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SER2013
October 6-11, 2013
Madison, Wisconsin |
Renew your SER membership today so you don't miss a single issue of RESTORE! |
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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. |
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SER in the News
SER Award Nominations Now Open! Who Would You Nominate?
The Awards Committee of the Society for Ecological Restoration is now soliciting nominations from SER members for our society awards which will be presented at the biannual international meeting of SER to be held in Madison, Wisconsin, USA from October 6-11, 2013. We seek nominations for four awards: The Theodore M. Sperry Award, the Full Circle Award, the Communications Award, and the John Rieger Award. SER Awards are presented in recognition of meritorious achievement and service for advancing the craft, knowledge, and public awareness of ecological restoration. Recipients may include Society members and others. Please read the individual award criteria carefully, a nomination must meet the award criteria to be considered. Descriptions of the award criteria and a link to the on-line nomination form may be found here.
2013 Discount Opportunity: New Members Get $10 Off When They Join SER & A SER Chapter
SER is offering a discount to new members until March 31, 2013. New members simply need join both an SER chapter and SER international to receive $10 off their total. New members can use discount code ChapPromo2013 at the end of their member form to receive the discount. With 14 regional chapters serving members locally around the world and SER's upcoming 5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration, now is the time to get your friends, family, and restoration colleagues involved in the Society. To find out more about the chapter in your region, click here.
To receive the discount you must be a new member, join an SER chapter, and join SER international.
Email leah@ser.org with questions.
NEW! Ecological Restoration 2nd Ed. Principals, Values, & Structure of an Emerging Profession
This latest SER-Island Press title by Andre F. Clewell and James Aronson offers a comprehensive and coherent account of the field for everyone who initiates, finances, designs, administers, issues government permits for, manages, and implements ecological restoration projects, and all those who serve in supportive roles. Originally published in 2007, this revised and reorganized edition brings the book up to date with new developments and current trends in the field. Originally published in 2007, this revised and reorganized edition brings the book up to date with new developments and current trends in the field. Enter promo code 2SER at checkout for your SER member discount!
Don't forget: SER Members receive a 25% off ALL Island Press book purchase. Active SER members can enter promo code 2SER to receive the discount. |
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People in the News
Sparrow Awards Reward Everyday Environmental Hero's In India
Dilsher Khan, a welder in Satna, Madhya Pradesh, manufactures agricultural tools. He also monitors the local vulture population. In the remote village of Mangvana in Kutch, a school with 121 tribal and socially backward community students has undertaken a massive afforestation drive, and transformed the barren landscape around them. Bhavin Shah, a wholesaler in FMCG goods from Coimbatore, has helped nearly 25 industries adopt nest boxes to make their premises sparrow-friendly. L. Shyamal from Karnataka is a bio-medical statistical analyst. He is also the biggest contributor of Indian natural history in Wikipedia. His software, Birdspot, has a database of 50,000 birds. Drawn from different backgrounds and professions, they are all environment warriors. |
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New Books & Articles
Scientists are conducting intriguing - and counterintuitive - experiments at several sites in Germany: Bringing back long-lost herbivores, such as water buffalo, to encourage the spread of native plants that have fared poorly in Europe's human-dominated landscape.
Flowers and pollinating insects could thrive in restored landfills, according to a study in Restoration Ecology, the journal of the Society for Ecological Restoration. The spread of farms and other development in Europe is threatening insects that pollinate plants. To keep these insects from dwindling further, people may need to create new patches of pollinator-friendly habitat. The study authors wanted to find out if restored landfills would fit the bill.
The European Alps range, spanning eight countries from France to Slovenia, are widely considered to be one of the most important regions for the preservation of biodiversity in Europe. Together with fifteen colleagues from six European countries, Chris Walzer from the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna (Vetmeduni Vienna) now reports on a priority-setting exercise to identify the key questions relating to the conservation of biodiversity in the European Alps. The questions were selected during a workshop from nearly 500 initial questions submitted by scientists and administrators working at 48 institutions within the Alpine region. The final list of questions represents an important initial step in setting priorities for maintaining and restoring the biodiversity in the entire alpine region.
