Montana: Dreaming of a Place Where the Buffalo Roam
Former Silicon Valley entrepreneur Sean Gerrity has been trying to turn a swath of northeastern Montana into a prairie reserve teeming with herds of bison for more than a decade. He is president of the American Prairie Reserve, which has been plugging away since 1999 at what he calls a "habitat assembly project," piecing together a vast grassland ecosystem in which 25,000 bison and multiple packs of wolves may one day live. Gerrity discusses his rationale for restoring part of the prairie to a Lewis-and-Clark reincarnation in this interview.

Texas: Prof's Work With Coastal Planning & Restoration Helps Educate Communities
Dr. John Jacob, Professor and Coastal Community Development Specialist with the Texas Sea Grant College Program is integrating conservation with sustainable community development in Houston earning him the 2012 Terry Hershey Award of Excellence from Texas A&M University. Since 2000, Jacob and his group have been working on coastal community development using everything from cutting-edge technology to being "in the weeds" doing wetlands restoration work.

Rhode Island: Roger Williams professor teaches community about oyster restoration
On July 31, associate professor Dr. Dale Leavitt from Roger Williams University spoke on "The Big Oyster in Little Rhody - Oyster Restoration Across the State," second in a lecture series sponsored by the Block Island Maritime Institute (BIMI). Leavitt leads a program called OGRE (Oyster Gardening for Restoration and Enhancement) at Roger Williams, with a goal of restoring the natural productivity of oysters.

Replacing Lost Environments - A Devil's Pact?
In a major scientific article, a team including Australian researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions (CEED) has advised governments worldwide to think twice before assuming an environment lost to development can easily be replaced elsewhere. "There's been a lot of talk among policy makers about 'offsets', meaning that if you damage or lose the environment in one place you compensate by restoring or protecting an equivalent area somewhere else," explains Professor Richard Hobbs of CEED and The University of Western Australia.

A Tale of Two Scientific Fields--Ecology and Phylogenetics
Patterns in nature are in everything from ocean currents to a flower's petal. Results of this tale of two fields are highlighted in a special, August 2012 issue of the journal Ecology, published by the Ecological Society of America (ESA). "As human domination of our planet accelerates," says Cavender-Bares, "our best hope for restoring and sustaining the 'environmental services' of the biological world is to understand how organisms assemble, persist and coexist in ecosystems across the globe."

Indonesia: Supporting Ecosystem Restoration Concessions in Indonesia
Based on a series of focus group discussions and interviews with key ecosystem restoration stakeholders between March 2011 and February 2012, this paper aims to contribute to improving the licensing framework for ecosystem restoration as well as providing a better understanding of the role ecosystem restoration plays in restoring Indonesia's production forests.

Climate and Culture: Abrupt Change and Rapid Response 
Continuous, modern day observations of change suggest the Earth System may already be edging towards abrupt climate change, demanding thorough revisions to climate science, models, and action. The global nature of climate change requires that adaptive measures be pursued and shared throughout all world cultures. Although the task of managing the Earth System's carbon balance appears unapproachable through conventional politics, a wide range of scientific collaborations and community-level ecological restoration efforts are already well underway. In many instances localized environmental renewal initiatives may provide immediate benefits to impoverished regions as well as provide long-term frameworks for climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Restoring Mangroves May Prove Cheap Way to Cool Climate
Found along the edges of much of the world's tropical coastlines, mangroves are absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at an impressive rate. Protecting them, a recent study says, could yield climate benefits, biodiversity conservation and protection for local economies for a nominal cost -- between $4 and $10 per ton of CO2. These environments, along with other forms of coastal ecosystems such as tidal marshes and sea grasses, have been given the name "blue carbon" to differentiate them from the "green" carbon of other forests, where carbon is absorbed above ground in trees.

North Carolina: Wetland Restoration Promotes Species Diversity
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has been working on restoring wetland amphibian habitats in Richmond County, and has started a new project covering 21 acres. Humphries compared the 21 acre wetland area to a "Carolina Bay," which is an isolated wetland in a natural shallow depression, largely fed by rain and shallow groundwater. This particular area was drained sometime around the 1940s, and was left with a ditch to drain the water out. The ditch was plugged about 15 years ago, but the overgrown area has remained dry.

UK: River Avon restoration in Wiltshire given funding
A scheme to restore the River Avon in parts of Wiltshire after dredging and widening in the mid-20th Century has been awarded funding. The Wessex Chalk Streams Project says it will work with angling clubs and landowners to restore the river to a "more natural state".

Canada: Pink salmon restoration source of local pride on the Quinsam River
It's commonplace this time of year to see anglers lined along the banks of the Campbell River fishing for pink salmon. With the 'Pinks for the Pier' partnership between the City of Campbell River, First Nations, and Quinsam River Hatchery, there is abundant pink salmon fishing. It wasn't long ago, however, that pink salmon were seriously depleted. Getting to this moment of celebration has taken more than 30 years of effort by the Quinsam River Hatchery staff working hand in glove with "streamkeeping" volunteers, businesses, First Nations, and the local and provincial governments to bring the pinks back.

