Minnesota: Citizen Lake & Citizen Stream Monitoring Programs
Do you live near a lake or stream in Minnesota, or visit one regularly? If so, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) needs your help! Join more than 1,500 Minnesotans who track the health of their favorite lake or stream through the Citizen Lake or Citizen Stream Monitoring Programs.

Sharing Our Knowledge Conference-March 29-April 1, 2012
 The theme of this year's conference is "Haa eetí káa yís," which means "for those who come after us" in Tlingit. Topics will include Alaska Native history, indigenous law, archaeology, art and music, education, cultural anthropology, fisheries and traditional ecological knowledge.

Restoration 2012: Beyond Borders- FINAL Call for Papers-Due April 1, 2012
SER NW, SER BC and AFS recently launched their new conference website for Restoration 2012 to be held May 15-18 in Victoria, Canada.

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

Ecotrust Indigenous Leadership Award- Nominations due April 1, 2012
The families of Peter and Howard Buffett founded the Ecotrust leadership award to honor outstanding individual leaders in the indigenous communities of Oregon, Washington, California, Western Montana, Nevada, Idaho, Alaska, and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and the Yukon Territory.

Atlantic White Cedar Symposium- Call for Oral and Poster Presentations -Due April 1, 2012

Sustainable Food Security through Land Regeneration in a Changing Climate-April 10-13, 2012
To be held in Nairobi, Kenya, this conference theme centers around low cost, rapid methods of environmental restoration as a pathway to food security and adaptation to climate change.

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

Arizona: SmallWood 2012 Conference: Forest Restoration for a New Economy-May 1-3, 2012

SER-Midwest-Great Lakes: 4th Annual Meeting-May 4-6, 2-12

Hands-On Wetlands Creation Workshop for Professionals- May 22-24, 2012
To be held by the Massachusetts Audubon in Cummaquid (Barnstable) MA.

Post-Fire Land Restoration Workshop & Field Trip- July 12-13, 2012
SER-Great Basin and the Western Chapter of the International Erosion Control Association are combining resources for the up-coming workshop entitled 'Post-fire Land Restoration'. The workshop will be held July 12-13, 2012 at the Best Western Airport Plaza in Reno, Nevada.

Sustainability- Special Issue Terrestrial Ecosystem Restoration-Call for Papers- Due Aug 31, 2012
Open access journal, Sustainability, is calling for papers to be submitted to a special issue entitled Terrestrial Ecosystem Restoration, due August 31, 2012. Manuscripts should be submitted online and can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited.

SER-Europe: The 8th European Conference on Ecological Restoration-Sept. 9-14, 2012

 Cascais World Forum 2012: Soilbioengineering & Land Management -Call for Papers- Sept 19-22
The CASCAIS WORLD FORUM 2012 will be held from 19-22 September 2012 in Cascais, Portugal. The theme of the conference is: Sustain Our Land, Water and Life in Changing Climate.

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

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

SER-Australasia: Inaugural Conference on Ecological Restoration- November 28-30, 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!

Seeking Cures for North Korea's Environmental Ill's
A landmark seminar on ecological restoration in Pyongyang, capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of, brought together 85 North Koreans and 14 experts from eight other countries to take stock of DPRK's ecological misery, share ideas on how to restore its ecosystems, and improve the country's food security. In a boost for Korean scientists, it was the first international conference in DPRK since Kim Jong Un took power in December.

Canada: Recognizing Local Restoration Efforts
The Small Change Fund (SCF) has selected five grassroots projects throughout the nation to profile during Canada's Water Week celebrations. The Central Westcoast Forest Society's (CWFS) watershed monitoring program is one of these five projects.

US: Hearing the herring spawn
Dr. Jonn Matsen, a highly respected naturopathic doctor is working with salmon and herring - those shiny silver fish whose role in West Coast ecosystems is integral. With recent restoration efforts seeing 100 per cent hatch out rates, signs of restoring decimated herring population to healthy historical numbers seem evident.

US: USDA Forest Service and NASA release Web-based forest disturbance monitoring tool
ForWarn, a satellite-based monitoring and assessment tool, recognizes and tracks potential forest disturbances caused by insects, diseases, wildfires, extreme weather, or other natural or human-caused events. The tool, available at http://forwarn.forestthreats.org/, complements and focuses efforts of existing forest monitoring programs and potentially results in time and cost savings.

Nature Has No 'Balance' for Us to Keep
In her remarkable new book "The Rambunctious Garden," Emma Marris explores a paradox that is increasingly vexing the science of ecology, namely that the only way to have a pristine wilderness is to manage it intensively. Left unmanaged, a natural habitat will become dominated by certain species, often invasive aliens introduced by human beings.

Florida: Ancient civilizations reveal ways to manage fisheries for sustainability
In the search for sustainability of the ocean's fisheries, solutions can be found in a surprising place: the ancient past. In a study published on March 23 in the journal Fish and Fisheries, a team of marine scientists reconstructed fisheries yields over seven centuries of human habitation in Hawaii and the Florida Keys, the largest coral reef ecosystems in the United States, and evaluated the management strategies associated with periods of sustainability. The results surprised them.

