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

SER launches its Electronic PublicationsSponsorship Program. To learn more, or become a sponsor of RESTORE or SERNews, please click here.

Delaware: Volunteers to help with three November projects in Dover
 The projects are planting native trees at the Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area on Nov. 5 and at the Blackbird Reserve Wildlife Area on Nov. 13 and restoring an ancient sand ridge forest on the Nanticoke Wildlife Area near Bethel on Nov. 12.

Canada: You can build a forest!
The Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) is seeking volunteers for two events focusing 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.

 The 8th Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration - Europe (SER) will be held in Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia, České Budějovice, Czech Republic from 9th - 14th September, 2012. This offers an outstanding opportunity to exchange knowledge, create contacts and build new potential cooperation.

SER Members receive 25% off Island Press purchases. Contact Caroline Bronaugh at caroline@ser.org for details!

American Society of Landscape Architects Honors Landscape Architect/Restoration Ecologist Keith Bowers 
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has named landscape architect and restoration ecologist Keith Bowers to its prestigious Council of Fellows. One of the highest honors the ASLA bestows on members, the Fellowship recognizes Mr. Bowers' contributions to his profession and to society. The 2011 class of new Fellows is being recognized this week at the 2011 ASLA Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA.

American Forests Establishes New Science Advisory Board
Today, American Forests named nine respected earth and social scientists to initiate its new Science Advisory Board.

Cable TV giant Ted Turner honored for restoring prairie dog habitat 
The Prairie Dog Coalition's Seventh Annual "Living on Burrowed Time" gala Friday in Boulder will honor cable television giant Ted Turner for conservation work on his 2 million acres of ranchland. The coalition, a program of The Humane Society, is specifically recognizing Tuner's restoration of 11,000 acres that are home to more than 150,000 prairie dogs.

Idaho: Idaho couple puts wetlands rules to the test in U.S. Supreme Court
A fight over less than an acre of land in a remote part of the Northwest could alter the way the government enforces environmental regulations across the country. Chantell and Mike Sackett say the EPA violated their right to due process when it said they were building a house on a wetland and ordered them to restore the land.

Wisconsin: Afton man working on private project to restore 200-acre tract
Sometimes a private project on private land ends up benefiting people in unexpected ways. Afton resident Rodney Van Beek has been working to restore more than 200 acres of his own land into its original state: Oak savanna, prairie and wetland. The end result will be good for water quality, help retain floodwater, provide habitat for a variety of species and will make hunters in Texas very, very happy.

Climate Narratives: What is Modern about Traditional Ecological Knowledge?
The literature on traditional ecological knowledge has established the importance of community narratives for capturing and communicating complex environmental information and linking it to practice. We make the case that narratives are important not just to traditional communities but modern, cosmopolitan societies as well. Principles of narratology are employed to examine how moderns talk about climate change. As the analysis suggests, people make sense of complex issues by crafting coherent narratives about them.

Savannas, forests in a battle of the biomes, Princeton researchers find
Climate change, land use and other human-driven factors could pit savannas and forests against each other by altering the elements found by Princeton University researchers to stabilize the two. Without this harmony, the habitats, or biomes, could increasingly encroach on one other to the detriment of the people and animals that rely on them.

Traditional farm methods help climate adaptation 
Traditional agriculture methods could help protect food supplies and make agriculture more resilient to the effects of climate change, a report by the UK-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) said on Monday. Traditional knowledge, rather than modern methods, has helped indigenous people in countries like China, Kenya and Bolivia to cope with extreme weather and environmental change, the report said.

Iowa soil disappearing
The Environmental Working Group's (EWG) report "Losing Ground" uses data from new, precise technologies to show how Iowa's soil is washing away. Rick Cruse, director of the Iowa Water Center, recently spoke about the report during an Iowa Learning Farms webinar, according to a news release from the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture. "Crisis is a strong word, but I think it fits this situation," he said. In 2007, six million acres across Iowa eroded at twice the assumed "sustainable" rate of five tons per acre per year.

New Jersey: Duke Farms wetlands preservation in Hillsborough
The largest project in northern New Jersey to date, a 500-acre restoration, is ongoing at Duke Farms, a 2,740-acre estate in Hillsborough that prides itself on a progressive model of environmental stewardship. "This has been a long time coming," said Tom Almendinger, the ecological stewardship team leader at Duke Farms. "The wetlands restoration fits in perfectly with our new model and vision of stewardship. It's a big piece of where we're going and what we're doing."

US: Forests not keeping pace with climate change 
More than half of eastern U.S. tree species examined in a massive new Duke University-led study aren't adapting to climate change as quickly or consistently as predicted. "Many models have suggested that trees will migrate rapidly to higher latitudes and elevations in response to warming temperatures, but evidence for a consistent, climate-driven northward migration is essentially absent in this large analysis," says James S. Clark, H.L. Blomquist Professor of Environment at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment.

