The Scientific and Technical Review

Panel (STRP) of the Ramsar Convention is a subsidiary body tasked with providing scientific and technical guidance to the Con-ference of the Parties (COP), the Standing Committee, and the Ramsar Secretariat. SER was nominated and approved to be an Invited Observer at the COP10 meetings held in Korea in late 2008. Subsequently, SER participated in the first STRP meetings of the current trienni-um held in Gland, Switzerland (March 29 - April 3, 2009) to outline the framework and establish working groups for the next three years. The primary focus of SER’s partici-pation will be a new thematic work area and priority task entitled Wetland Mitigation, Compensation and Restoration to be led by long-time SER member Kevin Erwin.

The Convention on Wetlands of Inter-

national Importance especially as Waterfowl Habitat (also known as the Ramsar Convention) was signed in Ramsar, Iran, on February 2, 1971, and came into force on December 21, 1975. The Convention provides a framework for national ac-tion and international co-

operation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources. Originally emphasizing the conservation and wise use of wetlands primarily to provide a habitat for waterbirds, the Convention has subse-quently broadened its scope to address all aspects of wetland conservation and wise use, thereby recognizing the importance of wetlands as ecosystems that contribute to both biodiversity conservation and human well-being.

SER Invited as Observer to Ramsar STRP for 2009-2012

SERNews 1

SERNewsThe Newsletter of the Society for Ecological Restoration International

Volume 23 No. 2 ISSN 1535-9859

285 West 18th Street, Suite 1Tucson, Arizona 85701 USA

001-520-622-5485 voice001-270-626-5485 fax

info@ser.org | www.ser.org

GLOBALRESTORATION

NETWORKA project of SER International

www.GlobalRestorationNetwork.org

SER International World Conference Update

The scientific program is now available for the upcoming SER

International World Conference on Ecological Restoration to be held August 23 – 27, 2009 in Perth, Aus-tralia. Visit http://www.seri2009.com.au/pages/scientific.html for more details.

In other news ahead of the confer-ence, a panel formed by the journal

Ecological Management & Restora-tion, with support from the Ecologi-

cal Society of Australia, has selected the “Top 25″ Australasian Ecological Restoration Projects using parame-ters consistent with the SER Primer. These outstanding projects exempli-fy the restoration efforts underway in Australia and New Zealand and will hopefully inspire and encourage other practitioners in the region and throughout the world. Visit http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/countries/australianew-zealand/ to learn more.

(continued on next page)

SER BOARD OF DIRECTORS

OFFICERSCHAIR George Gann * | Institute for Regional Conservation | 305-247-6547 | gann@regionalconservation.org

VICE CHAIR Jim Harris * | Cranfield University | +44 (0) 1234-758067 | j.a.harris@cranfield.ac.uk

TREASURER Suzanne Tuttle * | Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge | 817-237-6940 | suzanne.tuttle@fortworthgov.org

SECRETARY Karen Rodriguez * | 219-926-8206 | krod17@msn.com

GLOBAL RESTORATION AMBASSADOR

Keith Bowers | Biohabitats, Inc. | 410-554-0156 | kbowers@biohabitats.com

AT-LARGE REPRESENTATIVES

Don Eastman * | University of Victoria | 250-479-8382 | deastman@uvic.ca

Francisco A. Comin | Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia-CSIC | +34 (9) 7671-6115 | comin@ipe.csic.es

Lucinda Jackson | Chevron Environmen-tal Management Co. | 925-842-3467 | lucindajackson@chevron.com

Carolina Murcia | Fundación EcoAndina | +57 (2) 893-0762 | carolinamurcia01@gmail.com

Steve Whisenant | Texas A&M University | 979-845-5500 | rangerider@mac.com

REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES

AFRICA Oliver Enuoh | African Ecological Restoration Network | 234-803-558-9919 | oliverenuoh@yahoo.com

ASIA~PACIFIC Kingsley Dixon | Kings Park and Botanic Garden | +61 (8) 9480-3637 | kingsley.dixon@bgpa.wa.gov.au

