SER Presents at the CBD COP11 in Hyderabad, India
 The Rio Conventions Pavilion (RCP) convened on Monday for Land Day at the CBD COP11 in Hyderabad, India. The day included an opening session, a keynote speech, and panel sessions on: the implications of drylands restoration for meeting the Aichi Biodiversity Targets; measuring the true economic value of land; and biodiversity as an enabler of sustainable agriculture.

SER's Sasha Alexander presented on Target 15: Ecosystems restored and resilience enhanced. He noted that while some countries have the capacity to achieve the target, political will and long-term commitment are required. He discussed the contribution of restoration outcomes to combating desertification and land degradation, as well as to climate change mitigation and adaptation. On October 17^th SER and the CBD organized an Ecosystem Restoration day where SER Board member, James Aronson, gave the keynote address. Click here to learn more.

SER Publishes Information Notes for Convention on Biological Diversity COP11
SER, in collaboration with our global partners, has published three Information Notes for the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) COP11 in India. We expect that these documents will provide the foundation for a dynamic open-access database and web portal where those interested can search for documents, case studies, and other practical tools.

Don't Wait! The SER2013 Call for Proposals Now Open
The Call for Proposals for Symposia, Workshops, and Training Courses for SER's 5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration is now open. We encourage you to review the call and submit a proposal by clicking here.

Don't forget: SER Members receive a 25% off ALL Island Press book purchases. Contact caroline@ser.org for details!

Canada: World's Biggest Geoengineering Experiment 'Violates' UN Rules
A controversial American businessman dumped around 100 tonnes of iron sulphate into the Pacific Ocean as part of a geoengineering scheme off the west coast of Canada in July sparking outrage at the UN environment summit in India this week. Satellite images appear to confirm the claim by Californian Russ George that the iron has spawned an artificial plankton bloom as large as 10,000 sq. km. The intention is for the plankton to absorb carbon dioxide and then sink to the ocean bed - a geoengineering technique known as ocean fertilization- that he hopes will net lucrative carbon credits. He told the Guardian that it is the "most substantial ocean restoration project in history," and has collected a "greater density and depth of scientific data than ever before".
What do you think about the Guardian's article and the practice of ocean fertilization? Join the conversation on LinkedIn and tell us your thoughts!

Restore The California Delta! To What, Exactly?
In California, state officials are planning a multibillion-dollar environmental restoration of the inland delta near San Francisco Bay. There's only one problem: No one knows what the landscape used to look like. Since 97% of the original wetlands are gone, the state is turning to historians for help. Alison Whipple and Robin Grossinger are looking through a pile of maps, trying to piece together the path of William Wright, a man who got hopelessly lost somewhere nearby 160 years ago.

US: Group Sues to Remove Pollution Trading from Chesapeake Bay Restoration Plan
Environmental groups filed suit Wednesday to have pollution trading removed from the federal government's Chesapeake Bay restoration plan. The groups, which are being represented by Columbia Law School's Environmental Law Clinic, believe the restoration strategy is not strict enough and want trading to be eliminated from the plan being implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Free RE Article: Restoring the Narrative of American Environmentalism
The conventional narrative of American environmentalism is no longer very helpful for conservationists and restorationists seeking philosophical justification and guidance for their work. The tradition has often been cropped into a narrower and simplified account of the battle between the philosophies of wise use and preservation, a move bolstered by the turn to historical images of President Teddy Roosevelt and John Muir visiting California's Yosemite National Park in the early years of the twentieth century. Restoring this lost pragmatism to the environmental tradition will prove vital to recovering the value of environmental history and philosophy for conservation and restoration practice and to reclaiming a more holistic and useful narrative of people, culture, and environment.
Don't forget, SER members get a discounted rate to Restoration Ecology!

Study finds artificially created saltmarshes built to slow coastal erosion are not as rich in plant life as natural wetlands. Scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA) compared the vegetation of 18 marshes created as part of man-made changes to the coastline since 1991, and 17 marshes created accidentally by storm surges since 1881, with 34 natural salt marsh sites in the UK. They found that the artificially created salt marshes suffered significantly reduced biodiversity.

A study indicates that Latin America's woody vegetation increased in dry shrubland ecosystems over the period 2001-2010, particularly in northern Mexico and northeastern Brazil - despite previous research revealing deforestation trends in these areas. The study, published in Biotropica on 3 August, is the first to analyze regional deforestation and reforestation simultaneously. Researchers observed reforestation in approximately 362,000 sq km, mainly in regions too dry or steep for agriculture. Importantly, the study revealed that more than 40% of woody vegetation expansion occurred in the desert or xeric [very dry] shrubland areas.

Africa: Research Shows Legume Trees Can Fertilize And Stabilize Maize Fields, Generate Higher Yields
Inserting rows of "fertilizer trees" into maize fields, known as agroforestry, can help farmers across sub-Saharan Africa cope with the impacts of drought and degraded soils, according to a 12-year-long study by researchers at the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). The study, Can Integration of Legume Trees Increase Yield Stability in Rainfed Maize Cropping Systems in Southern Africa?, by Gudeta Sileshi, Legesse Kassa Debusho and Festus Akinnifesi, was published in this month's issue of Agronomy Journal of the Soil Science Society of America. Three coordinated experiments, begun in 1991 in Malawi and Zambia, found that farms that mix nitrogen-fixing trees and maize have consistent and relatively high yields year after year.

Canada: Saskatchewan Group Wants To Save the Shelterbelt Program
Shelterbelt trees are all over the place, you've seen them, but you probably never given them a second thought, but federal money has dried up, and now the shelterbelt program is in jeopardy. The Agroforestry Development Center near Indian Head has been operating under the shelterbelt program for 111 years. But if the federal government doesn't reverse its decision and no one steps in to save it, this will be the last harvest. The shelterbelt program provides seedlings to landowners across Canada free of charge to create shelterbelts.