Australia: (VIDEO) Indigenous Peoples Needed to Meet the Challenge of Climate Change
 Indigenous peoples and local communities are the least responsible for climate-altering emissions of carbon but they can play an important role helping to reduce emissions through the way they manage their lands. However Indigenous peoples have not been involved in discussions about climate change in most countries said Henrietta Marrie, an Aboriginal leader of the Gimuy-Walubarra Yidinji Nation of Cairns. Indigenous and local peoples collectively represent more than a billion people.

US: Can Reforming the Farm Bill Help Change U.S. Agriculture?
For decades, farm bills in the U.S. Congress have supported large-scale agriculture. But with the 2012 Farm Bill now up for debate, advocates say seismic shifts in the way the nation views food production may lead to new policies that tilt more toward local, sustainable agriculture.

Weather records due to climate change: A game with loaded dice
The past decade has been one of unprecedented weather extremes. Scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany argue that the high incidence of extremes is not merely accidental. From the many single events a pattern emerges. At least for extreme rainfall and heat waves the link with human-caused global warming is clear, the scientists show in a new analysis of scientific evidence in the journal Nature Climate Change. Less clear is the link between warming and storms, despite the observed increase in the intensity of hurricanes.

Shunning Nuclear Power Will Lead to a Warmer World
 A physicist argues that if we allow our overblown and often irrational fears of nuclear energy to block the building of a significant number of new nuclear plants, we will be choosing a far more perilous option: the intensified burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.

State of the planet
 Time is running out to minimize the risk of setting in motion irreversible and long-term climate change and other dramatic changes to Earth's life support system, according to scientists speaking at the Planet Under Pressure conference, which began in London. The unequivocal warning is delivered on the first day of the four-day conference opening with the latest readings of Earth's vital signs.

EU biodiversity strategy needs a greener CAP, better enforcement of EU law
As the EU has failed to meet its 2010 biodiversity target, higher political priority should go to preserving and restoring damaged ecosystems, say Environment Committee MEPs in a resolution voted on Wednesday . Other EU policies should take on board biodiversity targets, and environmentally harmful subsidies should be named and phased out, they add.

US: Ecological impact- River dams in the northeastern U.S. evaluated
In a new report titled Northeast Aquatic Connectivity: An Assessment of Dams on Northeast Rivers, a team of biologists and policy experts from throughout the region outlines the ecological impact of these dams, data that can be critical to securing and targeting limited funds for river restoration efforts.

California/Mexico: The Colorado River delta blues
Today, the Colorado delta is a shadow of its former self. Once one of the planet's most vital aquatic ecosystems, it is now one of the most threatened. Today, the Colorado supports about 30 million people and 1 million acres of irrigated farmland. But with no water reserved for the river itself, the Colorado dries up long before it reaches the sea, and much of its delta is at death's door.

Florida: (VIDEO) Ocklawaha River Restoration
 St Johns River Keeper video on the possibility of river restoration on the Oklawaha River which feeds in the St. Johns River in Florida.

New Hampshire: A Shift in Strategy for Merrimack River Atlantic Salmon Restoration
Last fall, adult salmon were released into the Souhegan, Baker and upper Pemigewasset rivers, and successful spawning was confirmed by monitoring radio-tagged fish and counting redds (salmon nests).Releasing adult salmon and evaluating their ability to spawn in the wild, rather than waiting until we reach a minimum target of 300 fish before breeding adults are released, will tell us whether the Souhegan River contains habitat that is capable of supporting a sustainable salmon population if marine survival improves.

Australia: Mine grass 'just weeds spreading seeds'
Local environment groups have criticized Mantle Mining's attempts to re-vegetate exploratory coal drilling sites. Parwan Landcare member Simon Jolly said there was an "enormous difference" between restoration and re-vegetation of rare species of native grasses. "There are hundreds of species of grass ... re-vegetation is simply planting grass, but you're not restoring the original species.

California: BLM considers controlled burns for prairie restoration
Disappearing prairie habitat on public lands is highlighting the use of prescribed burns to keep conifer trees from taking over prairies. According to BLM, less than 1 percent of California's coastal grasslands remain.

India: Lakshadweep gifts its corals to Gujarat
In a pioneering species reintroduction initiative for the restoration of coral reefs - also known as rainforests-of-the-seas, the Gujarat Forest Department and the Wildlife Trust of India transplanted fragments of locally-extinct corals in the coastal waters of Gujarat. This is for the first time in the country that such fragments of locally-extinct corals have been successfully moved over large distance and transplanted.

Maryland: Bill seeks a discharge surcharge to help oysters
 Antiquated and poorly maintained sewer systems that overflow and leak may not pay fines to the Maryland Department of the Environment, but Delegate Jay Jacobs thinks they should carry some of the cost for oyster restoration. His HB 1163 promotes maintaining oyster populations as "natural filters."

California: BDCP study, independent analysis show canal could hasten species extinction
The state and federal government's own scientists agree that the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) to build the peripheral canal, an effort continually touted by Natural Resources Secretary John Laird and other officials as a "visionary" effort to achieve the "co-equal goals" of ecosystem restoration and water supply reliability, could lead to the extinction of endangered Central Valley chinook salmon and Delta smelt.

