Idaho: Skeptical Ranchers Mark Salmon Restoration Project's 20th Year
When state and federal officials swooped into Salmon, Idaho, in 1992 to herald a new effort to help restore the Lemhi River's damaged salmon and steelhead habitat, Don Olson feared it was yet another bureaucratic takeover of his valley. Twenty years later, the Upper Salmon Basin Watershed Program not only has survived, but it's been expanded to include the Salmon River's entire upper reaches. And the once-skeptical Olson? He's become an ardent backer of the program.

Nevada: Art project 'Visualizing Change' at Lake Tahoe's Sierra Nevada College
"Visualizing Change" is a photographic art expedition intended to convey concepts in environmental restoration at Lake Tahoe to the scientific community and general public. The project is inspired by Reno's art department chair Peter Goin's initiative to encourage a convergence of science and the arts to raise awareness on Lake Tahoe's environmental sustainability.

Illinois: SER Board & Knox Faculty Member Examines Ecological Restoration
Environmental concepts that we thought we understood -- such as "natural," "degraded" and "restored" -- need to be re-examined, according to a new book, Ecological Restoration and Environmental Change, by Knox College biologist Stuart Allison. According to Allison, Knox's Green Oaks is a perfect example of the need for direct human intervention in the restoration process. "Tallgrass prairies are one of the most badly disturbed ecosystems in the world," he says.

EU: Mapping To Inform Conservation And Habitat Restoration
The latest issue of Science for Environment Policy has highlighted a paper by CEH scientists Dr. Danny Hooftman and Prof James Bullock, "Mapping to Inform Conservation: A case study of changes in semi-natural habitats and their connectivity over 70 years". Their findings have particular relevance as an important first step for those engaged in habitat restoration work at landscape and regional scales. Analyses such as those presented in the paper not only quantify the scale and pattern of habitat loss but are important to inform land-use planning to restore biodiversity.

US: Coalition Offers Vision For Gulf Restoration
More than two years after the catastrophic BP oil spill, environmental groups say billions of dollars the British oil giant is expected to spend on restoration should go toward buying tens of thousands of acres of coastal land for conservation, rebuilding Louisiana's eroding wetlands and creating nearly 200 miles of oyster reefs.

Linking Twin Extinctions of Species and Languages
A recent study noted that most of the 6,900 languages spoken on Earth occur in regions of high biodiversity. These findings point to a strong correlation between biological and linguistic diversity, with languages closely connected to the habitats where they are found. We inevitably underestimate the bond between biological complexity and cultural complexity.

Living with the Trees of Life - Towards the Transformation of Tropical Agriculture
In 'Living with the Trees of Life - Towards the Transformation of Tropical Agriculture' Roger Leakey, Vice-chairman of the International Tree Foundation, puts forward a bold new concept for food production which, he argues, has a far better chance of success than the current approach to agricultural intensification taking place in Africa, Asia and Latin America. "We need to rehabilitate degraded land, diversify farming systems and protect watersheds".

Washington DC: Tribal Leaders Discuss Climate Change at Inaugural First Stewards Symposium
The First Stewards symposium brought together hundreds of indigenous tribal elders, leaders and scientists from across America to discuss how best to confront past, present and future adaptation to climate change with traditional ecological knowledge.

US: USDA Releases First Ever Agroforestry Handbook for Farmers, Woodland Owners
The USDA has released a first-of-its-kind practical agroforestry handbook, Profitable Farms and Woodlands, which is written for underserved and limited resource farmers and woodland owners living in the Southeast. It includes five main agroforestry practices: alley cropping, forest farming, riparian buffer strips, silvopasture and windbreaks.

US: USDA Highly Erodible Land Initiative under the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
 Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced July 20 that the U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin sign-up for the Highly Erodible Land Initiative under the CRP. Under CRP, farmers and ranchers plant grasses and trees in crop fields and along streams or rivers. The plantings prevent soil and nutrients from washing into waterways, reduce soil erosion that may otherwise contribute to poor air and water quality, and provide valuable habitat for wildlife.

What We Know and Don't Know about Earth's Missing Biodiversity
Most of the world's species are still unknown to science although many researchers grappled to address the question of how many species there are on Earth over the recent decades. Some groups of species, such as plants and birds, are well-known; for insects and fungi, however, it is almost impossible to guess how many unknown species there are. These findings were revealed in a first-ever study first published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution on 10 July 2012.