Oregon: Farm pollution act goes under the spotlight
 Last year, Marion County's soil and water conservation district decided to upgrade water quality along Zollner Creek. The district's plan: Persuade farmers to plant streamside trees and shrubs, buffering against erosion and the pollution that runs with it. Notices went to 75 landowners. Five responded. Two eventually agreed to soil testing, but nothing more. In 1993, Oregon passed its landmark agricultural water quality management act, a law that requires farmers and ranchers protect streams from harmful runoff. Nearly 20 years after the act, ODA concluded, there remains a "widespread lack of awareness of the water quality program and what is required."

UK: Crossrail Earth To Help Create Biggest Man-Made Nature Reserve In Europe
The first giant scoops of almost 5m tons of earth from deep beneath London were delivered to the Essex coast on Monday, the first step in creating the biggest man-made nature reserve in Europe. The soil, excavated from two new 21km rail tunnels under the capital, will transform the pancake-flat intensive farmland of Wallasea Island into a labyrinth of mudflats, saltmarshes and lagoons last seen on the site 400 years ago.

Scotland: Funding Milestone in £4m Plan to Restore Peatlands
 Covering it with large swathes of forestry once provided a tax loophole for the rich and famous, but now 4,500 acres of peatland in the far reaches of Scotland are to be restored. The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) is backing a £4 million plan to fell the alien conifers in the Flow Country of Caithness and Sutherland, with some used to fill up the furrows and allow the water level to rise in a bid to bring back the peat. It is being seen as one of the most significant single contributions to achieving climate change targets, with an estimated 400 million tons of carbon stored in the peat in the Flow Country - double the amount of carbon in all the UK's forests.

Connecticut: EPA Orders Wetlands Restored
The owners of a Sterling horse boarding and training farm were ordered to restore more than 11 acres of wetlands federal officials said were illegally altered during construction of a private golf course. The U.S. EPA said the owners or operators of Falls Creek Farm directed the filling and alterations of 10.5 acres of wetlands and water between 1987 and 2008 without obtaining a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.

In a bid to encourage speedy recovery of wildlife population, the state forest department plans to take up meadow development at relocated village sites in national parks, sanctuaries and tiger reserves. A strategy to boost meadow and grassland restoration will be planned at a two-day workshop jointly organized by the Melghat tiger reserve (MTR), forest department, and Satpuda Foundation (SF) with the assistance of Delhi University.

When neighbors work together, much can be accomplished. This is the case with current cooperative efforts between farmers in Shannon and Carter counties as they work with local staff of the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and Ozark National Scenic Riverways, a unit of the National Park Service (NPS), to restore old fields on NPS land.

University Of Michigan, Other Universities Launch Great Lakes Protection Project
The University of Michigan and 20 other U.S. and Canadian universities will join forces to propose a set of long-term research and policy priorities to help protect and restore the Great Lakes and to train the next generation of scientists, attorneys, planners and policy specialists who will study them. The Great Lakes Futures Project of the Transborder Research University Network will use a cross-disciplinary, cross-sector approach to outlining alternative Great Lakes futures through science-based scenario analysis.

New Jersey: Barge Delivering Shells for Bay Reef Site near Toms River
A barge carrying tens of thousands of clam shells was located just south of Atlantic City Monday night, on its way to Barnegat Bay. Its final destination will be a one-acre site in the central portion of Barnegat Bay that scientists have identified as a historic site for oyster growth. The 8,000 bushels of clam shells - from more than 80,000 individual clams in all - will be used as an artificial reef on which oysters can grow, providing hope the area can be brought back to its once-productive glory.

South Africa: Environmental Award for Mossel Bay Project
It has recently been announced that Mossel Bay's Oyster Bay Reserve Estuary Restoration and Rehabilitation Project has won the Community Award in the annual EcoLogic Awards hosted by The Enviropaedia in association with SABC3. "The Oyster Bay Reserve Estuary Restoration and Rehabilitation Project aims to revive the estuaries of Mossel Bay and to uplift local disadvantaged communities," said Aiden Dermot Beck, manager of the Oyster Bay Reserve.

Long Island: Farming The Urban Sea
They're back: Blue mussels and menhaden have returned to Long Island Sound this year in huge numbers. On this 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, many are celebrating their homecoming as a sign of the progress made reviving the sound. More needs to be done, but this welcome news of cleaner waters opens the opportunity to begin farming the urban sea.

Louisiana: Task Force Agrees To Keep West Bay Project Open
A federal-state coastal restoration task force voted Wednesday to rescind its 2010 decision to close the West Bay diversion coastal restoration project in lower Plaquemines Parish. The decision to keep the project running came after new information became available about the effectiveness of the diversion of freshwater and sediment from the Mississippi River in building land. "It appears the diversion is working better than expected," said Col. Edward Fleming, New Orleans District commander and chairman of the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection and Restoration Act task force.

New Zealand Still Counting Cost of Shipping Disaster
New Zealand marked the first anniversary of its worst ever maritime environmental disaster October 12^th, with the government renewing a pledge to restore the area affected by the oil spill from the Liberian-registered container ship Rena. A governance group had been established to oversee the implementation of the plan and to make sure everything possible could be done to restore the environment.

The Bloomberg administration's initiative to plant one million new trees in New York City is past the halfway mark but still has a long way to go. To broaden a canopy that beautifies the city while also filtering pollution and reducing stormwater runoff, the New York Restoration Project has scheduled tree giveaways in all five boroughs in October and November. Online registration at the Restoration Project's Web site is required for the giveaways, which begin on Oct. 13 in Manhattan and Brooklyn.