SER Releases New Brochure on the Economics of Restoration at CBD Scientific Meeting
As the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) discuss how to best to integrate ecosystem restoration into their national action plans and accounting frameworks, the SER delegation co-hosted a side event with the CBD to highlight why investing in our ecological infrastructure makes economic sense. In addition, SER staff and members participated in a week- long poster session on the contribution of ecosystem restoration to the CBD objectives and a healthy planet. The book of extended abstracts is available here.

Become an SER sponsor!
 SER launches its Electronic Publications Sponsorship Program for RESTORE and SERnews. Be sure to take advantage of our 2-month introductory period! 

Delaware: Volunteers needed to help with two November projects in Dover
The projects are planting native trees at the Cedar Swamp Wildlife Area on Nov. 13 at the Blackbird Reserve Wildlife Area 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. 

Special Issue on Restoration Ecology
This special issue of ecologia mediterranea is part of the proceedings of the 7th SER European conference on ecological restoration which was held for the first time in France in the prestigious premises of the Palais des Papes International Conference Center in Avignon from 23 to 27 August 2010.

New Evidence That Climate Change Threatens Marine Biodiversity
A new study uses unconventional but more accurate measures of the effect of climate change on the health of marine ecosystems and uncovers more reasons to be concerned.

Wetland Restoration and Construction: A Technical Guide
Written by SER member Thomas Biebighauser, Wetland Restoration and Construction-A Technical Guide reveals practices used to restore over 1,400 wetlands in 18 US states and 2 Canadian provinces. This book gives details of how to build a wetland, repair failed wetlands, and transform degraded landscapes into self-sustaining wetland habitats. Clear step-by-step instructions are given on how to design and establish wetlands for wildlife and fish habitats, clean run-off, groundwater recharge, and flood prevention.

Socioeconomic Indicators for Forest Restoration Projects
 This report, developed by the New Mexico Forest and Watershed Restoration Institute through a grant from the USDA Forest Service, Southwest Region, will help us better understand the social and economic outcomes of forest restoration projects. Importantly, it provides a framework for assessing the contributions of forest restoration efforts to local economies and restoration-based businesses.

Linked through Story: Natural Science, Nature Writing, and Traditional Ecological Knowledge
 Contemporary nature writing has adapted the subject matter and methods of natural history to pressing ethical, moral, and even religious issues. TEK has deepened or qualified the results of conventional scientific inquiry. At a recent symposium convened by the Natural History Network, participants wondered how, apart from a congruence of results, TEK and Western natural history could be linked. This paper offers "story" as a basis for thinking about such a connection.

Nevada: Revegetation aimed to prevent dust bowl after water is moved
Public Law 111-85 created the Walker River Basin Restoration Program and provided $10 million for land stewardship, with a priority placed on revegetation. "I kind of feel like this program is here, and we can fight it or try to work it out to the best of our advantage," Tomac explains. "I think everybody is coming to that conclusion now."

Peru: Congress approves 10-year GMO moratorium
 Peru's Congress announced Friday it overwhelmingly approved a 10-year moratorium on imports of genetically modified organisms in order to safeguard the country's biodiversity. The measure bars GMOs - including seeds, livestock, and fish - from being imported for cultivation or to be raised locally.

Durban starts community carbon offsets
  Community Ecosystem-Based Adaptation (Ceba) focuses on the link between communities and the ecosystems that underwrite the welfare and livelihood of the communities. Debra Roberts, head of eThekwini municipality's environmental management department, said yesterday the first Ceba project would be the restoration and reforestation of the uMbilo catchment, west of Durban, ahead of the conference later this month.

Missouri: Bringing Biodiversity Data Online, One Leaf At A Time
 The Center for Biodiversity Informatics is converting millions of pressed plants into a vital digital archive. The herbarium at the Missouri Botanical Garden contains about 6.3 million samples of pressed plants. The collection is so large it is split between two buildings. Aiming to share their specimens with the world, a team of archivists and botanists are painstakingly putting every one online for anyone to access.

Canada: REGEN: youth restore grassland habitat
Protecting, restoring and creating connections at the HNC's new Amaolo Nature Sanctuary will be the focus of this project. Through the project the HNC will further restoration efforts at the 39 acre Amaolo Nature Sanctuary by - restoring grassland habitat by planting native wildflowers and trees grown from seed, - creating natural connections for impoverished youth and showing them the importance of protecting and restoring natural areas by having them grow native plants from seed, transplant the plants to the restoration site, and collect biological data, and, - gathering data for aquatic habitats by conducting pond studies.

Video: Community Based Mangrove Restoration in Palk Bay, India 
This documentary describes how OMCAR Foundation organized local community in mangrove restoration. We technically trained villagers in seed collection, segregation, bag preparation and planting seeds in nursery. All these technical field work are carried out in northern Palk Bay coastal villages by the fisher community which are trained and work for the project. Then the nursery raised seedlings are carried to the plantation sites by boats. The sites are selected based traditional (community) and scientific knowledge (OMCAR Foundation).