US: American Rivers & NOAA award $696,692 to restore rivers and fisheries 
Rivers and communities will benefit from nearly $700,000 in grants awarded through the national partnership between American Rivers and the NOAA Restoration Center. This funding will support six projects throughout California, Delaware, Massachusetts and Oregon aimed at restoring fisheries, improving public safety, and reducing flood risks. Since 2001, American Rivers and the NOAA Community-based Restoration Program have provided financial and technical assistance to restore rivers, remove unsafe dams, and open up habitat for.

Washington: Biological Boomerang on the Elwha River
It doesn't take long to find a miracle in the newly released Elwha River, focus of the largest dam removal project in American history - the Berlin Wall of environmental restoration. Not long ago, scientists were stunned to find wild steelhead trout scouting habitat well past the site where the Elwha Dam had stood for nearly a century. The restoration of the Elwha, as in the revival of the much-abused southern end of the Bronx River at the other end of the country, is proof that American ingenuity is alive and well and hard at work on with the tricky task of healing parts of the natural world that we've trashed.

Utah: Native Trout Restoration Project
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) is gearing up for the Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Restoration Project for the Middle Fork of Sheep Creek in the Uinta Mountains. The project is scheduled for September 2012. The ultimate goal is to reestablish viable populations of Colorado River cutthroat trout (CRCT), the only trout native to the Uinta Mountains.

Washington: Underwater Ecosystem Inundated by Sediment Plume
Scuba-diver scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey, with support teams from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, and Washington Sea Grant, are returning to the mouth of Washington's Elwha River this week to explore and catalogue the effect of released sediment on marine life following the nation's largest dam removal effort. The dive survey is helping scientists understand how underwater plant and animal life react and adapt to the downstream effects of dam removal and providing scientists a more detailed and complete picture of the ecological restoration.

Minnesota: Agencies and Groups Team Up to Protect and Restore State's Prairies
A coalition of conservation groups and agencies, including the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR), took a significant step forward today in the protection, restoration and enhancement of the state's prairies, restored grasslands and prairie pothole wetlands by the Minnesota Prairie Conservation Plan. The document outlines a 25-year strategy to protect the state's remaining 235,000 acres of native prairie; restore and conserve and grasslands and wetlands; to connect and buffer prairies and wetlands; and enhance prairies and grasslands through prescribed burns and livestock grazing.

Australia: Coral reef thriving in sediment-laden waters
Rapid rates of coral reef growth have been identified in sediment-laden marine environments, conditions previously believed to be detrimental to reef growth. A new study has established that Middle Reef - part of Australia's iconic Great Barrier Reef - has grown more rapidly than many other reefs in areas with lower levels of sediment stress. Led by the University of Exeter, the study by an international team of scientists was published August 1, 2012 in the journal Geology.

Louisiana: Concern about rising seas threatens MRGO restoration
In what may be a first-of-its-kind case, the federal government may scale back a long-awaited coastal project out of concerns about rising sea levels. The restoration project - divided into three tiers - aims to restore or protect roughly 57,000 acres of habitat, including 14,000 acres of fresh water marsh; 33,000 acres of brackish marsh; 10,000 acres of cypress swamp; and 50 acres of ridges. The Corps' New Orleans District warns "extreme changes in climate could result in conditions that cannot support the types of habitat restored, reducing the effectiveness of the restoration plan."

California: Army Corps set to begin $7.5 million dune restoration project in Willapa Bay
In an effort to preserve Native American cultural lands, mitigate flood risks and improve coastal habitat for a threatened species, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Seattle District, is reconstructing a sand dune in Willapa Bay near the Shoalwater Bay Indian Reservation. Construction kicks off July 30 on the $7.5 million federally-funded dune restoration project to provide coastal storm damage protection and prevent wetland erosion. In addition, the project will create and maintain habitat for the Pacific Coast western snowy plover. 

Wisconsin: DNR Conducting Online Elk Restoration Surveys- Closes August 31^st
The public can share their reactions to Wisconsin's efforts to restore elk in Wisconsin through an online survey found on the Department of Natural Resources website. The agency says survey results will provide the DNR and its many partners in elk restoration with an understanding of the public's awareness of and experience with Wisconsin's wild elk herd and the level of public support for further establishment of wild elk herds in Wisconsin. Click here for the survey.

US: Celebrate 75 Years of the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act
It's hard to imagine how wild Pennsylvania - in fact, America - would be today without the annual funds provided by 1937's Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act. The maneuvering in Washington, D.C., to redirect this excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition - 10% on most taxable items - came as the Great Depression was winding down and before the United States plunged into World War II. Sandwiched between these two defining periods in American history, the new Pittman-Robertson Wildlife Restoration Act (P-R Act) had time to get off the ground and running.

