Resource Database

Bring the Salmon Home: Protecting Tribal Trust Resources on the Klamath

Presented jointly by SER and SERCAL. Michael Belchik, Senior Water Policy Analyst for the Yurok Tribe, discusses the Klamath Dam Removal project, the largest dam removal and river restoration project in U.S. history.

Creating High-Function, Low-Maintenance Ecosystems in Urban Environments

Presented by SER Northwest. Joshua Eldridge, Senior Ecologist and Mountain Regional Director for Great Ecology, discusses strategies and solutions for creating high-functioning ecosystems in urban settings.

Terrestrial Rapid BioAssessment: How Heterocerids are used to assess the ecologic complexity of land – a new assessment tool

Blaine Rothauser showcases a restoration case study to highlight how a moth survey can translate into a quantitative baseline used as an objective measure to provide restoration recommendations.

Bombs Away: Militarization, Conservation, and Ecological Restoration

In this webinar, author David Havlick examines how military activities, conservation goals, and ecological restoration efforts work together to create new kinds of places and new conceptions of place.

Coral Reef Restoration

Ian McLeod from James Cook University and Andrew Taylor from Blue Corner Marine Research discuss a variety of coral restoration methods and results, with recent case studies from Australia and Bali.

Great Lakes Coastal Dynamics

Presenter: Guy Meadows (Michigan Technological University) and Richard Norton (University of Michigan)

An International Collaborative and Adaptive Management Framework to Manage Invasive Phragmites in the Great Lakes Basin: IERQC Webinar

Topic: An International Collaborative and Adaptive Management Framework to Manage Invasive Phragmites in the Great Lakes Basin

Presenter: Kurt Kowalski,  US Geological Survey

The “Biggest”, the “Baddest”, and the “Bestest” – Coastal Restoration Cajun Style: IERQC Webinar

Topic: The “Biggest”, the “Baddest”, and the “Bestest” – Coastal Restoration Cajun Style

Presenter: Kris Thoemke and Greg Grandy, Coastal Engineering Consultants, Inc

The Nature Conservancy Water Funds Toolbox

Water Funds are organizations that take collective action to help address water insecurity. They design and enhance financial and governance mechanisms which unite public, private and civil society stakeholders around a common goal to contribute to water security through nature-based solutions and sustainable watershed management. This toolbox has been developed by Water Funds experts to help leaders succeed in developing Water Funds. This web-based toolbox has a variety of resources including a step-by-step guide, a curriculum, and access to a global community of Water Funds.

Cascading impacts of large-carnivore extirpation in an African ecosystem

The world’s largest carnivores are declining and now occupy mere fractions of their historical ranges. Theory predicts that when apex predators disappear, large herbivores should become less fearful, occupy new habitats, and modify those habitats by eating new food plants. Yet experimental support for this prediction has been difficult to obtain in large-mammal systems. Following the extirpation of leopards and African wild dogs from Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, forest-dwelling antelopes (bushbuck, Tragelaphus sylvaticus) expanded into treeless floodplains, where they consumed novel diets and suppressed a common food plant (waterwort, Bergia mossambicensis). By experimentally simulating predation risk, we demonstrate that this behavior was reversible. Thus, whereas anthropogenic predator extinction disrupted a trophic cascade by enabling rapid differentiation of prey behavior, carnivore restoration may just as rapidly reestablish that cascade.

Ecological restoration law: concepts and case studies

Ecological restoration is as essential as sustainable development for the health of the biosphere. Restoration, however, has been a low priority of most countries’ environmental laws, which tend to focus narrowly on rehabilitation of small, discrete sites rather than the more ambitious recovery of entire ecosystems and landscapes. Through critical theoretical perspectives and topical case studies, this book’s diverse contributors explore a more ambitious agenda for ecological restoration law. Not only do they investigate current laws and other governance mechanisms; they also consider the philosophical and methodological bases for the law to take ecological restoration more seriously. Through exploration of themes relating to time, space, geography, semiotics, social justice, and scientific knowledge, this book offers innovative and critical insights into ecological restoration law.

Addressing Water Scarcity through Restoration

Join Louise Stafford of The Nature Conservancy and John Owino of IUCN for a discussion of restoration efforts to ensure water security, in South Africa and East Africa. Moderated by Craig Beatty of IUCN and SER’s Large-Scale Ecosystem Restoration section.

