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EcoSummit
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RESTORE is a free weekly e-bulletin provided to current members of SER. RESTORE links you to the latest breaking news stories keeping you up-to-date on a wide variety of topics related to ecological restoration. To contact the editors, please email info@ser.org.
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SER in the News
New SER Membership Structure
In an effort to streamline membership registration and provide better quality member services, the SER Board of Directors approved a new membership fee structure for the first time since 2005. The new membership structure will go into effect on June 1, 2012. Click here for important details. |
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People in the News
Seychelles: (VIDEO) An 86-year-old, real-life Robinson Crusoe
An 86-year-old Yorkshire man, Brendon Grimshaw may have lived alone for many years on the tiny island paradise of Moyenne in the Seychelles in the middle of the Indian Ocean since he bought it in 1962 for £8000, but he is rarely lonely. For Brendon has spent the years reintroducing the indigenous giant tortoise to Moyenne and now shares the island with 120 of the magnificent creatures, on one of the world's smallest national parks.
Chesapeake Bay: Locals Honored for Bay Restoration Efforts
Brick resident Wes Dalzell, vice president of the ReClam The Bay organization, and Charles Brandt of Manchester have received one of the nation's highest environmental honors: The Environmental Quality Award from the United States Department of Environmental Protection. ReClam the Bay, raises millions of seed clams and oysters each season and transplants them into Barnegat Bay in an effort to restore the waterway's shellfish population. |
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Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
Africa: Supporting Canada's Coasts Can Benefit Climate and Economy
Reversing the degradation of coastal ecosystems in Canada and elsewhere can play an important role in tackling climate change, while bringing additional benefits to biodiversity and the economies of coastal communities. In fact, Chmura and colleagues have calculated that the restoration of Canada's drained agricultural marshes will provide ecosystem services worth $14,535 per hectare and a renewed sink for carbon dioxide equivalent to 6 per cent of Canada's original commitment for reductions under the Kyoto Protocol. |
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Biodiversity & Climate Change
Chile's Mega-Quake Restored Beaches and Biodiversity
Thanks to the investigations of a science team already looking at the ecology of Chile's sandy beaches before the quake, we now know this natural disaster also engineered some powerful and unexpected forms of coastal restoration. This occurred where the temblor uplifted coastlines with coastal armouring-like seawalls and rocky revetments-which allowed those once-disappearing beaches to quickly grow where they had not grown in a long time, and allowed plants and other species to reinhabit places they hadn't inhabited in a long time.
Tropical countries struggle to engage with REDD+
Most tropical developing countries are struggling to monitor and report their greenhouse gas emissions from forest loss, and will need international support to implement the UN REDD+ scheme, according to a study. |
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Forest Restoration
Japan: Fukushima Prefecture to restore destroyed coastal forests
With the help of generous prefectures, Fukushima Prefecture is starting a nine-year plan to restore disaster-prevention coastal forests along a 145-kilometer stretch of the 185-km tsunami-inundated coastline. The prefecture will plant 4.6 million seedlings in an area covering about 460 hectares, or about 700,000 seedlings annually for seven years, starting in fiscal 2014.
Minnesota: Planting the seed to restore North Shore forests
The forest along Lake Superior's North Shore has been drastically changed by humans over the past century. Now, people are making a growing effort to change it back. In a landscape that's become dominated in recent decades by aspen, alder, grass and dying birch trees, groups are working from Knife River to Grand Portage to bring back conifers - white pine, spruce, balsam fir and cedar - that once filled the forest.
Arizona: SRP, NAU team up on forest restoration study
Scientists at Northern Arizona University and one of the state's largest utilities are joining together in a study on restoring Arizona's forests. NAU's Ecological Restoration Institute and Salt River Project announced their partnership Thursday on a project that will research how the state's forest ecosystem responds to restoration efforts. |
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Wetland Restoration
Florida: Controversy mounts as Lagoon project nears
As the June 1 start date to the Malibu Lagoon Restoration Project gets closer, several new groups have spoken out in opposition to the plan to use bulldozers to reshape the stagnant Lagoon's channels in order to stimulate better water flow. |
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River & Watershed Restoration
U.S. & Ohio Reach $5.5 Million Settlement for Damages in Lower Ashtabula River and Harbor
The Department of Justice and Ohio Attorney General have reached a proposed settlement of claims for injuries to natural resources caused by past releases and discharges of hazardous substances into the lower Ashtabula River and Harbor in northeast Ohio.
Florida: Oleta River Gets a Makeover
The cost of greening Miami is falling, as demonstrated by savings at a project to restore a unique river's headwaters. An original estimate of $850,000 for the nearly completed project will cost a total of $300,000. "We saved half a million by looking at the design and cost-effective construction methods," says Gary Milano, the coastal habitat restoration coordinator for Miami-Dade County.