EUROPE Katalin Török | Institute of Ecol-ogy and Botany of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences | +36 (28) 360122 | kati@botanika.hu

LATIN AMERICA~CARIBBEAN Mauricio Balensiefer | Universidade Federal do Paraná | mauricio@sobrade.com.br

MIDWEST Al Unwin | Niagara College School of Environment & Geomatics | 905-641-2252 | aunwin@niagarac.on.ca

NORTHEAST Jim Thorne | Natural Lands Trust | 610-353-5587 | jthorne@natlands.org

PACIFIC NORTHWEST Cara R. Nelson * | University of Montana | 406-243-6066 | cara.nelson@cfc.umt.edu

ROCKY MOUNTAINS~GREAT PLAINS Vivienne Wilson | Golder Associates Ltd. | 403-299-6444 | vwilson@golder.com

SOUTHEAST Bobby Keeland | USGS National Wetlands Research Center | 337-266-8663 | bob_keeland@usgs.gov

* Executive Committee

SER STAFFEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Amanda Jorgenson | 520-622-5485 | ajorgenson@ser.org

PROJECT DIRECTOR Sasha Alexander | 520-622-5485 | sasha@ser.org

GRN CASE STUDIES COORDINATOR Levi Wickwire | 520-622-5485 | levi@ser.org

SERNews 2

The Scientific and Technical Review Panel of the Ramsar Convention was

established by Resolution 5.5 (Kushiro, 1993) as a subsidiary body of the Conven-tion to provide scientific and technical guidance to the Conference of the Parties, the Standing Committee, and the Ramsar secretariat. In addition to the 12 individual STRP members, delegates from the five International Organization Partners -- BirdLife International, International Water Management Institute (IWMI), IUCN-The World Conservation Union, Wetlands In-ternational, and the World Wide Fund for Nature International -- represent their orga-nizations as full members of the Panel. In addition, representatives of the 18 subsid-iary bodies of other Multilateral Environ-ment Agreements and non-governmental organizations and associations specified in Resolution IX.11 are also invited to participate as permanent observers during each triennium.

One of Ramsar’s key strategies is to identify priority wetlands and wetland

systems where restoration or rehabilitation would be beneficial and yield long-term environmental, social, or economic bene-fits, and implement the necessary measures

Ramsarcontinued from page 1

to recover these sites and systems. In ad-dition, key result areas targeted by 2015 seek to have all parties identify priority sites for restoration; restoration projects underway or completed in at least half the Parties as well as new case studies and methods added to Ramsar wetland restora-tion pages on the website.

The recent STRP meetings were ex-tremely well-organized allowing for

a productive and wide ranging discus-sion on the myriad of themes related to wetlands. Wetland restoration assumed a fairly high profile within the plenary and attracted a variety of experts in the working group sessions. The task over the next three years is to revise and update the Ramsar principles and guidance for wet-land restoration with SER’s vast network providing critical input into the process. Discussions with the Deputy Secretary General, Nick Davidson, have resulted in a dedicated Ramsar session at the Perth conference and the potential for future collaborations. Nick has also been invited as a keynote speaker to the upcoming conference in Perth and has been asked to give a short presentation at the annual SER Board meeting that will take place there. The next STRP meetings (Mid-Term Workshop) will be held in Gland on February 15-19, 2010.

On April 1, 2009, the U.S. Department of the

Interior’s Natural Resource Damage Assessment and Restoration (NRDAR) Pro-gram hosted its National Workshop Open Day at the Bureau of Land Manage-ment National Training Center in Phoenix, Arizo-na. This annual workshop brings together all DOI personnel working on NR-DAR issues, and the Open Day is held as a means of encouraging the participation of non-federal stake-holders and program partners. SER was invited to attend this year’s Open Day, which featured panel sessions on ecosystem services, restoration banking, and restoration monitoring, and included presentations about the development of an effective restoration

monitoring program (guid-ed in large part by the SER Primer) and the dissemina-tion of monitoring results via the Global Restoration Network (GRN). Work-shop participants were given a general introduc-tion to the GRN and then learned about the important features of the case stud-ies database through the presentation of an existent DOI case study on the res-

toration of the Common Murre colony at Devil’s Slide Rock in California (http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/database/case-study/?id=264). As the database continues to grow, it will serve more and more DOI restoration practitioners as an important tool for making the results of their work avail-able to others in the field.