Native Plant Conservation Campaign ecosystem services online portal

A diagnostic for collaborative monitoring in forest landscape restoration

Forest landscape restoration (FLR) requires a long-term commitment from a range of stakeholders to plan the restoration initiative collaboratively and see it through successfully. This is only possible when the people involved – whether they are landholders, indigenous groups, government entities, non-governmental organizations or other crucial actors – come together to define common goals and monitor progress toward those goals. Collaborative monitoring can play a crucial role in these processes by providing a structured way to include diverse stakeholders in FLR, generate local buy-in and catalyze social learning. However, collaborative monitoring is new to many FLR planners and, while they may be interested in implementing collaborative monitoring, they may not know where to start. This diagnostic provides a systematic way for FLR planners to assess their FLR initiatives against a checklist of success factors. The diagnostic helps practitioners to: (1) determine whether they are ready for collaborative monitoring; (2) identify what elements need to strengthened; and (3) assess whether existing monitoring systems are on the right track. The diagnostic can be applied on at least two scales: it includes factors to be used at a specific FLR site and it outlines the factors that are intrinsic to a multi-level collaborative monitoring system. It consists of a core matrix of 42 success factors, plus suggestions for performing the assessment.

Forest and landscape restoration dataset

Large areas worldwide have been deforested or degraded with a resulting loss of fertile soils, biodiversity and carbon stock. Deforestation and land degradation threaten the livelihoods, well-being, and resilience of millions of people around the world. Restoration of degraded lands is included as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (Goal 15), and multiple international and regional initiatives have been set up in the last few years (Bonn Challenge, 20×20 initiative). This theme focuses on mapping and characterizing restoration initiatives.

Low-tech process based restoration of riverscapes design manual

The purpose of this design manual is to provide restoration practitioners with guidelines for implementing a subset of low-tech tools—namely beaver dam analogues (BDAs) and post-assisted log structures (PALS)—for initiating process-based restoration in structurally-starved riverscapes. While the concept of process-based restoration in riverscapes has been advocated for at least two decades, details and specific examples on how to implement it remain sparse. Here, we describe ‘low-tech process-based restoration’ (LT-PBR) as a practice of using simple, low unit-cost, structural additions (e.g. wood and beaver dams) to riverscapes to mimic functions and initiate specific processes. Hallmarks of this approach include:

• An explicit focus on the processes that a low-tech restoration intervention is meant to promote
• A conscious effort to use cost-effective, low-tech treatments (e.g. hand-built, natural materials, non-engineered, short-term design life-spans) because of the need to efficiently scale-up application.
• ‘Letting the system do the work’ which defers critical decision making to riverscapes and nature’s ecosystem engineers

GIS-based Vulnerability Assessment of Upland Forests in the Cedar River Waters

Presented by SERNW and Rolf Gersonde. Climate change presents new challenges for ecological restoration. The recovery of ecological functions, either through reducing disturbance or by actively promoting ecosystem development is put into question as climate change is likely to alter ecosystem development and composition with uncertain outcome for ecological functions. In the diverse landscape of the Cascade Range, climate impacts are going to vary depending on topography and ecosystem composition. While exposed sites are likely to experience stronger climate impacts and have greater uncertainty regarding ecosystem recovery, other sites (climate refugia) are likely to be less impacted or will be altered more slowly. To aid forest and aquatic restoration at the landscape scale in the Cedar River Municipal Watershed, we conducted a vulnerability analysis of ecosystems to guide ecological restoration efforts at the landscape scale and adapt to projected climate change. We identified elements of climate exposure and ecosystem sensitivity that could be spatially represented and scaled. The elements were combined in an additive model to result in a landscape representation of climate vulnerability. Adding a spatial filter of areas where climate impacts would have greater effect on management goals and adding operational constraints enabled us to identify priority areas for conservation measures to restore late-successional forest habitat and ecosystem resilience. This approach could be adapted to other landscapes and management goals and offers managers a tool to prioritize restoration efforts in an uncertain future.

Soil Bioengineering for the Restoration of Steep and Unstable Slopes and Riparian Areas

Presented by Dave Polster and SER Northwest. Soil bioengineering is the use of living plant materials to perform some engineering function. In some cases, other materials are included. Soil bioengineering systems can be used to treat steep slopes and to provide stability to unstable sites. Soil bioengineering treatments use pioneering species that initiate the natural successional processes associated with the region in which they are applied. This means that in the long run, soil bioengineering systems promote the successional movement of the ecosystem towards later successional stages.

