Resource Database

Diversity is Magic: Emerging issues in selecting appropriate native plant materials

Creating a restoration-based rural economy and reviving traditional ecological knowledge

The webinar will present case study from India of a restoration project that combines the objectives of creating alternate livelihoods for local communities of indigenous peoples based on ecological restoration and at the same time reviving traditional ecological knowledge of indigenous groups whose connect with their natural environment is fast vanishing. The restoration project is being managed by Junglescapes, a non-profit engaged in restoring degraded forests. The project site is in a major tiger reserve in South India which lies in the Western Ghats, a global biodiversity hotspot. Junglescapes received the Full Circle Award in 2017 for its ongoing work with local communities.

A Framework for Climate-smart Restoration

Ecological restoration efforts are being implemented in the context of a rapidly changing climate, which poses a new set of challenges and uncertainty. Climate-smart restoration is the process of enhancing the ecological function of degraded, damaged, or destroyed areas in a manner that makes them resilient to the consequences of climate change. The presentation will provide an overview of Point Blue’s climate-smart restoration framework and demonstrate how it can be used to inform planning and design for various restoration projects, drawing on examples from riparian and wetland systems in California.

Speaker bio: Marian Vernon is the Sierra Meadow Adaptation Leader at Point Blue Conservation Science, where she works with partners to catalyze climate-smart meadow restoration and land conservation in the Sierra Nevada. Her background is in the conservation, policy, management, and governance of public and private lands and wildlife in the western U.S. She received her Masters of Environmental Science degree from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies in 2015.

Natural Processes for the Restoration of Drastically Disturbed Sites

Join Dave Polster as he discusses the restoration of drastically disturbed sites using natural processes.Learn how we can take advantage of processes that have developed over millions of years to aid in the restoration of difficult-to-restore sites. How can we develop restoration practices that work with the natural world?

Dave Polster has 43 years of experience in vegetation studies, reclamation, and invasive species management. He graduated from the University of Victoria with his BSc. in 1975 and his MSc. in 1977. He has developed a wide variety of reclamation techniques for mines, industrial developments, steep or unstable slopes, and for the re-establishment of riparian and aquatic habitats.

Rebuilding a house of cards: Restoring the equilibrium in Indonesia’s tropical peatlands

Indonesia’s extensive tropical peatland domes contain a globally critical reservoir of carbon. Their forests have become a final refuge to endangered mammals such orangutans, sun bears and clouded leopards, and provide livelihoods, environmental stability and spiritual-identity to indigenous communities.
These tropical peatlands have become severely and extensively degraded through logging and land conversion for agriculture, both requiring peatland drainage. The degraded peatlands now burn with almost annual frequency. When surface fires transition into the peat, they release toxic gases, large volumes of small particulates, and huge volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – the Asian Haze Crisis.

The Indonesian Government is working to rehabilitate its peatlands, but planted seedlings still die through continued fires and disturbed hydrology. Fire management efforts are often only short-term, and rewetting after drainage is extremely expensive and physically challenging. Local indigenous communities have a deep understanding of the ecology of the system, and want it to see it restored. Poor economic, livelihood, health and education options, and unclear land tenure, however, leave them feeling incapacitated.

Tropical peatlands are an ecosystem dependent on stability and equilibriums. When these are disturbed, the whole system becomes degraded, questionably past its tipping point. Restoring the balance of this equilibrium requires understanding and methods in the biophysical, social, economic and politic environment. In this webinar I will present the balance of these different factors from a case-study perspective of single peat dome: its degradation history, and the restoration efforts of my organisation, The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, BOSF-Mawas Program. I propose that implementing truly inter-disciplinary restoration for Indonesia’s peatlands is rather like building a house of cards.

