The 2013 SER Board of Director Results are In! 
To lean more, read Steve Whisenant's letter to the SER membership detailing the election results.

Which Social Media Site Do You Use Most? - Click Here to Take Our 1 Question Survey
With members in over 70 countries, we aim to utilize every tool available to us to create an active and engaged network of restoration professional around the world. SER maintains LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook pages. Please take one minute to complete this one question survey on which site you use most (Yes, really - Just one question!)

SER Partners Up with HaloCard™
We are excited to announce our affiliation with the HaloCard™ Project, which provides a revolutionary way to raise additional funds from supporters without asking for any out-of-pocket donations. Please check them out at www.halocardproject.com and consider using a HaloCard™ to support the Society for Ecological Restoration.

SER and Island Press Student Video Contest with $500 Scholarship- "Why Restore?"
 Final submissions for the Island Press Student Video Contest on ecological restoration projects are due September 1, 2013. The top five, 1-4 minute videos will be chosen by public vote and the winner will be selected by a panel of expert judges. The winner will be announced at SER2013, will receive a $500 travel scholarship to the conference, and the potential to work with an Island Press publishing team to author a short E-ssential on restoration. Click here to learn full details on how to submit your prize winning video.

SER Members receive a 25% off ALL Island Press book purchases. Active SER members can enter promo code 2SER to receive the discount.

US: Tom Denbow Joins Biohabitats and Expands Firm's Capabilities to Restore the Great Lakes
Watershed and Water Resources Management Planner, Tom Denbow, has joined Biohabitats, Inc, the nation's leading ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design firm. In his new role as Great Lakes Bioregion Team Leader, Denbow will manage the firm's work throughout the Great Lakes Basin.

Restoration Ecology Volume 21, Issue 4 is out! Check out a few of the latest articles:

• Opinion: The Chilean Espinal: Restoration for a Sustainable Silvopastoral System
   
• Research: Science, Uncertainty, and Values in Ecological Restoration: A Case Study in Structured Decision-Making and Adaptive Management
   
• Research: Does Seeding After Wildfires in Rangelands Reduce Erosion or Invasive Species?
   
• Research: Early Development of Soil Microbial Communities on Rehabilitated Quarries
   
• Book Review: Novel Ecosystems: Intervening in the New Ecological World Order

Click here to read the full issue. Don't forget, members can get Online-Only access for $85 a year, or $110 for Print & Online.

US: Wildlife Tourism a $19 Billion Industry to Gulf of Mexico States
The wildlife tourism industry in the Gulf of Mexico states is a $19 billion industry and generates 2.6 million jobs, according to a report released today by Datu Reseach, an economic research firm. The study was funded by Environmental Defense Fund with support from the Walton Family Foundation. In addition to $19 billion in annual spending, the report says wildlife tourism attracts more than 20 million participants annually, generates $5.3 billion in annual in tax revenues and found that tourism jobs can account for 20-36 percent of all private jobs in counties that border the coast. Click here to read the report.

US: Chesapeake Bay Restoration Sized Up In Mixed Report
In a report released July 8^th by the Chesapeake Bay Founding and Choose Clean Water Coalition gave a report of mixed progress by the six states within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The mixed assessment is based on an analysis of benchmarks each state and the district are aiming to meet by year's end to help measure progress to restore the bay and keep the cleanup on track. By 2017, they are expected to reach 60 percent of their pollution-reduction goals in hopes of achieving the Chesapeake's restoration by 2025.

New Green Vision: Technology as Our Planet's Last Best Hope
There is a new environmental agenda out there called environmental modernism. This movement is based on the premise that if the world can do their business in a smaller part of the planet- through smarter, greener and more efficient technologies then nature can have the rest. In this sense environmental modernists are proponents of rewilding, which is the restoration of large tracts of habitat and the reintroduction of the species that once lived there. This relationship between modernists and rewilding could be a realistic tract to alleviate the world from future environmental problems.