SER Participates in NRDAR National Workshop

A View from the Chair By George Gann | SER International Board Chair

SERNews 3

Summer is always an exciting time, and the northern hemisphere summer of 2009 is no different. We have hired a new Executive Director, Amanda Jorgenson, to help implement our stra-tegic vision for the future – an ambi-tious agenda that includes a number of new initiatives such as the Community Restoration Network (CRN) and the creation of a certification program. It is also a time of transition within the SER Board of Directors. In August, following the upcoming World Con-ference on Ecological Restoration in Perth, Australia, I will be stepping down and Jim Harris, of Cranfield University in England, will assume the reins of Chair of the Board. We are very fortunate to have both Amanda and Jim to guide our work into the future; Jim is an 11-year board veteran and Amanda has run large conserva-tion programs in both the U.S. and South America, including serving as Executive Director of the California Native Plant Society. If you are at-tending the World Conference in Perth (and the program looks fantastic!), please introduce yourself to Amanda, Jim, and other staff and board mem-bers. Also, make sure to attend the meeting of the members, where board elections will be finalized.

As this is my last View from the Chair, I would like to share with the membership our vision for the future of the Society – and I use the word “our” since board, staff and members have all contributed to this vision.

At the local and community level, SER will position itself as an im-portant resource for community-based, volunteer-driven restoration projects. The emerging Com-

munity Restoration Network (CRN) is one vehicle that will help with this process, providing a one-stop website with toolkits, directories, calendar of events, funding opportunities and volunteer postings. These projects are growing in both scope and number as is the enthusiasm of volunteers who want to make a difference in their lo-cal environment. The CRN builds on the strengths of both the Indigenous People’s Restoration Network and the Global Restoration Network, and continues to expand SER’s significant web resources. On the professional side, the final approval for the SER certification program is close at hand, and we expect the program to be final-ized for launch in the summer of 2010. Our journal, Restoration Ecology, will continue for five more years under the capable leadership of Editor-in-Chief Richard Hobbs and Managing Editor Sue Yates.

Our outreach to Latin America and the Caribbean will continue to grow as we pursue collaborations with na-tional and regional networks, leading up to our 2011 World Conference in

Mexico. Together with Parks Canada, SER is also playing an instrumental role in the production of a new IUCN document “Best Practice Guidelines for Ecological Restoration in Protect-ed Areas” which will be published at the next World Conservation Congress in 2012. We are also forging ahead with our efforts to elevate the role of ecological restoration in the Conven-tion on Biological Diversity. Our participation in the latest triennium of work within the Ramsar Convention (see above) will contribute to wetland restoration guidelines to be considered at the next Conference of the Par-ties in the spring of 2012. Ecological restoration will gain notice worldwide, and SER will be a leader in its promo-tion on the international policy front.

This is a great vision, and one that we must accomplish working together. What is amazing is that we have kept moving forward without an Execu-tive Director for nearly a year. This was due to a dedicated board, two hard-working staff members, Sasha Alexander and Levi Wickwire, my part-time assistant, Kate Samelson, and other key allies including our bookkeeper Victoria Stubbs. It’s been an honor. Amanda and Jim, carry on!

Yours truly,

George Gann, ChairSociety for Ecological Restoration International

The journal Restoration Ecology has initiated a new section, “Setbacks and Surprises”, for papers that report the results of restoration projects that did not go as planned—projects that failed to meet the original goals or did not meet the goals without con-siderable changes to the original plans. These “fail-ures” (whether partial or total, perceived or real) have the potential to yield information and insight every bit as valuable as that generated by “successful” projects, and therefore this new section encourages authors to write about unmet objectives and provide hypotheses about why the outcomes were not as planned.

