The Society for Ecological Restoration in Washington D.C. is seeking an Executive Director

SER Internship: Indigenous Peoples' Restoration Network

SER Internship: Office Assistant

Coalition sponsoring free ecological training course 
The Calumet Stewardship Initiative is sponsoring its first volunteer leadership training course, slated to begin in the coming weeks. The free, five-part program is to teach participants the basics of ecological restoration, how to successfully lead a volunteer restoration workday, control invasive species, and identify native plants.

EcoSummit 2012 - Call for Abstracts Deadline January 20, 2012

6^th Annual Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration - Call for Abstracts Feb 1, 2012

Louisiana: Help Restore a Floodplain! -Jan 28 & Feb 24, 2012
The Nature Conservancy and US-Fish & Wildlife Service are looking for 50 volunteers (at least) per day to help them plant over 10,000 trees at the Upper Ouachita Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana.

Strategies of Landscape-Scale Restoration in the Tropics-New Haven, CT-January 26-28, 2012
The Yale Chapter of the International Society of Tropical Forests is holding their 18^th Annual Conference in New Haven, Connecticut. The conference is free and open to the public. Registration closes Jan 15^th.

Mangrove Forest Ecology, Management and Restoration Course - Florida, USA - March 1-2, 2012

Nominations now open for 2012 Thiess International Riverprize - Application Closes March 16, 2012

20th High Altitude Revegetation Workshop - Ft Collins, CO - March 6 - 8, 2012

ER Special Issue on Corridor Restoration - Call for Papers April 1, 2012

The 8th Conference of the Society for Ecological Restoration - Europe- September 9-14, 2012

2012 Conference Listingon the Global Restoration Network (GRN)
Check out our 2012 conference listing for a full year view of upcoming conferences and meetings

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

Microbiologist Mark Rasmussen named director of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture
 Rasmussen currently serves as the supervisory microbiologist and director of the Division of Animal and Food Microbiology at the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine in Laurel, Md. The news release stated that Rasmussen will take the post of director at the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture on June 1. 

Global warming: European species lag in habitat shift
 Fast-track warming in Europe is making butterflies and birds fall behind in the move to cooler habitats and prompting a worrying turnover in alpine plant species, studies published Sunday said. The papers, both published by the journal Nature Climate Change, are the biggest endeavour yet to pinpoint impacts on European biodiversity from accelerating global temperatures.

How Valuing Nature Can Transform Agriculture
 A suitable food system must replace nonrenewable or ecologically harmful off-farm inputs while simultaneously increasing output; it must help mitigate climate change and adapt to its impacts; it must not only maintain the natural resource base but also actively restore critical ecosystem services. The system should pay particular attention to the needs and aspirations of poor farmers in marginal environments. The field of agroecology, defined as the "application of ecological science to the study, design and management of sustainable agroecosystems," fuses agronomy, ecology, and other disciplines in order to achieve these goals.

Canada: Protecting Water and Restoring Wetlands in the Greenbelt
 Water is the focus of a new round of grants announced today by the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation. Five organizations have been awarded grants centred on protecting water systems and wetlands, extending the Greenbelt along major connecting waterways, and bringing more Greenbelt food into urban areas.

Pay Attention to Mountains to Save Plains from Climate Change
 All over the world, 50% people get water from mountains and 50% of biodiversity hot-spots are located there but very little attention is being paid to the impact of climatic change in the Indian mountains, lamented Dr K R Viswanathan of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) in India. He was delivering a lecture on Mountain Climate Change and Food Security at the 99th Indian Science Congress at Bhubaneswar.

Plans for forest rehabilitation in Chilean Patagonia underway
The National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) is in the process of putting together a restoration plan which will attempt to reforest the sections destroyed by wildfire. A swiftly devised and executed recovery strategy is vital as failure to do so could result in further ecological damage. "When winter comes, if the ground is left without topsoil it can heavily increase erosion making it difficult to recover," Sergio Donoso, a professor at the Universidad de Chile and president of the non-profit Association of Forest Engineers, told El Mercurio.

Minnesota: Big Win for Wetlands
 Minnesota's wetlands and adjoining grasslands are a haven for songbirds like the Henslow's sparrow and the bobolink, and home to nearly half of North America's ducks. They're also invaluable clean water sources and floodwater retainers. Yet these bogs and marshes have been shrinking due to agricultural development. Now the state and federal government are investing $52 million to restore an estimated 17,000 acres of wetlands in Minnesota.

Massachusetts: Watershed restoration proposed
 State and federal officials have developed a $3.7 million plan that would restore the pollution-damaged watershed along the Sudbury River containing one of the nation's first Superfund sites. Years in the making, the plan outlines restoration of the area around what was once the site of Nyanza Color and Chemical Co. in Ashland, a 35-acre parcel that still bears a legacy of mercury contamination and other environmental woes.

A failed attempt to restore California's grassland costs $225,000 per acre
 After many years of replanting, reseeding, mowing, burning, plowing, and spraying, the 2-acre site is still dominated by non-native species and those natives which survived are not expected to persist for more than 10 years as they are overtaken by the non-natives.  Using state-of-the-art-techniques and the expertise of one of the most prestigious agricultural research institutions in the world, this project must be considered a failure.  The price of this failed effort was $225,000 per acre. 