Expanding Dust Bowls Worsening Food Prospects in China and Africa
When most people hear the term "dust bowl," they think of the American heartland in the 1930s, when a homesteading wheat bonanza led to the plowing up of the Great Plains' native grassland, culminating in the greatest environmental disaster in U.S. history. Unfortunately, dust bowls are not just relics of the past. Today two new dust bowls are forming: one in northern China and southern Mongolia and the other in Africa south of the Sahara. Desertification is particularly acute in Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger, as well as in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, where an estimated 868,000 acres are lost to desert each year. Noting that an extraordinary 90 percent of China's grasslands are degraded, the Chinese government has embarked on restoration programs, including re-vegetation, grazing bans, and livestock confinement. |
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Forest Restoration
The Royal Forest Department (RFD) has played down concerns about land conflicts arising from a mass reforestation project which is part of the government's 350-billion-baht flood prevention scheme. Department chief Boonchob Sutthamanuswong said the five-year reforestation project will be kicked off this year with a target to rehabilitate 150,000 rai of degraded forest land countrywide. The RFD will select areas which will not cause conflicts over land use between the state and forest dwellers. Conflicts exist in many provinces between forestry officials and forest dwellers who have lived in the areas from before the sites were declared as protected areas.
The Tobago Council of the People's National Movement in a release is calling on Minister of the Environment and Water Resources Ganga Singh to investigate illegal activities now evident in his ministry's "pseudo reforestation program in Tobago."
Haitian President Michel Martelly announced Saturday, three years after the devastating earthquake on Jan. 12, 2010 left 300,000 people dead, a master plan for reforestation and land management capable of creating 30,000 jobs. A partial government estimate of how much these destructive natural forces have cost over the past 10 years says there have been more than 6,000 deaths, 1 million people left homeless, 250,000 homes destroyed, 281 million euros ($375 million) worth of direct agricultural losses, widespread ruin of infrastructures, as well as insecure food and water supplies. This year the government foresees the creation of common woodlands to increase forest coverage by 27 percent between 2013 and 2020, a reduction of erosion in river basins, and the setting up of plant nurseries in the country's 10 provinces to achieve a production capacity of 50 million plants. |
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Wetland Restoration
New York: 'Fleeting Paradise' Shows the Perils of Wetland Restoration
In the Bronx, three acres of newly planted wetlands were destroyed by Hurricane Sandy. As New York seeks to fortify its coast, should it rebuild this 'Paradise in the Bronx'? The vision of developer Steven Smith, who built the three acres of wetlands in exchange for the right to develop the remainder of the 28-acre site in the Bronx, the "verdant slopes and grassy marshes" that resulted from two years of planning, nine months of work, and $1.5 million, were "washed away in a matter of hours by Hurricane Sandy's 13-foot storm surge." |
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Grassland Restoration
Farmers Could Lead Grasslands Conservation & Restoration In Australia
A bold new initiative undertaken by environmental researchers and farmers promises to help restore landscapes lost to human depredation. In one of the world's largest conservation projects, researchers have developed a new, lost-cost system for monitoring recovery of wildlife and native trees and grasses on 153 farms spread over 172,000 square km of the critically endangered grassy woodlands of New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland. Under the Environmental Stewardship Program, landowners are contracted to restore grassy woodlands in New South Wales and Queensland farms over a period of 15 years. |
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Coastal & Marine Restoration
From Sea to Source: International Guidance for the Restoration or Fish Migration Highways
From Sea To Source is the result of collaborations and partnerships with fisheries professionals all over the world, drawn together to provide a major new text on the theme of fish migration. The underlying concept is the increasingly recognized need for preservation but, more frequently, the restoration of free migration for all species of fish. There has in the past been a central theme of inadequate understanding of fish and fisheries ecology, a naive presumption that whatever we do will have no damaging effect on river ecosystems, and an underlying prioritization of economics above all other factors. Today in the 21st century the tide is changing in most parts of the world and the emphasis is increasingly on the restoration of river basin environments, often because of the significant ecosystem services that, after all, they provide.
US: Study Reveals That Animals Contribute to Seagrass Dispersal
Sarah Sumoski, a recent graduate of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, has now published a study of seed dispersal in a less-familiar environment-the eelgrass beds of Chesapeake Bay. The study-the first to show that marine animals can disperse eelgrass seeds-appears as the featured article in today's issue of Marine Ecology Progress Series. Understanding how seagrass seeds are dispersed is important for guiding efforts to restore seagrass meadows in Chesapeake Bay and other coastal ecosystems, and for informing the models that are used to guide seagrass management plans and restoration efforts.