Central Asia: A Red List for Ecosystems - Will it Aid Conservation and Restoration?
 Once the world's fourth largest lake, the Aral spanned an area the size of Ireland. It harbored more than twenty species of fish, and its fishery sustained an annual catch of 44,000 tons and 60,000 jobs. Today, the Aral Sea has lost about 90 percent of its water. The question that came out of this tragic loss is: would ecosystems like the Aral sea have a better chance of being saved if scientists assessed, classified and tracked the likelihood of their demise? The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is devising a new approach that will create a "red list" to highlight ecosystems at risk. Sandra Postel examines the pros and cons of devising such a system and what role restoration plays for the future.

Environmentalists Question Mexican Reforestation Statistics
 Environmental experts last week questioned Mexico's official statistics on the amount of its forested land, criticizing previous attempts at reforestation. Mexico's forests are under threat because of growing urban sprawl and unsustainable farming methods. Official statistics state that Mexico has over 64 million hectares (158 million acres) of forest, making it the country with the 12th greatest surface area of forest in the world, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

Restoration of the Tinle Sap is Vital to Cambodian Fish Habitat
The Tonle Sap lake is the primary source of around 40,000 tons of freshwater fish per year. During the wet season in Cambodia the Tonle Sap increases by up to five times its dry season size resulting in a healthy environment where fish can breed. In recent years the destruction of the flooded forests have resulted in a decline in catches. With the support of the USAID funded Cambodia HARVEST (Helping to Address Rural Vulnerabilities and Ecosystem Stability) program, Fauna & Flora International (FFI) has been working to help protect this fragile environment and recreate these flooded forests.

Florida: Guest Opinion - Big Sugar Is Not Saving the Everglades
Former Lee County Commissioner, Ray Judah, writes about his opinion of the Florida Sugar Farmers contribution to the Everglades Forever Act.

A River Recovering: Australia's Upper Snowy River
Originating on the slopes of Mount Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mainland peak, the magnificent Snowy River - immortalized in the 1890 poem "The Man From Snowy River" - flows through New South Wales and Victoria before emptying into the sea at Bass Strait. For three decades locals along the Snowy were joined by a broader alliance of concerned citizens in a battle to return water to the river.

California: Restoring the San Joaquin River and Recalling Its History
For centuries, California's San Joaquin River teemed with over half a million wild Chinook salmon. Today, the river -- much of it dry -- has almost none. This year scientists have begun reintroducing Chinook into the river with hopes to eventually restore the salmon population--and the river itself. The state has funded scientists from the San Francisco Estuary Institute to reconstruct an image of the Delta's pre-Spanish landscape.

Hope for Philippines Rivers
The selection of the Iloilo River in Central Philippines' Western Visayas region as one of four international finalists in the 2013 Thiess International Riverprize award provides a ray of hope that the country's river system can still be restored and rehabilitated.

Missouri: Plan To Save the Pallid Sturgeon Spawns Controversy
It has been a half-dozen years of push and pull over how, and whether, to save an endangered fish in the Missouri River. Finally this summer work will begin on a project to create more habitat for the pallid sturgeon near Arrow Rock.

Study Reveals That Grazing Slugs Hinder Grassland Restoration
Selective grazing by slugs may prevent key grassland species from taking hold and hampers efforts to restore our hay meadows, new research has shown. Work by scientists at Newcastle University, UK, has looked at the impact slugs have on grassland biodiversity and how this might inform future restoration work.

Africa: 'Underground Forests' are Bringing Deserts to Life
They call it the "underground forest", and it has proved to be an answer to for one young Australian and for countless people living in one of the hungriest corners of the planet. This technique has enabled millions of hectares of severely degraded land to produce good harvests, spurring a grassroots agricultural revolution that is spreading across West Africa's Sahel.

