|
SPONSORSHIP
Become a sponsor and see your logo here!
|
|
EcoSummit
Co-Sponsored by SER
Columbus, Ohio
Sept 30-Oct 5, 2012 |
Renew your SER membership today so you don't miss a single issue of RESTORE! |
|
Join the
Conversation
  |
|
|
|
RESTORE is a free bi-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. |
|
SER in the News
SER, SCB, and ASM Offer their Expertise to Move Mexican Wolf Recovery Forward
SER, along with the Society for Conservation Biology (SCB) and the American Society of Mammalogists (ASM), co-signed a letter to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on June 20th offering our expertise to the recovery of the highly endangered Mexican Wolf (Canis lupus baileyi). SER, SCB and ASM are urging the FWS to resume their recovery planning process for the Mexican Wolf which is a year behind schedule. A science-based recovery plan has the potential to reduce conflict over the long-term by minimizing litigation, minimizing resources needed by FWS for defending its actions, and speeding the eventual delisting of the Mexican wolf. |
|
People in the News
New Zealand: Government grant a further boost for Waiwhakareke Restoration Project
A $171,000 grant from the Environment Ministry will see more than 40,000 new seedlings planted at Hamilton's Waiwhakareke Natural Heritage Park. The 60-hectare park on Hamilton's western outskirts is a major ecological restoration project involving a land owner, a local university and biodiversity center, and environmental organizations. Professor, and SER member, Bruce Clarkson of Waikato University's Centre for Biodiversity and Ecology Research stated that the grant was a major boost for a nationally significant ecosystem reconstruction project.
Missouri: Bringing the Prairie Home
More Rare Than Tropical Rain Forests, Only One-Tenth of 1% of Native Prairies Remain, But One Couple Has Restored Portions of Their Berger Farm to Prairie. When the Longs purchased their historic 165-acre farm 17 years ago, they didn't go in with the idea to restore prairies. But it gradually became apparent that they had an opportunity to do just that.
Indiana: Tracking environmental restoration, stem by stem
In 2007, Lee Botts, the legendary Great Lakes environmentalist from Miller, Indiana, produced a report for the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission titled "A Restoration Revolution," documenting area restoration efforts. Botts concluded there were a host of positive strides being made in area restoration, but little to no follow up efforts taking place to document the results afterward. |
|
New Books & Articles
Rio+20: The Future We Want
Download the outcome document of the United Nations Conference of Sustainable Development (Rio+20) in all official language of the United Nations.
Scientists criticize lack of urgency in Rio+20 accord
The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) ended last Friday (22 June) with an international agreement on the need for all countries to commit themselves to achieving sustainable development. Some 188 heads of state and government, as well as ministers, had assembled for three days (20-22 June) at Rio+20 in Brazil to endorse the 53-page outcome document, The Future We Want.
Ecological Restoration
Ecological Restoration is a comprehensive overview of the strategies being used around the world to reverse human impacts to landscapes, ecosystems, and species. The textbook aims to strengthen the connections between ecological concepts and real-world decision-making to improve the outcomes of restoration practice. Details from 19 restorations, from underwater reefs to mines in hot deserts, are used throughout the textbook to illustrate concepts. Restoration professionals come from a variety of background, and this textbook applies basic concepts from numerous supporting fields which serve as the foundation for practice.
Florida: Everglades Restoration: Federal Report Shows Little Progress, Dire Outlook
The fourth biennial review by the National Research Council says that while notable progress in the construction of restoration projects has been made since its last report, those initiatives still have done little to reverse generations of decline. The 228-page review looked at all aspects of progress of the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan, or CERP, which was approved by Congress in 2000 and originally estimated to cost about $7.8 billion, a price tag that has since ballooned. |
|
Restoring Natural Capital (RNC)
UN: Capacity building 'a major obstacle' to natural capital accounting
Natural capital accounting will "remain a wish" for many developing countries without significant international investment and capacity building. The idea has gained traction at the Rio+20 summit this week where 37 financial institution directors have signed up to implement natural capital accounting in their companies. The move followed a commitment last month by ten African countries to include the economic value of natural resources in their national accounts. |
|
Agro-Ecology
New report: Unlikely alliances bringing back dead rivers, barren landscapes, and farm yields
According to the report, "Landscapes for People, Food, and Nature: The Vision, the Evidence, and Next Steps," whole landscape approaches offer a way to reverse declines. The approach involves building unconventional alliances which have the potential to dramatically increase food production, boost rural incomes, improve human health and restore degraded land, rivers and habitats.