Massachusetts: Work to restore Broad Meadows into thriving ecosystem continues
Work to transform Broad Meadows in Quincy, Mass., back to a thriving, ecologically rich salt marsh is progressing at an impressive rate. The project, which will restore tidal flushing to the salt marsh system by lowering the surface elevation to pre-1930's levels, is ahead of schedule due in part to good weather and conditions.

Canada: Rare moth found in restored dunes
 An endangered moth, found in only 10 other locations in the world, has been discovered in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, where its sand dune habitat is being restored. The tiny sand verbena moth, found in three Canadian locations including the Saanich Peninsula, disappeared from Pacific Rim decades ago.

Florida: Donations needed as Marco mangrove restoration effort about to begin 
Now, work is under way, gearing up to restore the area, said Jeffrey Carter, stewardship coordinator and aquatic preserve manager at Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. "This is a long-term project. There has been a process of two years to figure it out, find the right partners, and determine what resources are needed," Carter said.

Restoring wild oyster reefs is a perfect microcosm of large-scale Gulf restoration 
First, oyster restoration is do-able. Though the Gulf of Mexico has been neglected by research funding agencies, there's some science trickling down from decades of studies of the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic coast oyster fisheries. There's new science, too, that takes a distinctly "applied" approach.

Florida: Visit to the coral gardeners' seabed lab 

Czechs to fly more rare wild horses to Mongolia to reintroduce them to native habitat
The Prague Zoo says it will transport more rare wild horses to Mongolia next year as part of its efforts to reintroduce the endangered species to its native habitat. The zoo moved four of its Przewalski horses to the western Mongolian reserve of Khomiin Tal in June.

Aloha, and welcome to the planet's extinction capital
The following is an interview with Alan Lieberman and Richard Switzer of the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research's Hawaii Endangered Bird Conservation Program. Along with a multi-institutional team, their group is racing to save some of the most critically endangered species on the planet; the remaining native forest birds of Hawaii.

New Mexico: Desert bighorn taken off endangered list
 The New Mexico State Game Commission voted Thursday morning in Farmington to take the desert bighorn sheep off the state endangered species list. The decision comes after a 30-year recovery effort that started slow, gained momentum and ultimately increased the number of bighorn sheep in New Mexico from fewer than 50 to more than 600. It was the first time the department removed an animal from the endangered species list because of a recovery program.

Amazonas 2030 - Indicators for the Climate Crisis 
The Ministry of Mines and Energy's announcement that it is studying the cancellation of mining concessions was made on Oct. 26 at the presentation of the Amazonas 2030 Index, developed by an alliance of the same name which collects social, environmental and economic data on the Colombian portion of this rainforest that constitutes the heart of South America. The study is innovative in that it grants the same importance to the dimensions of the environment and indigenous communities as it does to economic, social and institutional dimensions. Each has a weight of 20 percent. The lowest possible value for the index is zero (the worst scenario) and the highest is 100 (the best).

Uganda: Murchison Falls National Park May Be Sitting on Largest Oil Reserve in the Nile Delta
 A big part of the delta is protected as Murchison Falls National Park. This wildlife paradise, according to Gard Mugiri, of the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), has always been a battle ground for wildlife rangers and fishermen but may turn into a battle ground for oil. The water has many shiny blue patches, which oil experts call oil seeps. "We could be having more oil in the delta than in any other part of the country. But this place is also a delicate ecological system needed for the conservation," says Reuben Kashambuzi, an advisor in the Ministry of Energy.

India: Mining Study Urges Legal Action
 A macro-level EIA study ordered by the Supreme Court and conducted by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) in the Bellary District in India indicates that mining operations have caused both habitat fragmentation and degradation along with invasions of exotic weed species in 43.4 sq km area. The study recommends a massive ecological restoration programme of mines be undertaken by competent agencies with funding support from the revenues generated from the mining activities.

New York: Botanical Garden Celebrates Restoration of Ancient Forest
 The New York Botanical Garden is celebrating the restoration of the 50 acre forest which represented one of the oldest collections of native plants, November 12-13. The forest restoration team planted 5,200 trees, 900 shrubs and 3,000 other plants. The new trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants were grown from locally sourced seeds.

Restored beauty: Ma-le'l dunes reopen to the public 
The recently restored Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex's Ma-le'l Dunes is also a refuge for nature seekers who are looking for a different kind of hiking experience in Humboldt County. The towering wall of sand dunes, also visible from California State Route 255, can be seen against the backdrop of a lichen-covered forest resting against Humboldt Bay.

Native Americans in Florida put life back into a dying swamp
In September of 2011, the tribe received a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation to support operational and educational programs associated with its new native plants propagation program. In addition to cultivation of species for restoring the Jones Swamp, the facility may in the future be utilized to propagate native plants that can be planted in dryer locations along the Gulf Coast.