The manuscripts can fit into any of the existing cat-egories of paper the journal publishes (opinion pieces, reviews, research papers, etc.), will follow the normal review process, and must conform to the usual stan-dards set for the journal. See the Editorial published in the January issue of Restoration Ecology (17:1) for a more detailed introduction to the new section and the rationale behind it (http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121625456/HTMLSTART). Direct any questions to Managing Editor, Dr. Susan Yates (restoration.ecology@uwa.edu.au).

“Setbacks and Surprises” Now Welcome in Restoration Ecology

SERNews 4

Located between the University of Wash-ington’s 72,500-seat foot-ball stadium, a golf driving range and acres of surface parking lies one of Se-attle, Washington’s most unique urban ecosystems, the Union Bay Natural Area. At 73.5 acres, the Union Bay Natural Area is Lake Washington’s second largest ‘natural’ ecosystem and one of Seattle’s largest public green spaces, a mo-saic of forest, scrub-shrub, grassland, and wetlands on a former landfill. The Union Bay Natural Area drains the last reaches of two of Seattle’s urban wa-tersheds, Ravenna and Yesler Creeks, both of which flow south into Lake Washington. A trail network links 35 restoration projects that have, among other outcomes, created early-successional forests and converted a gravel parking lot into oak savanna and wetland. Bird watch-ers commonly gather to view the diversity of shore birds that congregate here throughout the winter, a green island among a densely populated urban landscape. Students, faculty and visitors revere the site as a keystone of local ecological education, outreach and service. To fully appreciate the value of the Union Bay Natural Area (commonly referred to as the UBNA), the site’s unique setting and history must be considered: A century ago, the UBNA was a lakeshore emergent marsh where Ravenna, Kincaid and Yesler Creeks met Lake Washington. At the time, what is now the UBNA, like the rest of Lake Washington’s historic shoreline, was en-tirely underwater. Forty-years ago, the mature trees and expansive grasslands present today did not exist, there was only a large landfill receiving maritime debris and Seattle’s public waste. Today the UBNA exists within an incredibly dense urban matrix: Seattle has a population density of 7,075 people per square mile and 592,800 total residents (Washington OFM, 2008). Within the UBNA though, the most obvious signs of human activity are or-ange flags delineating ecological research plots or blue tree tubes where students and volunteers have planted native trees and shrubs. So how did a freshwater wet-land transform into landfill and later into the University of Washington’s flagship laboratory for the research and teaching of restoration ecology? Only through a century of degradation and two decades of restoration has the UBNA come to assume its present state as a natural area and outdoor classroom. The site began shifting towards its current state in 1911 af-

ter Ravenna Creek’s water source was lowered and the creek was diverted to Seat-tle’s sewer system. In 1916 the United States Army Corps of Engineers lowered Lake Washington three me-ters to match the water lev-els of Lake Union and the Puget Sound for navigation and commerce. Reclama-tion of the marshy site for development was not fea-sible with the technologies of the day, so the newly exposed site was used as a landfill by the city of Seattle from 1925 until 1966. The in filling with trash caused subsidence of a large peat deposit below the marsh, a

driving factor in the formation of wetlands now present on the surface of the site. Following landfill use, the UBNA was capped with clay from a nearby construction site, graded and seeded with European pasture grasses through 1971, formally be-ginning the UBNA’s life as a novel ecosystem. In1972 the University of Washington assumed ownership and man-agement of the UBNA—managing the capped landfill as a natural area would soon prove to be a daunting task. Native riparian deciduous trees, red alder (Alnus rubra) and black cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) colonized the wet fringes and subsiding depressions of the landfill, however the densely compacted clay soil used to cap the landfill was not conducive to the broad reestablishment of native vegetation. In the absence of native recruitment, invasive species, particularly Himalayan blackberry (Ru-bus armeniacus) and Scotch broom (Cystisus scoparius), established and thrived until restoration efforts began 20 years later. A 1986 vegetation survey predating restora-tion found that a majority of the 150 flowering plant spe-cies were non-native (Huang 1988). Invasive species have historically inhibited the establishment of native vegeta-tion and continue to be the primary disturbance targeted in ecological restoration activities within the UBNA. Early in the University’s management of the site, it became apparent that ecological restoration would be critical to the site’s management as well as an outstanding educational opportunity. Inherently, restoration became a primary tool in reaching management goals for the site: increase and retain native biodiversity, control invasive species, and provide educational and service opportuni-ties to students and the public. In 1990 active ecological restoration began with manual removal of the invasive purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria) from Shoveler’s Pond, an ephemeral pond on the UBNA’s eastern edge