Native Prairie seed to be used to restore San Jacinto Battleground
 The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department will soon be restoring 110 acres of tall-grass prairie at the San Jacinto Battleground State Historic Site with the help of League City's Parks Department, University of Houston's Coastal Center, the Native American Seed Company, Shell Refining and the San Jacinto Battlegrounds Conservancy.

A Crust of Dust: Degradation of Desert Topsoil
 Jayne Belnap of the U.S. Geological Survey is the world's foremost expert on biological crusts and has issued a clarion call that we should stop treating this ecological treasure like dirt. Measures such as restricting off-the-road vehicles are needed to protect desert crusts. A continuation of an interview that appeared in the January issue of Scientific American follows. 

Can Namibia Balance Mining and Nature?
 Humans have impacted the Namib for millennia, but only now are their activities impacting ecosystems on a large scale.  That's why the Ministry for Environment and Tourism commissioned a Landscape-Level Assessment for the Central Namib to help make sound decisions on economic development while retaining the desert's special character and people's livelihoods.

Zimbabwe: Brown Revolution Brings New Hope 
 Picking spots for cattle to graze could reverse desertification and even do its bit to retard climate change, new experiments in Zimbabwe have shown. It's what is coming to be called the Brown Revolution.

India: Happily Uprooted
 It's not the kind of relocation story that one usually hears. Early last year three villages were uprooted from their traditional land in the core area of the Melghat Tiger Reserve to make way for free movement of the big cat. They did not protest, and walked away with their belongings and herds of cattle. Eight months since, they are comfortably settled and prospering.

Coal Company Must Restore Indiana Streams, Pay $810,000
 The owner and operator of 31 surface coal mines in Appalachia and Indiana has agreed to pay a financial penalty and restore affected waterways for failing to obtain the required Clean Water Act permit for stream impacts caused by its coal mining operation in Indiana.

Texas: San Pedro Creek plan is a significant project
 Bexar County commissioners' commitment to the restoration of San Pedro Creek, a waterway with massive historical and cultural significance to our community, is welcome news. The San Pedro Creek has not flowed through downtown in a long time. It has become nothing more than a drainage ditch, an eyesore in the business district.

USDA Great Lakes Restoration Initiative-Closes Jan 15, 2012
 The USDA Forest Service Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) is the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades. A task force of 11 federal agencies developed an action plan to implement the initiative. This action plan covers fiscal years 2010 through 2014. Funded topics include: cleaning up toxics and areas of concern; combating invasive; promoting watershed protection; wetland & habitat restoration; tracking progress and working with strategic partners. The next submission dates for funding recipients are from January 1-15, 2012.

US: WaterSMART Water and Energy Efficiency Grant Funding Opportunity, Closes: Jan 19, 2012
 The Bureau of Reclamation is seeking proposals from states, Indian tribes, irrigation districts, water districts and other organizations with water or power delivery authority to partner with Reclamation on projects that increase water conservation or result in other improvements that address water supply sustainability in the West.

Arkansas landowners Wetlands Reserve Program - Closes Jan 27, 2012
State Conservationist Mike Sullivan with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service says Arkansas is second in the nation in the program's wetland restoration, with more than 200,000 acres restored.

Australia: New South Wales (NWS) Environmental Trust Grants-Closes Jan 31, 2012
The NSW Environmental Trust is an independent statutory body established by the NSW government to support exceptional environmental projects that do not receive funds from the usual government sources. Community groups are now invited to apply for funding for large-scale bush re-generation projects. The Community Bush Regeneration Large Project Stream is offering grants of between $200,000 and $250,000 for projects which will run for up to six years.

US: NFWF Five Star Restoration Grant Program- Closes Feb 15, 2012
 The national Fish and Wildlife Federation (NFWF) Five Star Restoration Program provides modest financial assistance to support community-based wetland, riparian, and coastal habitat restoration projects that build diverse partnerships and foster local natural resource stewardship through education, outreach, and training activities.

US: Washington Dept. of Fish and Wildlife- Closes Feb 29, 2012
The state Department of Fish and Wildlife is accepting grant applications for the Aquatic Land Enhancement Account. The agency expects to award about $180,000 in grants from the program in the coming year. Five types of projects are funded through the program - habitat restoration, research, education and outreach, facility development and artificial production. Applications must be received or postmarked by Feb. 29.

Alabama: Longleaf Pine restoration grant available - Closes March 1, 2012
The Cleburne News

The Wildlife and Freshwater Fisheries Division (WFF) of the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (ADCNR) is currently accepting applications through its Landowner Incentive Program (LIP) to continue longleaf pine restoration efforts in Alabama. The grant was awarded through a partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and will be made available to qualifying landowners for longleaf pine restoration on private lands.

US: Minnesota State Funding Available for Environmental Project-Closes April 6, 2012
The Legislative Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR) has issued its 2012-2013 Request for Proposal (RFP) for funding from the Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund beginning July 1, 2013. Approximately $31 million is expected to be available for projects being sought in environment and natural resource areas that will provide multiple ecological and other public benefits. Proposals responding to the 2012-2013 RFP are due Friday, April 6, 2012.

US: Emergency Forest Restoration Program
USDA Farm Service Agency's (FSA) Emergency Forest Restoration Program (EFRP) provides payments to eligible owners of nonindustrial private forest (NIPF) land in order to carry out emergency measures to restore land damaged by a natural disaster.

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 Partnershiphas 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.