NOAA Launches Online Tool for the Marine Debris Community
The NOAA Marine Debris Program, a division of the Office of Response and Restoration, has launched the Marine Debris Clearinghouse, a new online tool for tracking and researching marine debris projects and resources. Currently, this database allows users to browse or search records of past, current, and future projects which are funded by the Marine Debris Program and focus on marine debris removal, research, and outreach.

US: Natural Defenses Can Sharply Limit Coastal Damage
By the end of the century, 2.1 million people and US$400 billion to US$500 billion of residential property will be exposed to the highest hazard risk. But if protective habitats are lost, the number of people and total property value at risk could double, according to work published today in Nature Climate Change.

Kazakhstan's Saiga Success: Endangered Antelope Numbers Rise
The endangered saiga antelope has had a rough few years in Kazakhstan, hunted mercilessly by poachers for its horns and wracked by a deadly sickness that has seen thousands of these endangered long-nosed antelopes perish on the steppe. Yet amid all the doom and gloom there is a glimmer of hope: Kazakhstan's saiga population has more than doubled over the last five years, according to figures released by the Ministry for Environmental Protection.

US: Stemming the Tide of Shorebird Losses
With migrations that can span thousands of miles, pacific shorebirds are among nature's most amazing aerialists. But without crucial stopover habitat along their way, they could be doomed.

Damaging Non-Native Forest Pests at Home in Northeastern U.S.
 In a study recently published on-line in the journal Diversity and Distributions, U.S. Forest Service researchers Andrew Liebhold, Laura Blackburn, Susan Frankel and partners used spatial data to demonstrate that the distribution of invasive forest pests is highly focused, with a particularly large number of species established in the northeastern region and then moderate but still troublesome numbers radiating to the west and south.

2013 International Congress for Conservation Biology- July 21-25

5^Th National Conference on Ecosystem Restoration (NCER) - July 9- August 2

West Virginia: 2013 Invasive Plant Conference - July 31-August 1

Panama: Ecosystem Services and Tropical Forest Restoration Course - August 12-17

Vienna: 5^th European River Restoration Conference - September 11-13

SER2013: 5^th World Conference on Ecological Restoration- October 6-11, 2013
SER will hold its 5^th World Conference on Ecological Restoration in Madison, Wisconsin, USA, on October 6-11, 2013. This event marks the 25^th 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
SER Texas will hold its annual chapter meeting November 1-3, 2013 in Junction, Texas.

Iraq: Impact of Climate Change on the Marine Environment and Arid Regions-Nov 26-28

California: Workshop - Applied Watershed Restoration - November 1-3

Michigan: 2014 Science, Practice & Art of Restoring Ecosystems Conference- January 2014

Colorado: Tamarisk Coalition's 12^th Annual Conference- Feb 2014

SER 2013 Conference Listing on the Global Restoration Network (GRN)

For more listings, visit SER's Calendar of Events. Posting to the Calendar is a member benefit.

Minnesota: Wetland Restoration Program Sign-Up Now Available - July 2013
 The Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) announced today that the 2013 RIM-WRP program sign-up is now open. The program offers competitive payment rates for landowners to restore wetlands that have been drained and have a history of being used for agricultural production. The RIM-WRP sign-up period begins June 3, 2013, with funding decisions expected by mid-July. Eligibility is statewide, but priority is given to areas of Minnesota that have experienced the greatest wetland losses.

US: Plant Conservation and Restoration Ecology Grant - Due July 31, 2013
Opportunity to enter into a follow-on cooperative agreement for plant conservationmonitoring, research, and training related to the USACE, Portland District Environmental Stewardship mission at the Willamette Valley Project. Primary duties include scientifically evaluating restoration and management methods in the endangered prairie ecosystems of the Willamette Valley. Managing a native seed production group will be among the prescribed tasks, and additional work in other Valley and Western Cascade biomes is possible.