Climate Change 'May Lead To Collapse Of Pacific Corals'
Climate change may lead to the collapse of coral reef ecosystems in the Pacific, of the kind last seen 4,000 years ago, according to a study published in Science last week (July 5).

US: For American Indians, Coping with Climate Change is Ancient History
 For American Indian tribes and indigenous groups, climate change is a growing threat, altering landscapes they have known intimately for generations. Tribal leaders believe they are uniquely suited to the task. Working with the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, the Nisqually Indian Tribe has removed thousands of feet of dikes that once diverted river flows, reclaiming areas converted for agriculture and restoring more than 900 acres of salt marsh.

Ohio: Ballona Wetlands: Research Indicates New Benefits to Wetlands Restoration
Researchers at the Ohio State University believe the accumulation of carbon in the soil in restored wetlands could help offset some of the consequences of climate change. Dr. William J. Mitsch, a distinguished professor in the university's Department of Environment and Natural Resources, says a freshwater wetland called Old Woman Creek in Huron, OH had accumulated approximately 140 grams of carbon per square meter per year.

California: Ducks Unlimited to Help Restore Wetland
On one side of a levee at Hayward's Eden Landing Ecological Reserve is healthy pickleweed marsh. On the other is a moonscape marred by stagnant pools of crimson water and desiccated patches of pure white salt. As with other sites around the San Francisco Bay, plans are under way to return this landscape altered by 150 years of salt production to its natural state. At Eden Landing those plans hinge on an unlikely player: Ducks Unlimited, a pro-hunting conservation group based in Memphis.

New England: U.S. Federal Government ends Connecticut River salmon restoration effort
The federal government stated last Wednesday that it is ending its effort to restore Atlantic salmon in the Connecticut River basin. Nearly half-century and 100 million small fish later, the program, which aimed to restore salmon to tributaries through western New England, is not working well enough to justify the continued cost.

New York: (VIDEO) River of Hope in the Bronx
Perhaps the most unsung patch of heaven in New York City is a tiny sliver of riverfront parkland tucked between a metal-recycling yard and a giant wholesale produce market. Hunts Point Riverside Park, a 1.4-acre speck in the South Bronx, opened a few years ago on what had been a filthy, weedy street end. A garden path now winds from the front gate past rose bushes and flowering butterfly bushes, beyond a sprinkling fountain and shaded benches under a flowered trellis, to a pier on the Bronx River.

Oregon: Tea Party Blocks Pact to Restore the Klamath River
 Since the Bureau of Reclamation first began plumbing the Klamath River in 1906 to create a fertile farming region out of arid land people have fought over what the river provides. Then, suddenly, a truce was announced in February 2010, but the Tea Party Patriots became a local political force, paralyzing the high-powered deal by defeating many of the local officials who supported it, and sending a signal to Congress that it lacks enough grass-roots support.

Maine: EPA Tells State to Open St. Croix to Alewives
In a July letter to Maine Attorney General William Schneider, the U.S. EPA has warned that the state's efforts to block alewife fish access to the St. Croix River violates the U.S. Clean Water Act. The letter states that blocking the fish at dams on the St. Croix constitutes an unauthorized change to the river's water quality, and refutes the argument among opponents of alewife restoration on the St. Croix that the fish are an introduced species.

Michigan: Removing Downtown Dams & Restoring the Grand Rapids would cost $27.5 million
Restoring the rapids to the Grand River through downtown Grand Rapids will cost $27.5 million, a subcommittee of the Downtown Development Authority (DDA) learned Monday. The project would remove or modify five dams along a 2-mile stretch of the river between Ann Street NE and the U.S. 131 S-curve, according to a report prepared by Grand Rapids White Water, a non-profit group formed to study the possibility of restoring the river.

India: Restoring Montane Grasslands in the Palani Hills
The Vattaparai marsh might be missed as just another boggy wetlands bypassed on the way to the grander sights of the Palani Hills. In spite of its inconspicuousness, however, Vattaparai is the site of a groundbreaking study of Western Ghats montane grasslands hydrology and ecological restoration. The Vattakanal Conservation Trust, which has a long track record in shola restoration, started focusing on grasslands species about 10 years ago when the 2006 Kurinji blooming was being anticipated.

