Memorandum of Cooperation signed between the Ramsar Secretariat and SER
SER is pleased to announce the recent signing of a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) with The Ramsar Secretariat designed to strengthen the developing linkages with SER's global network of ecosystem and wetland restoration practitioners in supporting scientific and technical implementation of the Convention.

History and Values in Ecological Restoration Workshop--Call for Papers-Due Feb. 20, 2012
This workshop focuses on restoration in landscapes with complex histories, shaped by the ongoing interaction between humans and nature.

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

2012 Nahelehele Dry Forest Symposium-Hawaii-Feb. 24, 2012

CBD SBSTTA-16--Call for Posters- Due Feb. 29, 2012
Call for posters for the Sixteenth Meeting of the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical, and Technological Advice (SBSTTA-16)

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

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

SER-Midwest-Great Lakes 4th Annual Meeting-Call for Abstracts- Due March 9, 2012

Fundamentos de la RestauraciónEcológica -- New Online Course for Spanish Speakers (fechalímite el 16 de marzo de 2012)

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

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

Urban Wetland Restoration Course- Halifax, Nova Scotia: April 30-May 2, 2012

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

EcoSummit 2012-Ecological Sustainability- Sept. 30- Oct. 5, 2012

6^th Annual Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration- Oct. 20-24, 2012

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

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

Forest Heroes Awards Crown UN's International Year of Forests
 The International Year of Forests 2011 declared by the United Nations General Assembly came to a close Thursday after a year's worth of events and activities exploring the value of forests and ways people can protect them and contribute to their sustainable management.

Ban appoints Brazilian environment official as UN biodiversity chief
 Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Braulio Ferreira de Souza Dias, a national of Brazil, as Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

United Nations forum brings attention to forest conservation worldwide
 In an interview with UN DESA News with Ms. McAlpine, who leads the work of the UN Forum on Forests Secretariat, talks include highlights of the year and the work of the UN Secretariat is now doing to promote the management, conservation and sustainable development of forests around the world.

Habitat restoration project wins national partnership award
 PG&E employees spent Wednesday at a workday at the utility's property along Pleasant Creek in Yolo County to celebrate an award jointly shared by Audubon California's Landowner Stewardship Program and the Center for Land-Based Learning.

Keeping the Osa Peninsula wild through forest diversity
 This is a guest blog from Juan Manuel Ley López, a biologist from the University of Costa Rica with several years of experience as a field botanist and ecologist.  He has spent the past year working with NRDC's partner Osa Conservation on the Revive a Rainforest project to collect and propagate seeds from trees native to the Osa Peninsula.

New Model of Landscape Connectivity Shows Where Roads, Energy Corridors Impact Wildlife Movement
 Conservation scientists have developed a novel approach to identify and prioritize places that are important for maintaining landscape connectivity for wildlife that is sensitive to human activity and land development. Land-use planners, policy-makers and imperiled species could all reap the benefits of their work. The new landscape modeling technique provides the first comprehensive, national-scale map showing the ease (or difficulty) with which wildlife can move across landscapes with varying degrees of human-built infrastructure such as roads, energy corridors and other forms of development.

Are (re-) introductions an effective way of mitigating against plant extinctions?
 This review evaluates the effectiveness of re-introductions as a conservation tool by using the available evidence to determine in what context plant translocations have improved the status of threatened species.

LANDSCAPE, PROCESS AND POWER: Re-evaluating Traditional Environmental Knowledge
 The contributors to this volume argue that to accurately and appropriately describe TEK, the historical and political forces that have shaped it, as well as people's day-to-day engagement with the landscape around them must be taken into account. TEK thus emerges, not as an easily translatable tool for development experts, but as a rich and complex element of contemporary lives that should be defined and managed by indigenous and local peoples themselves.

Ecosystem restoration with teeth: what role for predators?
 Here, we discuss the economic, environmental and social considerations affecting predator-driven ecological restoration programmes, and suggest approaches for reducing the undesirable impacts of predators. Because the roles of predators are context dependent, we argue for increased emphasis on predator functionality in ecosystems and less on the identities and origins of species and genotypes

Climate Scientists Pushing for Large-Scale Geoengineering Funded by Bill Gates
 Now, a handful of billionaires, including Bill Gates, are funding some of the leading scientists of the world to lobby governments and international bodies to back experiments into manipulating the climate on a global scale to help prevent climate change.

Forest Service Scientists Awarded $1.4 Million for Restoration Efforts to Save Threatened Plants in Hawaii
 A Forest Service research team has received a $1.4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Defense's Environmental Security Technology Certification Program to begin research using sophisticated topographic models to identify areas within dry forests that have the most potential for ecological restoration.

Montana pioneered collaborative forest restoration management
Recently the Forest Service announced major plans to increase the pace of forest restoration work across the country. What does that mean? In practical terms it means more clean water for Americans, new jobs in the woods, increased fire safety for communities and better recreational access to our forests.