Speaker – Laura Graham, BOSF-Mawas

Scaling up forest landscape restoration in Canada in an era of cumulative effects and climate change

While the global restoration movement is rapidly gaining momentum, understanding the concept and benefits of forest and landscape restoration (FLR) is paramount to safeguarding the natural capital of Canada’s forests. In the face of increasing cumulative effects, we investigated the opportunities for scaling up FLR efforts in Canadian forests. The pace of industrial natural resource extraction developments (logging, agriculture, mining, and energy sector), and their overlapping in time and space with the impacts of climate change have resulted in ecosystem function and services alteration, as well as changes in natural disturbance regimes (e.g., wildland fire and pests). These dramatic and synergistic changes to environmental, socio-economic and cultural values occurring in the landscape need to be considered in land use planning but are highly variable and uncertain. We suggested that adding FLR to the land …

Selecting native plant material for restoration projects in different ecosystems

Due to loss of natural ecosystems and biodiversity around the world along the past decades, international initiatives are being developed to establish a foundation for the restoration of diverse ecosystems, prioritizing ecosystem biodiversity and resilience while also recognizing impacts on rural livelihoods and carbon storage. As programs have become more refined, a shift from revegetation with available material to using native plant materials of known genetic origin has been underway, and achieving increasing priority at an international level. Through research and collaborative partnerships, on local, regional and international levels, and between public and private sectors, approaches are being developed that addresses the challenges in using native genetic plant material in ecological restoration. Four study cases from different geographic locations and climatic conditions were selected to demonstrate the successes in using native genetic plant material, developing a baseline for native genetic resource management, and meeting challenges according to every ecosystem’s limiting factors. In Jordan’s desert ecosystem a developed native seed strategy has majorly improved seedling quality and post-planting survival rate. In the tropical ecosystem of Guinea Conakry, the major challenge is to identify best seed collection times and seed handling techniques to improve seed germination and propagation of native seedlings through seeds for the restoration of the Bossou corridor. Within Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, an emphasis is being made on the development of a traceability system for native genetic plant material used in restoration projects, considering the genetic variability within native species, starting with Cedrus atlantica. In Lebanon, considering the diverse ecosystems, a scheme for the selection of native plant material is developed within every restoration project, for dryland, riparian or forest ecosystems.

Speaker:

Karma Bouazza received her Bachelor of Science in Agriculture Engineering and her Master of Science in Plant Protection from the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. She has worked since 2011 with the U.S. Forest Service International Programs in Lebanon, Jordan, Guinea, Zimbabwe, Morocco and Rwanda. Through research and collaborative partnerships, she has worked on developing approaches that addresses the challenges in using native genetic plant material in ecological restoration in diverse geographic locations and climatic conditions. Currently, she is also leading the Research and Development Component at the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative NGO, aiming at first identifying research gaps throughout the different fields of ecological restoration and wildlife conservation that hinder the sustainability of landscape management.

Moving to Industrial-Scale Coral Habitat Restoration

Jesper Elzinga, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors, talks on ‘The Recovery of Reefs Using Industrial Techniques for Slick Harvesting and Release (RECRUIT)’ followed by Joaquim Garrabou, Spanish Research Council (CSIC), Barcelona on ‘Lessons Learned from Coral Restoration in Shallow and Deep Environments’. There is potential to assist the recovery of impacted coral habitats through marine ecosystem restoration, but can it be achieved at a meaningful scale? This webinar addressed some of the methods that might be used in restoration of coral habitats and their applicability at larger scales.

Fieldwork in the time of COVID-19

Join a panel of practitioners from several realms (governmental, contracting, and non-profit) to learn how they are adapting field work plans to reduce risks to practitioners and community members in the time of COVID 19. As we are all learning and adapting to this strange new world together, we’ll wrap up with time for participants to share their own ideas and ask questions of panelists and each other.

Speakers include the following SER-NW chapter board members: Jeff Barna, Ben Peterson, and Regina Wandler.

University of Montana COVID-19 Guidelines for Off-campus Field Research

Guidelines for off-campus field research developed by the University of Montana (as of May 4, 2020).

Guidelines for volunteers and volunteer organizations during COVID-19 outbreak in Washington

During this national emergency, we understand individuals who are not suffering from the coronavirus may want to help. However, all volunteer activities must follow critical health and safety protocols so we can protect volunteers, residents, clients, and agencies. This document provides general guidelines for volunteers and volunteer organizations and may be useful is developing organization-specific best practices.