India: Israel To Help India Clean Up The Ganges River
At the end of April, Israeli news site Ynet reported that Israel would be sending engineers, researchers and representatives from water technologies companies to help India clean up the notoriously-polluted Ganges River.
Illinois: New St. Clair River reefs to spur sturgeon spawning
Michigan organizations and agencies are building nine rock reefs in the Middle Channel of the St. Clair River to bolster native fish spawning and restore habitat. The Middle Channel of the river connecting Lake Huron to Lake St. Clair supports one of the largest remaining populations of sturgeon in the Great Lakes. |
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Lake Restoration
Iowa: Deal struck on Lake Delhi funding
The state will put up $5 million over the next two years to rebuild the Lake Delhi dam following an agreement struck late Friday between lawmakers negotiating the Rebuild Iowa Infrastructure Fund budget. The agreement, which still has to pass a full vote and be signed by the governor, stipulates that the state will put aside $2.5 million in fiscal year 2013 and another $2.5 million in fiscal year 2014 to rebuild the dam.
Arkansas: Heavy metals continue to impact Arkansas River
Cresting Fremont Pass, Climax Mine is perched on one side of Highway 91, and the start of the Arkansas River begins on the other. Part of that river was mostly lifeless at one point, due to mining activity, but this summer, that could begin to change when a project spearheaded by Colorado Parks and Wildlife gets underway. |
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Coastal & Marine Restoration
Maryland: Oyster planting season begins
Last week, the Oyster Recovery Partnership put 31 million baby oysters in Harris Creek, near the mouth of the Choptank River. The oysters were bred at the University of Maryland's Horn Point hatchery, and primed for planting once they had settled as "spat" on old oyster shells.
Florida: Ocean Avenue Bridge concrete will cover mud at Snook Islands
Most of the 6,000 tons of concrete are being cut up and will travel north to shore up the mud bottom at the Snook Islands habitat-restoration project in Lake Worth. And the old pilings will be part of a fishing reef at the base of the new Lantana bridge. |
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Wildlife Restoration
Canada: Purple martins come home
The spring return of the purple martin to Victoria marks an environmental success story, a species rebound for a bird whose B.C. numbers were near zero only decades ago. "It's a good-news story," said Nightingale. "Because of the nest boxes, we now have about 800 breeding pairs." As recently as 1985, observers were reporting fewer than 10 breeding pairs of purple martins in all of B.C.
California: Restoring Rare Seabirds at the Channel Islands
Channel Islands National Park and its partners have worked together to restore, monitor, and conserve critical nesting habitat for a variety of key species like Xantus's murrelet, ashy storm-petrel and Cassin's auklets. The Channel Islands host half of the world's population of ashy storm-petrels and 80 percent of the U.S. breeding population of Xantus's murrelets.
Louisiana Pine Snakes Released In Kisatchie National Forest
On May 1, USDA Forest Service, U.S Fish and Wildlife Service, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, the Memphis Zoo, and other partners released seven young Louisiana pine snakes on a restored longleaf pine stand in the Kisatchie National Forest in Louisiana. The release is the fourth in 2 years, part of a plan to restore a very rare snake to its range in Louisiana.
Oregon: Restoring a safe haven for endangered species
In a vast and flat oak savannah outside Central Point lies a panoramic vista with Table Rock in the background. No house, road or power line is visible. Thanks to ongoing ecological restoration by the Oregon Department of Transportation and The Nature Conservancy, this 80-acre lot provides for the first time since the 1920s, habitat for three vernal pool-dependent threatened and endangered species. |
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Extractive Industries
Washington: Company, Ecology work together to clean up Garfield spill
Jerry Love planned to get that last, old tank out of the ground. But on Jan. 12, 2012, Love and his employees discovered that the tank was leaking oil - and at least some of it was reaching nearby Silver Creek. The NRC crew and Love's employees worked feverishly to clean up and to install a treatment system to capture any remaining oil. Garfield residents pitched in, including some experienced in construction. A local tavern helped supply coffee and food. |
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Funding Opportunities
Florida: Longleaf Legacy Private Landowner Incentive Program- Due May 11, 2012
The primary objective of the Longleaf Legacy Private Landowner Incentives Program is to increase the acreage of healthy Longleaf pine ecosystems in the panhandle of Florida by helping non-industrial private forest (NIPF) landowners to make the long term investment required to establish and maintain this valuable ecosystem. Toward this end, the program offers NIPF landowners technical guidance and incentive payments for conducting certain approved forest management practices that help establish or improve longleaf pine stands.
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: 20 Million Available from EPA- Due May 24, 2012
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency today announced that it is requesting applications from states, municipalities, tribes, universities and nonprofit organizations for new projects to restore and protect the Great Lakes. EPA will distribute approximately $20 million through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative grant program during Fiscal Year 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. |
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