on this investment is, it will be a better argument. |
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Traditional Ecological Knowledge
Can indigenous peoples be relied on to gather reliable environmental data?
No one is in a better position to monitor environmental conditions in remote areas of the natural world than the people living there. But many scientists believe the cultural and educational gulf between trained scientists and indigenous cultures is simply too great to bridge -- that native peoples cannot be relied on to collect reliable data. But now, researchers led by Stanford ecologist Jose Fragoso have completed a five-year environmental study of a 48,000-square-kilometer piece of the Amazon Basin that demonstrates otherwise. The results are presented in a paper published in the October issue of BioScience and are available online.
Agro-Ecology
EU: Will CAP reform help or hinder natureā€™s recovery?
The current Common Agricultural Policy is in need of fundamental reform. The Wildlife Trusts want to see an increased percentage of the EU agriculture budget spent on delivering a range of robust environmental measures, including protection for wildlife-rich grasslands and restoration of fragmented habitats. New environmental measures should reflect and recognise that healthy ecosystems are a vital element of sustainable societies and must be better integrated with other major policies, such as the Water Framework Directive. | |
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Biodiversity & Climate Change
The big choice: money or planet?
There is an alternative to the choice between ecological disaster and economic destruction. But we need efforts that go beyond CSR, an unprecedented commitment and shared sacrifice.
Forest Restoration | |
Texas: Bastrop park won't be back to full glory for decades
A Bastrop State Park specialist involved in the restoration of the 5,900-acre park known for its signature "Lost Pines" forest says it may take half a century before it fully recovers from the wildfires. |
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River & Watershed Restoration
Arkansas: Restoring wetlands while protecting history
This work was made possible when the landowner enrolled more than 600 acres into a permanent easement through NRCS' Emergency Watershed Protection Program - Floodplain Easement. The project restores approximately 200 acres of cropland to wetlands and associated uplands and permanently protects the property from development.
EPA gives $1.1 million grant for restoration work on watersheds
A $1.1 million grant was awarded last week to restore portions of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore and Grand Traverse Bay watersheds. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded the grant which will help restore portions of the national park and put an estimated 20 people to work - some for as long as a year.
Ohio: Big Darby restoration project bringing life back to creek
The Big Darby Creek has a fresh start, thanks to a $1.7 million restoration project at its headwaters in Logan County. No one knows where the original streambed that formed the start of the 88-mile-long Big Darby really lies. Since the 1800s, that section of the stream has been moved and modified to keep rainwater from swamping farm fields and roads.
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Grassland Restoration
Ecosystem Management Must Consider Human Impact Too
Both reports identify an unstable state at 50 to 60 percent tree cover; either trees take hold and promote their own growth hydrologically (and suppress fire), or grasses take hold and promote their expansion through fire, Mayer says. "This work has implications for the resilience of these ecosystems in the Southern Hemisphere," she notes. "Large areas of savanna in Africa could shift to forest if fire and grazing are suppressed, and large areas of forest in South America could convert to savanna as climate change and local human impacts such as logging interact with rainfall seasonality and fire."
Indiana: Visclosky Announces Contract for Ecosystem Restoration in Gary
Congressman Pete Visclosky announced that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently awarded a construction contract of $867,775 for ecosystem restoration for the Calumet Prairie and Ivanhoe South project in Gary, Indiana. Calumet Prairie and Ivanhoe South are essential to the Great Lakes ecosystem because they provide habitat to a number of endangered, threatened, and rare species, and play a key part in the migratory pattern for a number of bird species.
Illinois: Restoring prairies in the Prairie State
Now, an ambitious plan for Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie in Will County is an effort to revive the state's environmental namesake. About 2,000 acres of prairie fields have already been restored at Midewin, the country's first national tallgrass prairie. But officials last week unveiled a 10-year plan to restore another 18,000 acres and eventually reintroduce bison on to the property.
Coastal & Marine Restoration
ERS Supplies Thousands of Marsh Plants and Grasses Supporting Louisiana Marsh Restoration
Ecological Restoration Services, L.L.C., (ERS), a subsidiary of Resource Environmental Solutions, L.L.C. (RES), has completed delivery of over 20,000 native marsh grasses and plants in support of critical marsh restoration efforts along coastal Louisiana. All species were grown and supplied from the company's 680-acre nursery in Pointe Aux Chenes, Louisiana. | |
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Urban Restoration
China: Chengdu & XiChang in Sichuan Province Accommodate Future Growth
Chengdu and XiChang in Sichuan Province -- will benefit from thoughtful city planning to accommodate future growth rather than moving forward at breakneck pace with existing plans. Los Angeles-based Johnson Fain has created well balanced urban plans that redirect growth into appropriate city zones and at the same time address major environmental issues and maintain an urban/rural balance. | |
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Funding Opportunities
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Request for Proposals - Closes December 12, 2011
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is accepting project proposals to protect, restore and enhance Great Lakes fish and wildlife habitat under the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act (Act). The Service requests interested entities to submit restoration, research and regional project proposals for the restoration of Great Lakes fish and wildlife resources. The purpose of the Act is to provide assistance to states, tribes, and other interested entities to encourage cooperative conservation, restoration and management of the fish and wildlife resources and their habitats in the Great Lakes Basin.
The Gulf of Mexico Foundation's Community-based Restoration Partnership
This 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
Terra Viva 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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