Principles of Riverscape Health & Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration

In this webinar we will immerse you deeper into reading riverscapes; specifically, we will introduce the principles of riverscape health. These principles will be cast in a light to help you better recognize impairments, articulate the scope of what’s been lost, and realistically target recovery potential. Then we will introduce low-tech process-based restoration (PBR) as a means of addressing structural starvation so pervasive among many riverscapes today. We will briefly highlight six principles of low-tech PBR, which help guide restoration planning, design and implementation and more critically place our actions as ecological restoration practitioners in context. While we will focus on examples of these principles in practice for riverine and riparian ecosystmes, the mechanistic and functional focus has merit in cross-over to restoration of other ecosystems as well.

Speaker bio: Joe Wheaton is an Associate Professor Utah State and a fluvial geomorphologist with over eighteen years of experience in river restoration. Joe’s research is focused on better understanding the dynamics of riverscapes, how such fluvial processes shape instream and riparian habitats, and how biota modulate and amplify those processes. Joe o-founded the Restoration Consortium at USU and runs the Ecogeomorphology & Topographic Analysis Lab in USU’s Department of Watershed Science. Joe is also the lead author of the Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes Design Manual and a principle and co-founder of a design-build restoration firm, Anabranch Solutions.

Parks and Recreation Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) COVID-19 Best Practices Manual

Coronavirus safety protocols developed the City of Missoula (Montana, USA), including for fieldwork done by city staff in maintaining Missoula parks and open spaces.

COVID-19 Work Protocols – Garden Cycles LLC

Safety protocols from Garden City, LLC, an organization in Washington (USA) focused on native plant restoration and invasive species control.

Five Valley Land Trust COVID-19 Phase II Protocol

Guidelines from Five Valleys Land Trust (Montana, USA) on COVID-19 safety protocols.

Modo de Operación en situación de pandemia COVID19 – Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (Magallanes, Chile)

COVID-19 fieldwork and operation guidelines for the ecological restoration work being done in Parque Nacional Torres del Paine (Magallanes, Chile). Document includes guidelines in Spanish and English.

COVID-19 Fieldwork Safety Plan – SWCA

COVID-19 Field Safety Protocols from SWCA COVID-19 Task Force (released in June 2020) including guidelines for pre-fieldwork, prepping and cleaning vehicles, communal living, personal hygiene, and post-work communication.

COVID-19 Fieldwork Guidelines with Native American Community

These COVID-19 guidelines focus on fieldwork preparations that include a 2-week quarantine and working with a Native American/Indian community. The author has removed identifying information about the project and wishes them to be anonymous.

COVID-19 Protection Plan – Skagit Land Trust

Skagit Land Trust prioritizes the well-being of our community, including our staff, volunteers,
contractors, partners, landowners and members. This protection plan lays out the protocols we will
follow during the Washington Stay Home order in response to the spread of COVID 19 – this is the version of the plan shared with volunteers.

SER-WC Webinar: M.Sc. Projects

Join three recent graduates of the SFU/BCIT M.Sc. program as they discuss their Applied Research Projects. These projects are the central part of the M.Sc. Program.

Abby Wu – Assessing the potential impact of English ivy (Hedera helix) on the arthropod community of Stanley Park.

Shantanu Dutt – Biological Soil Crust for Reclamation of Mine Tailings.

Kate O’Neill – A climate adaptation plan: identifying thermal refugia for salmonids in the Tsolum River, BC.

COVID-19 Resources for the Restoration Industry – ERBA

ERBA’s mission during the COVID-19 pandemic is to support our members’ continued business operations in a safe manner and act as a resource to Congress and policymakers working to support infrastructure investments. To that end, we are pleased to provide this COVID-19 resource center that contains links to letters, legal alerts, and government recovery program applications.

Coastal Restoration Toolkit

The Coastal Restoration Toolkit was developed by Restore America’s Estuaries to provide high‐level, introductory educational information for community members on how to develop a coastal restoration project from concept to proposal. Divided into five topic areas (Flooding, Coastal Erosion, Water Quality, Invasive Species, and Wildlife Habitats), the Toolkit includes project examples, tools and resources, contacts, funding sources, and permitting information. The Toolkit is a launching point for developing solutions to coastal restoration opportunities that community members see in their local communities.