US: Farming and biodiversity can coexist, say Stanford researchers
Stanford scientists say there may be a way to increase agricultural land without substantially impacting biodiversity. A new paper by biology graduate student Daniel Karp, with Stanford biology professors and Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment fellows Gretchen Daily and Paul Ehrlich, shows that low-intensity tropical agriculture can maintain regional species differences at levels similar to those of intact forest. The study appears in today's issue of the journal Ecology Letters. |
|
Forest Restoration
US & Others Commit To Restore Over 18 Million Hectares Of Forest at Rio+20
USA forest service, Rwanda, a Brazilian coalition and indigenous groups from Mesoamerica have committed to restoring a total of more than 18 million hectares of their forest landscape. This will pump billions into local and global economies and bring a host of other benefits, according to IUCN. The total of more than 18 million hectares means that more than 10% of the Bonn Challenge target of 150 million hectares is already in place.
Oregon Wild Unveils Handbook on Restoration-Based Logging
Today, Oregon Wild publicly released a guidebook outlining principles for restoration-based logging that could improve environmental health and reduce controversy in eastern Oregon's dry forests. "Restoring eastern Oregon's dry forests: A practical guide for ecological restoration" is designed for use by forest managers, timber company employees, and forest landowners, as well as elected officials and concerned citizens who wish to see a more sustainable approach to forest management.
UK: Rediscovery of rare fungi in Norfolk forest a benefit of restoration
Rare fungi with potential medical benefits have been rediscovered on pony dung on heathland in a Norfolk forest. The nail fungus, called Poronia punctata, had not been recorded in the county since 1944. Forestry Commission ecologists say they are "delighted" because its presence also shows heathland restoration and grazing by ponies can create the perfect conditions for the rare fungus.
U.S. wildfires fuel urgency for forest restoration
The Forest Service is on a mission to set the clock back to zero and the urgency couldn't be greater, Tidwell said. The plan calls for accelerating restoration programs - everything from prescribed fire and mechanical thinning - by 20% each year in key areas that are facing the greatest danger of a catastrophic fire. This year's target: 4 million acres. The budget: About $1 billion. |
|
Wetland Restoration
Mississippi: (VIDEO) Reviving the Mississippi River Delta
The Environmental Defense Fund-EDF-has released a video describing their 4-part plan to tackle wetlands restoration in the Delta region. |
|
River & Watershed Restoration
UK: £2.28 million investment will 'let West rivers run wild once more'
River and catchment restoration projects will take place on the Dart and Teign, the Axe and Exe, the Taw, the rivers of South Hams and the rivers of South Cornwall. Catchment restoration projects will improve the health of vital river ecosystems through targeted habitat management work and by reducing the amount of pollution entering the rivers. Funding will also be used to remove obstacles such as weirs - enabling fish and other aquatic animals to move freely between different stretches of river.
Alaska: (AUDIO) Forest Service, conservation groups bet on river restoration
Over thirty years ago, the Sitkoh River watershed on Chichagof Island was logged, damaging the local salmon habitat. Now, the US Forest Service is partnering with environmental groups to restore the river - and they say the project is a perfect example of broader changes taking place on the Tongass.
Massachusetts: $6.6m disbursed to restore in New Bedford Harbor
Officials have distributed more than $6.6 million for six projects that aim to restore new Bedford Harbor after decades of toxic PCB pollution. The money is the final installment of a $20 million settlement, which increased to $30 million with interest, paid by electrical parts makers that released the cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls between the 1940s and 1970s.