Pennsylvania: CFA Offering Abandoned Mine, Watershed, & Greenways Grants - Due July 31, 2013
The Commonwealth Financing Authority is now accepting applications for grants under the Act 13 Marcellus Legacy Fund. Program cove abandoned mine drainage abatement and treatment, watershed restoration and protection, water quality data, greenways, trails and recreation and orphan and abandoned well plugging programs. Applications are due July 31 and will be considered at the CFA's November 13 meeting. For more information, contact Brian Eckert or Matthew Karnell at 717-787-6245 to discuss potential projects before commencing the application process.

US: Environmental Education Outreach and Restoration - Due August 9, 2013
This program is to support environmental education outreach for watershed restoration with non-BLM partners on Federal and non-Federal lands within the Calapooia watershed. Educational outreach programs aimed at landowners, volunteers, private and non-profit organizations are to encourage public involvement in riparian restoration in order to foster better stewardship of watersheds in advance of resource degradation to ensure sustainable watershed health, functions and uses. The objective of this program is to coordinate comprehensive planning, assessment and educational outreach for the strategic management of watershed systems.

Pennsylvania: DEP Growing Greener Watershed Restoration Grants - Due August 16, 2013
The Department of Environmental Protection is now accepting applications for its latest round of Growing Greener Plus Watershed Restoration and Protection Grants. Applications are due August 16. (formal notice)The Department anticipates there will be approximately $18 million available for Growing Greener grants, $3 million available for 319 NPS grants and $2 million available for acid mine drainage set-aside grants in this round. For the upcoming grant round, the Department will invest in projects that will ultimately protect or restore, or both, this Commonwealth's watersheds from impairment due to nonpoint source pollution.

US Mid-Pacific Region: Central Valley Project Conservation & Restoration Program - October 4, 2013
 The Bureau of Reclamation intends to issue a Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA), R13AF20026, for grants/cooperative agreements for the following program: The Central Valley Project Conservation Program (CVPCP) and Central Valley Project Improvement Act Habitat Restoration Program (HRP). These programs will improve conditions for species and habitats impacted by the Central Valley Project (CVP), excluding fish. Prospective recipients must be registered on the SAM database or offeror is ineligible for an award.

US: Wildlife Restoration Program- Region 5 Grants- Applications Due August 31, 2014
WR provides Federal grant funding to the 50 States, Commonwealths, and territories for the selection, restoration, rehabilitation, and improvement of wildlife habitat; wildlife management research; wildlife population surveys and inventories; land acquisition; hunter education and safety programs; coordination; development of facilities; facilities and services for conducting a hunter education and safety programs; and provisions for public use of wildlife resources.

WWF-US: EFN Reforestation Grants- Applications Due September 1, 2013
 EFN, with generous funding from the UPS Foundation, has launched a special grant opportunity focused on Forest Landscape Restoration (FLR). FLR is defined as a planned process that aims to regain ecological integrity and enhance human wellbeing in deforested or degraded forest landscapes. (WWF and IUCN 2000.) Local organizations from select WWF-US priority ecoregions must meet all of the eligibility criteria to be considered for a grant. Applications must be completed online and submitted to the EFN Conservation Workshop Grants by September 1, 2013.

US: Sustain Our Great Lakes Offers Funding for On-the-Ground Habitat Restoration & Enhancement
Sustain Our Great Lakes is a public-private partnership that works to sustain, restore, and protect fish, wildlife, and habitat in the Great Lakes basin by leveraging funding, building conservation capacity, and directing partners and resources toward key ecological issues. Administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the program is accepting applications for competitive funding to be awarded through the 2013 funding cycle. In 2013, grant funding will be awarded in three categories - habitat restoration, delisting of beneficial use impairments within Great Lakes areas of concern, and private landowner technical assistance. Approximately $5 million to $9 million is expected to be available in grants ranging from $25,000 to $1.5 million.

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.

USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP)
 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
The 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 are ensuring the collective success of 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. By 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 Directory 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 non-profit advancing the restoration of riparian lands throughout the American west, posts current funding and training opportunities applicable to riparian restoration on the Riparian Restoration Connection.