Nigeria: UNEP Welcomes Nigerian Governments Green Light for Ogoniland Oil Restoration
The UNEP has welcomed the Government of Nigeria's decision to proceed with a major oil contamination clean-up of Ogoniland in the Niger Delta. The clean-up will reportedly be conducted under a new Nigerian government initiative-the Hydrocarbon Pollution Restoration Project. The Government of Nigeria has indicated that it will now define the scope, actions and financing of the project. The UNEP Environmental Assessment of Ogoniland had proposed an initial sum of US$1 billion to cover the first five years of clean-up operations.

Missouri: Doe Run Plants Biofuel Crop as Test Program to Restore Mine Tailings Sites
The Doe Run Company is participating in a pilot project with MFA Oil Biomass LLC and Missouri University of Science and Technology to help transform mine tailings sites into potential biofuel crop sites. In April, Doe Run planted a test plot of 11 acres of Miscanthus grass at one of the company's sites. If the test plot grows successfully, Doe Run intends to plant additional acres next year at other closed tailings sites. "Doe Run saw this test program as an opportunity to potentially bring new purpose and productivity to former mine sites," said Chris Neaville, asset development director at Doe Run. "This restoration approach may create new economic and environmental benefits, and supports our commitment to operating sustainably."

New Caledonia: Mangroves can trap toxic heavy metals 
Researchers in New Caledonia have discovered that mangrove forests act as useful filters for toxic heavy metals, preventing these pollutants from contaminating the islands' waterways. High concentrations of heavy metals are found in New Caledonia's rivers and mangroves, because of the archipelago's active mining industry: it is the third largest nickel producer in the world, and home to 30% of global reserves.

UK: Harper Government Invests in Forage Land Restoration
Member of Parliament Bob Zimmer recently announced an investment that will help the Peace River Forage Association of British Columbia (PRFA) research and test the re-vegetation of agricultural land that has been affected by oil and gas drilling activities. This will help reduce soil erosion and weed invasion. This investment of $177,500 will help cultivate a working relationship among the PRFA, oil and gas companies, and producers so that they can engage in collaborative research and the subsequent trial of various re-vegetation practices.

US: Peabody Energy Mines Honored With Excellence In Reclamation Awards From U.S. Interior
Peabody's flagship North Antelope Rochelle Mine in Campbell County, Wyo. - the world's largest and most productive coal mine - was recognized for a multi-faceted approach to sustain populations of eagles, hawks, owls and other birds of prey through creation of high- quality habitat and protection of nesting areas. Also honored was the Peabody Cottage Grove Mine in Saline County, Ill., for soil handling and crop management methods to restore prime farmland, achieving high yields of corn, soy beans, wheat and hay crops that are as good as or better than county averages.

Utah: Out West, 'Black Fingers of Death' Offer Hope Against an Invader
Dr. Susan Meyer is a Forest Service ecologist based in Provo, Utah, and her work these days is centered on figuring out how this fungus, which looks like a miniature mohawk haircut, does its lethal work on cheatgrass, perhaps the most disruptive invasive plant in the country. Black fingers, the fungus with the horror-movie handle, is the new artillery that wildland biologists are firing at cheatgrass, a weed that has remade the landscape of the Intermountain West.

UK: United Nations hails green credentials of London's Olympic Games
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), says the eco achievements of the London 2012 Games should act as an inspiration for following organizers. "London's clean-up of an old industrial site; the restoration of flows and habitat on the River Lea; the greening of supply chains; the low energy linked with the design and construction of the stadium, including utilizing old gas pipes for the facility's Olympic ring; and the use of temporary structures to reduce emissions are among the actions that can assist in inspiring the organizers of the Rio 2016 games and beyond," he said.

Veracruz: Diplomado en Restauración del Bosque de Niebla 2012
Certificate Course in Cloud Forest Restoration- Pre-Registration for 2012 is now Open.

Fundamentos de la Restauración Ecológica -- New Online Course for Spanish Speakers (fecha límite 17 de agosto de 2012)
El curso es organizado por la Fundación Internacional para la Restauración de Ecosistemas (FIRE) y tiene el aval académico del Instituto de Ecología, A. C. (INECOL, Mx) y de El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (ECOSUR, Mx). Se llevará acabo del 10 de septiembre al 2 de noviembre 2012. Tiene una duración de ocho semanas (80 horas con horario flexible) divididas en cinco módulos.

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.

Virginia: The Chesapeake Bay Restoration & Education- Oct 1, 2012
A legislative committee that oversees Chesapeake Bay restoration funds says nearly $372,000 is available for education and conservation efforts to benefit the bay. The Chesapeake Bay Restoration Advisory Committee says it's accepting applications for grant funding for project proposals from nonprofit conservation groups, government agencies and schools and universities. The application deadline is Oct. 1, and the state will award the grants next May and June.

California: Central Valley Project Improvement Act Habitat Restoration 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.
 
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.