Soil bioengineering systems can be used to stabilize sites that conventional systems would cost millions of dollars to stabilize. In addition, since the soil bioengineering systems promote the natural successional development of the site, there is a long term recovery of the site that does not occur with traditional treatments. In addition unlike traditional treatments, soil bioengineering systems promote the sequestration of Carbon thus help with the current climate crisis.

Pichimahuida: website of a private restoration project in Chilean Patagonia

A dynamic website describing different aspects of a multifaceted private restoration project located in a severely degraded area of Patagonia, Chile. Specific aspects of the project: reforestation with native tree species for the purpose of ecosystem restoration, under Chilean national Law on Native Forest (N° 20.283), more than 230 000 trees of local species planted, 310 hectares affected, average recent documented survival rate is 85 %, largest project in the area; degradation of the whole region is due to catastrophic clearing fires of the ancient forest of the last century, further overgrazing and soil erosion and disappearance; the project is set in an area where the socio-economic approach to such initiatives is challenging; funded by private means, with the reforestation part being partly financed by State subsidies; the operational part, including energy and other supply, is ensured by personally developed and privately funded methods; remotely located and entirely off-grid.

Business for Water Stewardship Project Bank

The Business for Water Stewardship Project Bank was developed in response to growing business interest in projects that restore river flows and recharge ground water and offers an opportunity for organizations to represent their restoration projects on a national platform.

The Bonneville Environmental Foundation uses the Project Bank to share and learn about organizations and restoration projects and to represent specific projects to businesses seeking opportunities to support environmental water stewardship. Where there is a match between business water stewardship goals and restoration projects, the companies may elect to support those efforts.

River Network and BEF teamed up to create easy access for River Network dues paying members to submit their projects for inclusion in the BWS Project Bank.

Protocol Development Tool (PDT) for seed encrusting and pelleting

Seed encrusting and pelleting are seed coating technologies that increase seed size and weight, improving handling, consistency in seed delivery and providing active ingredients for seed protection and enhancement. Though widely used for crop and vegetable seeds, with an estimated value of more than a billion dollars per annum globally, the know-how and methodologies are rarely disclosed by the commercial seed industry sector. As a result, it is difficult to reproduce specific seed coatings for research and comparative evaluation. For small seed producers, particularly the emerging native seed sector, seed enhancement technologies are either unavailable or rarely adopted due to their inaccessibility. Here, we present the first fully disclosed Protocol Development Tool (PDT) for seed pelleting and encrusting. The PDT is customisable, applicable to a wide range of agricultural, horticultural and restoration purposes, and adaptable to suit a variety of seeds and coating materials. The PDT will allow researchers and seed suppliers to test and develop project-specific pelleting and encrusting methods within a standardised and replicable framework.

Best practices for implementing forest landscape restoration in South Asia: An international knowledge sharing workshop

In 2018, the Ministry of Mahaweli Development and Environment and Forest Department, Sri Lanka, in cooperation with the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) and others, members of the Global Partnership on Forest and Landscape Restoration (GPFLR) held a knowledge-sharing workshop on best practices in implementing forest landscape restoration in South Asian countries.

The workshop aimed at:

• Sharing and discussing lessons from current state-of-the-art scientific and technical knowledge on FLR both at global and regional scales;
• Connecting FLR experts in South Asia and further stimulating exchanges of information, thus providing feedback into national and global FLR policy initiatives such as the Bonn Challenge process;
• Identifying challenges of current land management and impediments to sustainable land management and ecosystem functionality across the region; and
• Contributing to the development of a regional FLR implementation strategy in support of continuous sub-regional learning, sharing of experiences and FLR practice improvements.

This webpage houses a summary of the workshop conclusions, as well as all of the workshop presentations.

Biotic interactions in the tropics – challenges for restoration and conservation in the Anthropocene

When ecosystems are lost or transformed, not only is biodiversity simplified or displaced, but key interactions that modulate ecosystem structure and function are also affected.  Therefore, restoration and conservation must have a complete view of the ecosystems to ensure their recovery.

This webinar explores how biotic interactions influence the restoration of natural tropical ecosystems. We examine how feeding interactions, such as predation and frugivory, affect the carbon cycle in the soil-atmosphere and in the trees. In addition, we will discuss changes in animal composition that may induce changes in the spatial organization of tree cohorts and its implication for restoration as a strategy for reviving and sustaining forests.