Learning from a Landfill: ecological restoration and education at Seattle’s Union Bay Natural Area

By Justin Howell and Nate Hough-Snee, University of Washington Botanic Gardens on behalf of the University of Washington’s Society for Ecological Restoration Student Guild.

photo courtesy of the College of Forest Resources Alumni Association

that had been almost entirely invaded. Loose-strife management was not completed until the Washington State De-partment of Agriculture and the King County Noxious Weed Board employed a biological control, the Gallerucella beetle, a coleopteran ge-nus that feeds on loose-strife within its native range. With the intro-duction of the beetle, Shoveler’s Pond and ad-jacent wetlands shifted from a loosestrife-domi-nated state to their cur-rent mixture of sedges, rushes and shrubs. Since that first effort to restore Shoveler’s Pond, the UBNA has hosted numerous restoration projects creating forest, wetland and grassland ecotypes with a total area of 14.4 acres having been actively restored since 1990. Proj-ects at the UBNA are commonly collaborations between student groups in one of the University of Washington’s many restoration ecology courses and faculty within the University of Washington Botanic Gardens. By linking the adaptive management of the UBNA to ecology and design theory, students from across academic disciplines get a firsthand opportunity to apply ecological and res-toration concepts as they design, build and install eco-logical restoration projects. These experiences are seen as ‘multiplier’ opportunities in which every restoration project on the UBNA is valued not only for its ecologi-cal merit, but also for the educational experience offered to students who will then go on to apply their restoration knowledge elsewhere in the world. These experiences build the foundation of the University of Washington’s Restoration Ecology Network (UW-REN), a professional certificate in restoration ecology that has been recognized by the journal Science, the University of Washington and the Society for Ecological Restoration International. Thus far, at least 1500 students have participated in restoration ecology coursework at the UBNA through UW-REN or other courses. Ecological restoration at the UBNA has long-tar-geted the restoration of autogenic processes that allow for the establishment of native vegetation and the suppression of invasive species. Dr. Kern Ewing, professor of resto-ration ecology at the University of Washington Botanic Gardens, has researched and taught plant and restoration ecology in the UBNA using this philosophy since the ear-ly 1990’s. Dr. Ewing and his collaborators have assessed restoration outcomes and used experimental trials to test the efficacy of different regionally common ecological restoration techniques. These techniques include using densely planted willow live-stakes to shade out invasive grasses in wetlands, creating mounds to modify micro-climates and establish diverse grassland communities, and using sheet mulch to increase soil moisture around

tree plantings. Many of the techniques researched within the UBNA are used throughout the re-gion and are taught in coursework as a result of these experimental trials. While restoration ecology students and re-searchers have created a majority of the Union Bay Natural Area’s res-toration sites, the UBNA is also used as an outdoor classroom for an array of volunteers, visitors and non-restoration students. Tours of the UBNA are often given to build local

interest in urban ecology while exposing individuals to the concepts and practice of ecological restoration. Dur-ing the 2008-09 academic year alone, the UBNA received 593 visitors for guided tours or volunteer work parties, logging 2000 individual hours. Ideally these tours and class field trips build a base of future volunteers who will go on to play a critical role in the maintenance of restora-tion projects. The Union Bay Natural Area shares a unique his-tory with the teaching and practice of ecological restora-tion at the University of Washington. From an in tact ecosystem to a waste repository to an outdoor laboratory, the UBNA has changed dramatically and will undoubt-edly continue to do so over time. There are numerous goals for the site: to monitor vegetation communities and assess how succession proceeds within systems, to look at how subsidence alters hydrology across the landscape and to continue adaptively managing existing restoration projects to ensure project success. Most importantly, the UBNA will remain a free and public gateway to ecologi-cal restoration for visitors, and continue to train and in-spire future generations of restoration ecologists and prac-titioners.