California: Water Wars Set to Reignite as Governor Moves Ahead with Massive Water Plan
Governor Jerry Brown and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar are expected to announce a multi-billion dollar plan designed to fix California's longstanding water war in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta today. Their proposal for a 35-mile water tunnel is set to reignite the fight over how water is exported from the Delta. The announcement comes just months after federal and state wildlife agencies warned that the proposed version of the project could have dramatic impacts on Delta fish and planned restoration.

Maryland: In Chesapeake Bay, Army Corps Tries to Build a Better Island
Eighteen years ago, Justin Callahan took a small boat into the Chesapeake Bay to study the last remaining bits of what had been a wildlife paradise. In a bay where waves and rising water levels are sweeping islands away, the US Army Corps is turning those few fragile pieces of land - totaling less than five acres - into a re-created 1,700-acre island with wetlands and a forest to restore decimated bird populations.

California: Building Homes For Oysters In S.F. Bay
Workers on a barge 200 yards off the San Rafael shoreline dropped the first of half a million shells into the water Thursday in a $1.3 million effort that could help to restore native oyster populations in the bay to levels not seen since the Gold Rush. The five-year restoration and research project will also measure the ability of the new oyster reefs to mediate the effects of a rising sea level expected to accompany global warming.

Canada: Ontario Unveils Plan to Combat Invasive Species
The Ontario Invasive Species Strategic Plan, released last week, outlines Ontario's approach to the prevention, early detection, and rapid response to new invasive species and the effective management of existing invasive species like round goby, zebra mussels and the emerald ash borer.

UK: Greening Streets Can Cut Pollution
The creation of "green walls" in urban areas could cut pollution by up to 30%, scientists have suggested. UK researchers say more trees and other vegetation at street level would clean air in areas that are normally exposed to higher pollution levels. The findings appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Texas: Soil & Water Conservation Society- 2012 Annual Conference- July 22-25

Virginia: VNPS Potowmack Native Meadow Restoration- July 28

SER-Texas: 2012 Annual TxSER Conference- Call for Papers - Due Aug 31
TxSER will hold their annual conference from Nov. 2-4, 2012 in Weslaco, Texas.

Intermountain Center for River Restoration and Rehabilitation Events- Aug. 6, Oct. 22, Oct 17
The Utah State University Intermountain Center for River Restoration and Rehabilitation holds a number of restoration events each year. Check out their website for a full listing of events in August and Oct.

SER-Europe: The 8th European Conference on Ecological Restoration-Sept 9-14
 
Colorado: Boulder County Citizen Ranger Corps Volunteer Position- Deadline Sept 15
Boulder County is looking for volunteers to join their Citizen Ranger Corps program. Volunteers will attend six monthly trainings and get to work outside.

Great Lakes Restoration Conference/Areas of Concern Annual Meeting-Sept 11-14

Idaho: East or West: Water Defines Us All- Sept 19-21

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

Stream Restoration in the Southeast: Innovations for Ecology- Oct. 15-18

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

Florida: Creation and Restoration or Wetlands Workshop- November 8-10

SER-Australasia: Inaugural Conference -Nov 28-30

2012 Conference Listing on the Global Restoration Network (GRN)

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

UK: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew -- Small Grants- Sept 30, 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.

California: Central Valley Improvement Act Habitat Restoration Program Grants- Oct 5, 2012
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation today announced the availability of over $2.2 million in grants to improve conditions for federally- imperiled species and their habitats impacted by the Central Valley Project (CVP). The 2012 grants continue 18 years of funding projects. This year, four categories of projects will be funded: land acquisition (fee title and conservation easement); habitat restoration; research; and captive breeding.

US: Conservation Reserve Program Initiative to Restore Grasslands, Wetlands and Wildlife
USDA's CRP has a 25-year legacy of successfully protecting the nation's natural resources through voluntary participation, while providing significant economic and environmental benefits to rural communities across the United States. Rather than wait for a general sign-up (the process under which most CRP acres are enrolled), producers whose land meet eligibility criteria can enroll directly in this "continuous" category at any time.

New Hampshire: Grant Funding for Wetlands Restoration & Drinking Water Protection- Aug 30
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 Funding for the 2012 cycle of the Gulf of Mexico Foundation's Community-based Restoration Partnership (CRP) is now available. The CRP has 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.

 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.