UK: Warwickshire Wildlife Trust receives woodland funding
A wildlife charity in Warwickshire is to benefit from a £92,503 funding boost to restore ancient woodland. Warwickshire Wildlife Trust has received the grant from SITA Trust, which supports nature and community projects. Restoration will include 12 hectares of woodland and hedgerows, some of which may have a medieval origin. The woodlands around Princethorpe are one of the wildlife trust's project areas, known as the Living Landscape.

USDA Puts $40 Million Into Forest Restoration
$40 million federal dollars will go toward 20 different forest and water shed restoration projects. USDA officials say the goal is to improve forest health, protect water and wildlife and provide jobs in rural communities.

New Mexico: Residents weigh in on Rowe Mesa restoration project
Without fire, several patches of densely packed, spindly, younger trees currently grow amid centuries-old ones and raise the potential for catastrophic wildfire wiping out forests and homes on the mesa. Now a proposed forest-restoration project on 17,500 acres of the 70,000-acre mesa could become a model for managing whole landscapes more efficiently and at a lower cost.

Canada: RAP restoring Big Island east marsh
 Bay of Quinte Remedial Action Plan, Quinte Conservation and Prince Edward County Stewardship Council are partnering to improve wetland habitat at the Big Island - East Marsh by creating more open water habitat through channelization.

UK: Volunteers needed for restoration scheme above Moffat
 Borders Forest Trust plans to create a mosaic of habitats across the rolling hills of Corehead, such as woodland, heather and blaeberry moorland, scrub, and will restore hay meadows and plant community orchards. They hope that the impact on the area's biodiversity will be significant, encouraging the return of plants, birds and animals such as golden eagle, black grouse, otter, mountain hare, emperor moth, juniper, aspen and globeflower to the area.

Florida: $232M proposed for Everglades restoration
 President Barack Obama's budget proposal released Monday includes $231.75 million for Everglades restoration projects. Efforts led by the Army Corps of Engineers would receive about $161 million, slightly less than Obama's request of $168 million last year. But it's more than the $142 million Congress ultimately allocated.

Nepal's vulture "restaurants" for endangered birds
 The site is one of a handful of vulture "restaurants" opened to save the birds, which help keep the environment clean by disposing of carrion, from extinction -- and at the same time help impoverished villages become self-sufficient.

Turkey's First Wildlife Corridor Links Bear, Wolf and Lynx Populations to the Caucasus Forests
 Turkey (Türkiye) is the only country covered almost entirely by three of the world's 34 global biodiversity hotspots: the Caucasus, Irano-Anatolian,and the Mediterranean. At the nexus of Europe, the Middle East, Central Asia and Africa, Turkey's location, mountains, and its encirclement by four seas (Black, Marmara, Aegean, and Mediterrenean) have resulted in spectacular biodiversity, making Turkey "the biodiversity superpower of Europe".

Fighting Crimes Against Biodiversity: How to Catch a Killer Weed
 Invasive species which have the potential to destroy biodiversity and influence global change could be tracked and controlled in the same way as wanted criminals, according to new research from Queen Mary, University of London.

Why Toronto could use a little Seoul
 Correcting public infrastructure blunders made more than 100 years ago doesn't sound glamorous; it definitely doesn't make for a rousing political platform. If a councillor wanted to spend public money digging up a creek that was unnecessarily buried in 1880, the idea would almost certainly get shot down. After all, when Torontonians think about how to improve our urban spaces, attention is paid to what we can see - roads, buildings, bridges - not what's below the surface.

California: Gateway Park Restoration Plans Begin
 The San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy (SELC) recently acquired 3.4 acres off Coast Highway - a prime piece of property that developers had been eyeing for 25 years. "We hope to restore as much of the native habitat as possible while allowing the public access to view this up-close as a sort of urban walkway and viewing platform," said Doug Gibson, executive director and principal scientist at SELC.

US: NOAA Natural Resources Damage Assessment Grants-Closes Feb 23, 2012
NOAA cooperates with the public to identify restoration projects that benefit a wide variety of habitats and biological resources and will partner with non-profit groups, local governments, and other organizations to carry out the restoration. The deadline for applications is February 23, 2012.

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 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.

Indiana American Water 2012 Environmental Grant Program - Closes March 10, 2012
 The program is designed to support diverse types of activities, such as watershed cleanups, reforestation efforts, biodiversity projects, streamside buffer restoration projects, wellhead protection initiatives and hazardous waste collection efforts,

California American Water Funds 2012 Environmental Grant Program-Closes March 9, 2012
 California American Water announced it is accepting applications for its 2012 Environmental Grant Program. The company will award several grants for a combined total of $10,000 to innovative community-based environmental projects that improve, restore or protect watersheds and drinking water supplies within the state. Applications must be postmarked by March 19, 2012.

California: Dept. of Fish and Game (DFG) Fisheries Restoration Grants-Closes March 30, 2012
Applications will be accepted beginning at 8 a.m. Feb. 15, 2012 through 3 p.m. March 30, 2012. Proposals should focus on projects that restore, enhance or protect anadromoussalmonid habitat in the coastal watersheds of California or projects that lead to the restoration, enhancement or protection of anadromoussalmonid habitat.

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.