SERNews 5

Union Bay Natural Area continued

For more information, including a detailed site history, management plan and bibliography, see the Union Bay Natural Area and Shoreline Management Guidelines, 2009: http://depts.washington.edu/urbhort/html/plants/ubna.html

References:

Ewing, Kern. 2009. Union Bay Natural Area and Shoreline Management Guidelines, 2009. Draft for review, University of Washington, Seattle.Huang, Chih-Lin. 1988. Distribution and abundance of plants on the Montlake Wildlife Area. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Washington, Seattle.Washington State Office of Financial Management. 2008. April 1st, 2008 population, land area and density by cities and towns. http://www.ofm.wa.gov/ pop den/default.asp

photos courtesy of Justin Howell

SERNews 6

Payment for Ecosystem ServicesEdited by Pushpam Kumar and Roldan Muradian

This book, part of the new series Ecological Economics and Human Well-being, brings together leading experts to ad-dress a range of issues related to the valuation of ecosystem services and the design and performance of compensation schemes intended to provide a cost-effective strategy for improved ecosystem management. Payment for Ecosystem Services (PES) programs, such as have been used in the context of carbon sequestration and biodiversity con-servation, are examined not only as a means of reducing the cost of managing ecosystem services, but also as a redistributive mechanism with the potential to improve rural living conditions by reshaping the dynamic between urban and rural populations and acting as a driver of rural development. To read a review of this book, visit http://www.hindu.com/br/2009/04/28/stories/2009042850021400.htm

Wetland EcosystemsWilliam J. Mitsch, James G. Gosselink, Li Zhang, Christopher J. Anderson

This new text complements the Fourth Edition of Wetlands, Mitsch and Gosselink’s comprehensive reference on wetland science, man-agement and restoration, by pro-viding updated descriptions of the hydrology, biogeochemistry and biology of the major types of wet-land ecosystems found throughout the world (coastal wetlands, fresh-water marshes, forested swamps and peatlands). Specific wetland ecosystem types are examined in detail, including the ecosystem

services they provide, and three fundamental systems approaches to studying wetlands are introduced: mesocosms, full-scale experimen-tal ecosystems, and mathemati-cal modeling. Visit http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-047028630X.html

Rewilding the West: Restoration in a Prairie LandscapeRichard Manning

Manning offers a vivid, an-ecdotally driven account of the American plains from native occupation through the unravel-ing of the American enterprise to today. He takes the reader to an isolated stretch of central Montana along the upper Missouri River and peels back the layers of his-tory to reveal how key elements of the American story—conserva-tion, the New Deal, progressivism, the yeoman myth, and the idea of private property—have collided with and shaped this incomparable landscape. As he tells this story, Manning describes a grand vision for ecological restoration, currently being set in motion, that would establish a prairie preserve larger than Yellowstone National Park, flush with wild bison, elk, bears, and wolves. Go to http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11174.php

Conservation Psychology: Understanding and Promoting Human Care for NatureSusan Clayton and Gene Myers

This textbook introduces the reader to the new and emerging field of Conservation Psychology, which explores connections be-tween the study of human behavior and the achievement of conserva-tion goals. Although people are often seen primarily as a threat to healthy ecosystems and an ob-stacle to conservation, humans are inseparable from natural ecosys-tems, and an understanding of how people think about, experience, and interact with nature is crucial for promoting not only environmental sustainability but also human well-being. The book first summarizes theory and research on human cognitive, emotional, and behav-ioral responses to nature, and then examines ways to encourage con-servation-oriented behavior at both the individual and societal levels. To learn more, visit http://www.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405176784.html