With food and climate change, policymakers risk betting on the wrong horse
Governments are ignoring a vast store of knowledge -- generated over thousands of years -- that could protect food supplies and make agriculture more resilient to climate change, says a briefing published today by the International Institute for Environment and Development. It urges negotiators at the UN climate change conference in Durban later this month to give stronger support to traditional knowledge and address the threats posed by commercial agriculture and intellectual property rights.

California set to launch the United States' first comprehensive cap-and-trade scheme
The big story around the water cooler this week is no doubt the final approval of California's cap-and-trade regulations.  After years of drawn out debates, legal challenges, and even a public referendum, California now seems set to launch the United States' first comprehensive cap-and-trade scheme (knock on wood), and the first that will look toward international REDD+ credits in coming years. 

India to host next Convention on Biological Diversity
India is hosting the next meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Hyderabad in October next year and efforts are on to encourage civil society participation in the process.

Delaware: DNREC Begins Forested Wetland Restoration Projects
The Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife in cooperation with Kent Conservation District have started construction on five forested wetland restoration projects on four state wildlife areas in Kent County. The projects include two areas at Blackiston Wildlife Area near Kenton and one each at the Little Creek Wildlife Area east of Dover, the Fortney-Urban Tracts between Hartly and Marydel and the Norman G. Wilder Wildlife Area near Viola.

Georgia: Riverkeeper proud of stream restoration
The acknowledgment of the two restorations - one completed in April at the aquatic center and another in September at the city park - marks a proud moment for the Upper Chattahoochee Riverkeeper in its quest for closure to what has often been a bitter dispute.

Colorado: Watershed restoration efforts continue 
Environmental restoration is complete in two-thirds of the Kerber Creek watershed, extending from north of Bonanza to San Luis Creek near Villa Grove in the northern San Luis Valley. Aarón Mohammadi, Kerber Creek Restoration Project coordinator with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, said the project focused on private land lower reaches of the watershed. Project success, he said, is the result of collaboration among 40 landowners and 16 entities - including federal, state and local, and nonprofit groups including Collegiate Peaks Chapter of Trout Unlimited and Southwest Conservation Corps.

UK: Project secures rare natural habitat in Broxbourne Woods
The future of heath and grass areas in Broxbourne Woods is secured, thanks to a habitat restoration project managed by the Countryside Management Service. Heathland and acid grassland habitats are now rare in lowland Britain but at Broxbourne Woods, due to the ongoing efforts of the Wood Wardens and other volunteers, two small glades with areas of heath and grasses remain. The programme will secure the future of these areas while expanding and improving them.

Hard Targets Needed to Halt Land Degradation Crisis
Each year, 12 million hectares of land are lost where 20 million tonnes of grain might have been grown, according to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification.A new global assessment called the Economics of Land Degradation was announced last week in Changwon. The intent is to emulate the successful Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) project and provide policy makers with detailed assessments of the real value of "free" services provided by species and ecosystems such as cleaning water, and providing food and fuel.

California: Construction Begins on Largest Restoration in San Pablo Bay Refuge
The San Francisco Estuary once supported 200,000 acres of tidal marsh, not including the Delta. Only some earthmoving equipment parked on the site hints that this former farmland is about to become the largest restored marsh in the San Pablo Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Ninety-two percent of these marshes were drained and destroyed, mostly between 1850 and 1930. Though the land was acquired more than 20 years ago, funding for restoration lagged behind. Construction finally began in October 2011.

Michigan: A wetland's blessings restored
The field was a new wetland at the Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge, converted from agricultural use last year to something more akin to a marsh. To prevent invasive plants like phragmites from taking over, the refuge manager had put in strips of new crops, including sunflowers that lured blackbirds in such numbers that the field sounded like an avian convention waiting to be called to order.

Australia: Tasmanian Bettongs Helping Repair ACT Ecosystem
The Minister for Environment, Parks and Heritage, Brian Wightman, today welcomed the translocation of a number of Tasmanian bettongs to the Australian Capital Territory, where they will form a core part of an ecosystem restoration project. Mr Wightman said the bettongs will be used to establish a founder population for a grassy woodlands restoration project being carried out in the Mulligans Flat and Goorooyarroo Nature Reserves. Up to 30 Tasmanian bettongs will be exported to the ACT, where they will be re-established in their former range.

California: San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program - Closes Nov 18, 2011
 The San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention Program has announced a $15,000 grant for projects that enhance and protect the health of local watersheds, creeks, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The federally mandated program aims to reduce the amount of pollution entering local storm drain systems. It offers San Mateo County $15,000 in Community Action Grants each year, with up to $3,000 awarded for each project. Last year, six San Mateo County organizations received grants for new and ongoing projects, including habitat restoration and cleanup events.

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.

Earth Island Institute: Supporting community-based wetland restoration initiatives
Through the Small Grants Program, Earth Island Institute has been able to support locally based restoration efforts to do just that. Small grassroots efforts to restore the coastal habitats of Southern California, which have been depleted by an astounding 98%, have been slowly working to bring our wetlands back from the brink of extinction. By supporting and empowering the new restoration leaders, we ensure our collective success in restoring some of the earth's most fragile ecosystems.

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.