Finally, we will explore how changes in animal composition (pollinators and disperser) can be partially reversible if we develop functional ecosystem restoration strategies.

Monitoring the social benefits of ecological restoration

Ecological restoration has traditionally been evaluated by monitoring the recovery of ecological conditions, such as species abundance and diversity, physical form, and water quality; monitoring the social benefits of restoration is uncommon. Current monitoring frameworks do not track who benefits from restoration or by how much. We investigate how ecological restoration could be monitored to provide indications of improvement in terms of social conditions. We provide suggestions for measuring several categories of social indicators, including access, beneficiaries, and quality of benefit, using information compiled from natural and social science literature. We demonstrate how to evaluate ecological and social indicators over time at a site or landscape scale using multi‐criteria analysis. We use flood protection and recreation as example benefits to monitor.

IPBES Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration

The Assessment Report on Land Degradation and Restoration by the IPBES provides a critical analysis of the state of knowledge regarding the importance, drivers, status, and trends of terrestrial ecosystems. The Report recognizes that combating land degradation is an urgent priority in order to protect the biodiversity and ecosystem services that are vital to all life on Earth and to ensure human well-being. The Report identifies a mix of governance options, policies and management practices that can help support stakeholders working at all levels to reduce the negative environmental, social and economic consequences of land degradation and to rehabilitate and restore degraded land. The Report encompasses all the terrestrial regions and biomes of the world, and includes the full range of human-altered systems, including but not limited to drylands, agricultural and agroforestry systems, savannahs and forests and aquatic systems associated with these areas.

A Natural Priority: A report on Parks Canada’s Conservation and Restoration Program

Parks Canada’s Conservation and Restoration (CoRe) projects are as varied as the 33 national parks, national historic sites and national marine conservation areas in which they occur. The diverse projects we report on here run the gamut from restoring forests to re-establishing eel grass; from recovering threatened whales to saving endangered plants; from reducing over-abundant moose to decreasing plentiful urchins; from mitigating invasive species threats to alleviating problems caused by roads. Different contexts, different ecosystems, different communities – and different collaborators. Despite the ways in which CoRe projects differ from one and other, they also have much in common. CoRe projects are organized according to a set of methodological standards. They are designed to identify problems, collaborate with others, invest in solutions and realize achievements in a common manner. By following practical approaches to conservation and restoration, CoRe projects succeed in ways that engage and benefit society.

Tropical Native Species Reforestation Information Clearinghouse (TRIC)

The Tropical Native Species Reforestation Information Clearinghouse (TRIC) is a resource hosted by the Environmental Leadership and Training Initiative (ELTI) and aims to support capacity-building in the field of tropical forest restoration and reforestation. TRIC users can search by resource type, topic, country, region and ecosystem to find valuable reforestation resources. Users can also submit suggested resources for addition to the database.

Reef Resilience Network

The Reef Resilience Network connects marine resource managers with information, experts, resources, and skill-building opportunities to accelerate and leverage solutions for improved conservation and restoration of coral reefs and reef fisheries around the world. The Network is a partnership led by The Nature Conservancy that is comprised of more than 1,350 members, and supported by dozens of partners and TNC staff, as well as over 100 global experts in coral reefs, fisheries, climate change, communication, and more who serve as trainers, advisors, and content reviewers. The Network strengthens members’ ability to effectively manage coral reefs threatened by warming seas, bleaching, coastal development, pollution, overfishing, and changes in ocean chemistry. To achieve this, they synthesize and share the latest science and management strategies to keep busy managers inspired and in-the-know. The website is updated by global experts and features the latest information on key topics, easily searchable summaries of journal articles featuring resilience science, and case studies highlighting successful management strategies and new application of science. They also connect managers and experts to share resources and lessons learned that inform and improve management decisions and inspire greater collaborations.

Getting Better Value from Our Coasts

Scott Cole, EnviroEconomics Sweden Consultancy, talks about valuing multiple eelgrass ecosystem services in coastal ecosystems followed by Johan van der Koppel, Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, on using 3D computer graphics to convey restoration goals to decision makers and the general public.

Private Finance in Marine Ecosystem Restoration

Rolf Groeneveld, Wageningen University, talks on identifying private financing mechanisms for marine ecosystem restoration followed by Wenting Chen, Norwegian Institute for Water Research, describing how private finance is being used to restore kelp ecosystems in Northern Norway.