Middle Ground – A Collection of Essays by Stephen Pyne

In this collection of three essays, leading fire expert Dr. Stephen J. Pyne surveys modern anthropogen-ic fire practices in the Cross Tim-bers area of Oklahoma, the Mis-souri Ozarks, and prairie remnants in Illinois. Pyne brings his his-torical and ecological awareness, cultural insights, and distinct liter-ary style to an exploration of the “pyric geography” in these areas long ignored by the wildland fire community. To read the articles, visit http://www.wildfirelessons.net/AFP.aspx?Page=AFPOverview

New Books & Articles

SERNews 7

ASLA Professional Award

The American Society of Land-scape Architects has awarded SER member Steven N. Handel a 2009 Professional Award for research conducted over a 15-year period to better understand the ecological processes that define natural habitat restoration in high-stress urban landscapes. Handel used a series of experiments to explore the poten-tial for establishing new popula-tions of native species on degraded urban land and to assess the influ-ence of the surrounding landscape on the sustainability of these new natural communities. His findings suggest that the combination of mod-ern landscape design skills and plant community ecology has the potential to yield landscape parcels that pro-vide the ecological services needed to support urban communities while offering pragmatic solutions that make ecological restoration a viable element in urban designed land-scapes. To read the full article, visit http://asla.org/2009awards/101.html.

Tree Planting in the Driest Place on Earth

A BBC article from April 2009 describes a project led by restoration ecologist Oliver Whaley of Lon-don’s Kew Gardens to restore the critically imperiled huarango dry for-est ecosystem of southwestern Peru. Named for its keystone species, the huarango tree, this forest type lies in the northernmost portion of the Atacama Desert and is poised on the brink of extinction due to long-standing anthropogenic pressure and formidable barriers to natural regen-eration--namely, the almost complete absence of rainfall. Dr. Whaley has worked closely with local communi-ties to promote reforestation efforts and has sought to improve steward-ship through the revival of cultural values associated with the huarango tree and its traditional food products.

To read the entire article, visit http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7934406.stm#map. Fol-low this link to a detailed case study of the huarango project: http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/data-base/case-study/?id=228. Rural Earth Ponds

On April 15, 2009, the Caledon Citizen included an abbreviated “res-toration and management primer” for natural and constructed ponds in rural Ontario written by SER member Jean-Marc Daigle. Daigle briefly discusses some of the com-mon management problems faced by landowners who want to maintain open water on their properties (e.g. sedimentation, nutrient loading, stagnation) and offers helpful tips for addressing them. Read the article at http://www.caledoncitizen.com/news/2009/0415/news/037.html.

Lone Star Land Steward

In a news release dated April 24, 2009, the Texas Parks and Wild-life Department announced this year’s recipients of its Lone Star Land Steward Awards. This award recognizes landowners throughout the state for excellence in habitat management and wildlife conser-vation on their lands. Among the

recipients of this year’s awards was the Fort Worth Nature Center and Refuge, managed by long-time SER Board member Suzanne Tuttle. The FWNCR has seen a number of eco-system restoration initiatives since its inception in the 1970s, among them prescribed fire, control of inva-sive plant species, prairie restoration and the reclamation of a gravel pit. The site now offers field research opportunities and an extensive trail system providing outdoor recreation activities for the public. Visit http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/releases/?req=20090424a to read the entire story.

Out into the World of Wildland Restoration

On April 29, 2009, it was re-ported in the Montana Kaimin, the student daily of the University of Montana at Missoula, that the first two graduates of the University’s newly established wildland resto-ration program in the College of Forestry and Conservation were set to receive their diplomas. Haley Wiggins and Zach Betz were the first students to successfully complete the program established in large part through the efforts of Cara Nelson, professor of restoration ecology and SER Board member. Read the full article at http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/outdoors/outdoors_article/first_wildland_restoration_graduates_head_out/3803, or visit http://www.cfc.umt.edu/wildland/ to learn more about the program.

Keep Us Posted!

Been working on an interesting project? Been in the news lately? Written a book, article, paper? We’ll be happy to highlight it on our Member in the News or Restoration Showcase on the SER homepage. Just send your materials to Levi Wickwire (levi@ser.org). Keep your fellow members in the loop.

Members-in-the-News