Louisiana: Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Announces $46.5 Million Award for Island Restoration 
Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Corporation, the largest provider of dredging services in the United States and a major provider of commercial and industrial demolition and remediation services, today announced the award of a $46.5 million contract to restore and reinforce the existing shoreline of Scofield Island, located along the barrier shoreline in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana.

Thailand: Regional mangrove restoration project receives green light
Efforts to restore the lost mangrove forests of Thailand and other parts of Asia will receive a boost this week when international partners gather in Krabi province, across Phang Nga Bay from Phuket, to discuss the use of project funding received via Germany's Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).

Australia: Dingoes to Restore Degraded Habitats 
In a new study published in Trends in Ecology and Evolution, an international team of researchers has proposed to conduct a large-scale project in Australia, where populations of some native predators are allowed to re-colonize habitats where they once occurred as a way of restoring fragile ecosystems and conferring resilience against globally threatening processes.

Oregon: Judge- 'Sea lion killings to save salmon can resume'
Oregon state authorities can resume killing California sea lions that feast on endangered salmon bottled up at a dam on the Columbia River, but fewer than one-third as many as federal biologists previously had authorized, a judge ruled Thursday.

Taiwan: Center for salamander information to be opened soon
Taipei, March 21 (CNA) An educational center dedicated to information on the endangered Guanwu salamanders will be opened to the public at Shei-Pa National Park. Park authorities sought to recreate a habitat for the salamanders using an "ecological restoration" method seldom seen in Taiwan, which involved finding a nearby location that resembled the natural habitat and recreating it by simulating the original conditions. The newly created habitat was recognized by the Society for Ecological Restoration in 2011 -- a rare achievement in Taiwan's conservation efforts.

Oregon: Tribe Hopes to Restore Hanford's Natural Plants
The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) have recently built two high-tech greenhouses and a field experiment station to cultivate plants native to the area around Hanford. The site covers 586-square-miles in southeastern Washington.

Minnesota: Invasive species war spills into court
As efforts to fight zebra mussels and other invasives heat up, some argue that a Minnesota birthright is at stake: Unfettered access to lakes and rivers. Those two imperatives -- protecting the lakes and keeping them open to all -- are at the heart of a lawsuit filed last week by three west-metro lake associations against the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR).

Iowa: Senate votes to provide final $200,000 for Okoboji jumping-carp barrier
The Iowa Senate just voted to shift $200,000 from the state's lake-restoration account to finish financing for an electric barrier needed to keep jumping Asian Silver carp out of the prized Iowa Great Lakes.

North Carolina: Land once home to Raleigh baseball field now eyed for urban park
The land, which has spent the past 30 years as a parking lot for garbage trucks, is envisioned as a park and greenway that supporters hope will enliven an aging gateway into downtown. Called Devereux Meadows, the planned 15-acre park takes its name from the minor league ballpark that once anchored the site along the west side.

Indiana: Newport giving out trees for restoration program aimed at revitalizing its urban forest
The Newport Tree Society is giving out about 150 trees to residents as part of an effort to revitalize the city's aging urban forest.

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: Long Island Sound Futures Fund Support for Restoration Projects-Closes April 9, 2012
This year, the fund will emphasize implementation projects focused on protecting and restoring Long Island Sound, particularly projects that restore and protect important fish and wildlife habitats, and community-based projects that improve water quality and protect water resources. To be eligible, habitat restoration or stewardship projects must fall within the coastal area boundary established by the Long Island Sound Study (the Long Island Sound and its coastal watersheds). Applications are due April 9, 2012.

US: USDA Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program- Closes April 23, 2012
The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is now accepting applications from private landowners and tribes for another round of funding for easement and restoration programs offered by the federal agency. Applications for the Farm and Ranch Land Protection Program (FRPP) will now run through April 23, 2012.

FishAmerica Foundation Community Habitat Restoration Grants-Due April 30, 2012
FishAmerica, in partnership with the NOAA Restoration Center, awards grants to local communities and government agencies to restore habitat for marine and anadromous fish species. Successful proposals have community-based restoration efforts with outreach to the local communities. 2012 FAF-NOAA Proposals Deadline: April 30, 2012

New Hampshire: Grant Funding for Wetlands Restoration and Drinking Water Protection
The Aquatic Resource Mitigation Fund grants are available for eligible wetland restoration, land protection or habitat improvement projects; and drinking water supply protection grants are available for lands in the southern I-93 corridor and Lake Massabesic Watershed. Aquatic Resource Mitigation (ARM) Fund payments are collected according to nine service areas.

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 Partnership has reached a milestone by providing grants for now more than 80 different projects in coastal areas throughout the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea. Restoring a total of more than 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 help make it possible for the GMF to provide more than $3 million to projects, leveraging an additional $5.5 million in non-federal support from project partners. The GMF will be offering a new round of CRP funding for 2012. Visit our website for more information on the upcoming funding opportunity.

 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.