US: Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill Fails to Face Coastal Realities
As part of the sorely-needed aid package to help victims of Hurricane Sandy, Congress is also considering spending billions on ill-advised and environmentally damaging beach and coastal rebuilding projects that ignore the looming threats of rising seas and intensifying storms. |
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Wildlife Restoration
Washington: Boeing Digs into Duwamish as Part of Wildlife Habitat Restoration
Boeing has begun dredging the waterway near its former Plant 2 facility, a major step in the company's commitment to restore natural habitat along the industrial Lower Duwamish Waterway. While the city of Seattle, King County, the Port of Seattle, Boeing and many other businesses along the waterway will be involved in the overall cleanup of the Lower Duwamish, the Plant 2 work starts one of the five "early-action" projects under the oversight of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. |
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Invasive Species
Florida: Pythons, Lionfish and Now Willow Invade Florida's Waterways
Foreign invaders such as pythons and lionfish are not the only threats to Florida's natural habitat. The native Carolina Willow is also starting to strangle portions of the St. Johns River. Biologists at the University of Central Florida recently completed a study that shows this slender tree once used by Native Americans for medicinal purposes, may be thriving because of water-management projects initiated in the 1950s. Canals were built to control runoff and provide water for agriculture. The unintended consequence -- stable water levels -- allowed Carolina Willow to spread and thrive. The findings were published today in Restoration Ecology, the peer-reviewed journal of the Society for Ecological Restoration. |
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Urban Restoration
Michigan: Big 50-Year Plan Could Make Detroit Greener And Healthier
Detroit's city leaders, backed by deep-pocketed foundations, have laid out a new plan for remaking Motor City into a thriving and sustainable metropolis. The plan's recommendations for a future Detroit include building "blue and green infrastructure" to help address water and air-quality issues, creating new open space networks, including local wildlife habitat, and diversifying the city's public transportation modes. The W.K. Kellogg, Kresge, and Ford Foundations have pledged millions to help the plan become reality. |
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Get Involved
Seattle: Nearshore Ecological Restoration, Protection, & Enhancement- Sign Up By Jan 19, 2013
SER-MA: Pieces of the Puzzle- From Backyard Habitat to Landscape Scale- Abstracts Jan 23, 2013
SER Mid-Atlantic is planning their 2013 Conference to be held March 28-30, 2013 in College Park, Maryland. SER-MA is currently seeking papers and posters. Abstracts are due January 23, 2013.
California: 2nd Annual Rangeland Science Symposium- January 24-25, 2013
UNCCD Latin America & Caribbean Regional Media Workshop on Land Degradation- Jan 30 2013
SER-MWGL Chapter Meeting: 'Ecological Restoration & Sustainability' Call for Proposals- Feb 8, 2013
The SER-MWGL chapter will hold them annual meeting in Wooster, Ohio, April 12-14, 2013. The theme of this meeting is "Ecological Restoration and Sustainability - Partners for the Future". The call for proposals, workshops, and abstracts will be released in December.
Oregon: Assisted Migration: A Primer for Reforestation & Restoration Decision Makers- Feb 21, 2013
Seattle: SER Northwest 20th Anniversary Celebration- March 1, 2013
Organization for Tropical Studies: The NAPIRE 2013 Research Experience- March 2013
Colorado: River Crossings: Linking River Communities - March 11-15, 2013
New Mexico: 2nd National Native Seed Conference- April 9-12, 2013
International Conference on Ecology and Transportation (ICOET) 2013- June 23-27, 2013
Rwanda: Ramsar Forum - Wetlands and Livelihoods- July 8-12, 2013
Nevada: Resilient Landscapes: Planning for Floor, Drought & Fire- July 21-24, 2013
2013 International Congress for Conservation Biology- July 21-25, 2013
5Th National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (NCER)- July 9- Aug 2, 2013
Vienna: 5th European River Restoration Conference- Call for Papers-Sept. 11-13, 2013
SER2013: 5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration- October 6-11, 2013
SER will hold its 5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, on October 6-11, 2013. This event marks the 25th Anniversary of SER and will celebrate the conference theme of "Reflections on the Past, Directions for the Future."
SER-Texas Annual Conference- November 1-3, 2013 |
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Funding Opportunities
NOAA: Coastal and Marine Habitat Restoration Funding Opportunities- Due February 19, 2013
NOAA's Restoration Center recognizes that healthy habitat is critical to recover and sustain fish populations. To that end, NOAA is currently soliciting applications for restoration projects that use a habitat-based approach to foster species recovery and increase fish production. The funding opportunity will focus on projects that will aid in recovering listed species and rebuilding sustainable fish populations or their prey. Awards will likely range from $500,000 to $5 million over three years. NOAA will accept one, two, or three year proposals.
US: DEP Grants to Restore & Protect Coastal Zones in Pennsylvania- 2013 Applications Open
The Department of Environmental Protection has awarded more than $900,000 in annual coastal zone management grants to organizations dedicated to protecting and preserving Pennsylvania's coastal zones along Lake Erie and the Delaware Estuary. The agency is now accepting applications for 2013. Coastal zone management grants support programs that measure the impact of various pollution sources; improve public access; preserve habitats; and educate the public about the benefits of the state's coastal zones.
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.
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
Tamarisk Coalition, a nonprofit advancing the restoration of riparian lands throughout the American west, posts current funding and training opportunities applicable to riparian restoration on Riparian Restoration Connection. |
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