New Hampshire: Port scrap business fined $75K, will restore oysters, eelgrass in Great Bay
Grimmel Industries has agreed to pay a $75,000 fine, and to conduct oyster and eelgrass restoration in Great Bay, to settle a federal complaint which alleged it discharged pollutants in the Piscataqua River through its scrap-metal recycling operation. In addition, Grimmel agrees to spend a minimum of $150,000 restoring oyster beds and eelgrass in Great Bay. |
|
Coastal & Marine Restoration
US: New Report Puts Real Numbers behind History of Oyster Reefs
In an effort to advance the field of coastal restoration, The Nature Conservancy and a team of scientists conducted an in-depth study of oyster reef area and, for the first time, the actual biomass (the "living weight") of oyster reefs in dozens of estuaries throughout the United States. 'Historical ecology with real numbers', published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, presents the first truly quantitative estimates of decline in oyster habitat over such a large spatial and temporal scale.
New Hampshire: Scientific Study Provides Valuable Information for Restoring Eelgrass
The new study, led by Dr. Frederick Short, of the University of New Hampshire's Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, highlights the critical need for increased management to reduce nitrogen loading into coastal waters. The research-which is the first phase of a larger eelgrass research and restoration effort-was funded via a Federal appropriation through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Restoration efforts could be significantly improved by focusing on use of these populations as donors to restoration locations elsewhere.
Louisiana: Pipeline Won't Yet Restore Lafourche Parish Wetlands
A first-of-its-kind long-distance pipeline project that local residents hoped could use Mississippi River sediment to nourish disintegrating wetlands won't make it to Lafourche Parish. The $66.2 million pipeline project, which was conceived as a permanent structure on the Mississippi River to build wetlands in Plaquemines, Jefferson and Lafourche parishes, will be used to build 256 acres of wetlands along the pipeline's corridor to the Barataria Waterway, but will not reach the Lafourche wetlands. |
|
Wildlife Restoration
New York: Sturgeon Restoration Efforts Achieve Successful Milestone
The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have achieved a long-awaited milestone in their efforts to restore Lake Sturgeon in the Oneida Lake system. In April a researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey's Tunison Laboratory of Aquatic Sciences discovered two female lake sturgeon carrying eggs downstream of Oneida Lake. The fish, stocked in Oneida Lake by DEC in 1995 as part of an effort to improve threatened lake sturgeon populations, were the first mature females found since the state restoration work began nearly 20 years ago.
California: Restoring streamside forests helps songbirds survive the winter in Central Valley
A new study by PRBO Conservation Science (PRBO) and the National Aviary finds that restoring floodplain forests in the Central Valley of California helps songbirds survive through the winter, a finding previously substantiated only for summer nesting birds. The study, published in the journal Conservation Biology, found that songbirds generally prefer restored forests equally to existing older forests. |
|
Urban Restoration
California: State To Fund Habitat Restoration along L.A. River in Studio City
California's Department of Transportation has awarded $339,000 to Community Conservation Solutions (CCS), a group spearheading a project they say will clean polluted urban runoff and provide easy access for the public to the Los Angeles River. The grant will restore native habitat by planting over 4,000 trees and shrubs along the L.A. River in the San Fernando Valley. |
|
|
Funding Opportunities
US: Chesapeake Bay Trust Restoration Grant Programs- Due July 6, 2012
The Restoration Grant Program supports projects that provide accessible funds to organizations and agencies for demonstration-scale, community-based, on-the-ground restoration projects. Approximately $500,000 is available for the 2012-13 Restoration Grant Program. Applicants for projects identified in or based on a watershed plan may request up to $50,000. Applicants for projects not identified in or based on a watershed plan may request up to $25,000.
UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew -- Small Grants 2012
Through the Bentham-Moxon Trust, Kew Gardens (UK) makes 30 to 40 small grants per year to botanists and horticulturalists for plant collection and field research; international visits or work at Kew; travel and conferences; and other project support. Preference is for grants that involve a developing country. The closing date for applications is 30 September 2012.
Australia: The Endeavour Awards
The Endeavor Award is the Australian Government's internationally competitive, merit-based scholarship program providing opportunities for citizens of the Asia Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas to undertake study, research and professional development in Australia. Awards are also available for Australians to undertake study, research and professional development abroad.
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. |
|
|