The Toolkit was commissioned by the NOAA Fisheries Office of Habitat Conservation/Restoration Center to support coastal communities and residents interested in using restoration to improve the condition of coastal habitats.  Coastal habitats provide valuable benefits to fish, wildlife, and communities. They are habitat for the fish we eat, are often the front line of protecting coastal communities from storms, and support cleaner water.

A discussion of the findings from the 2020 Australian Native Seed Report

High quality seed from a range of native species is the foundation for restoring Australia’s many fragmented and degraded native landscapes (even more so in the light of catastrophic bushfires of the summer 2019/20). Yet, for many years, there have been concerns raised within the native seed sector about the need for a transition from one that is essentially a disparate, poorly supported or capitalised cottage-industry to a forward-focussed, structurally sound and cohesive restoration-supporting industry – a evolution that is required if it is to meet the many challenges facing ecological restoration in Australia. In the past there have been many more unknowns than knowns about the native seed sector and providing solutions to its many challenges has always been hampered by a lack of baseline data. For this reason, a survey on the status of the Australian native seed sector was instigated by the Australian Network for Plant Conservation. This was conducted between October 2016 and April 2017 with parties from all states and territories contributing (including seed collectors, growers/sellers/suppliers, purchasers/distributors, researchers). The survey aimed to generate data on a range of seed-related subjects including seed collection and handling practices, seed end-use and seed business structure and models. The survey also tested common perceptions on a range of sector-related topics to gauge opinions and gather feedback from sector participants. The survey, and subsequent Australian Native Seed Survey Report (launched in March 2020), provide an important snapshot of the status of the Australian native seed sector and further knowledge on its structure and its capacity to meet current and future seed demand for ecological restoration.

This seminar will provide a brief background Australia’s seed and restoration sectors, discuss survey findings and implications and present report recommendations.

Speaker: Paul is a restoration ecologist specialized in re-establishing species-rich native grasslands and grassy woodlands. In 2004 he instigated the Victorian ‘Grassy Groundcover Research Project’ (Melbourne University and Greening Australia), a state-wide, field-scale applied grassy restoration research program which showed for the first time under Australian conditions that complex grassy communities could be restored to a high functional quality. In 2011 he expanded the project to NSW focusing on EPBC-listed Cumberland Plain Grassy Woodland. There he continued to develop and refine cultivated seed production techniques and approaches for wildflowers and grasses to provide seed for restoration across that region. He was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship in 2016 and toured the USA investigating its native seed and restoration sectors which profoundly influenced his views on native seed markets, seed cultivation and restoration. In 2017 he co-developed the Australasian Network for Plant Conservation-led Native Seed Sector Survey which aimed to gather critical information and feedback from restorationists nationally. In 2019 he joined Kalbar Resources to oversee rehabilitation strategies for the company’s Fingerboards project in east Gippsland (Victoria) which includes ambitious goals to restore nationally listed grassy woodland at hitherto untested landscape scales (in Australia) on parts of the post-mined landscape. He has been and remains an active advocate and believer in the importance of the role that ecological restoration can play in restoring Australia’s historic and current depletion of native plant communities

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System Story Map

The National Estuarine Research Reserve System (NERRS) is a network of 29 estuarine reserves. By implementing standardized approaches to the study of these estuaries, NERRS is able to learn more about the ecological and social trends of these ecosystems. The Story Map is an interactive tool that allows users to discover the reserves and the research being conducted in them.

The People’s Global Resource Bank

GRB shareholders are a social, ecological, economic network of people who value natural air, water, soil, light, plants, climate, shelter, organisms and food in the commodity-backed cryptocurrency, Eco. The GRB eco (e) gains everyone a sufficient, sustainable and secure eco income for life. GRB shareholders guide a bountiful human-computer GRB eco-economic algorithm without countries, private banks, public debt, interest, taxes, scarcity, fear, racism, war, poverty, pollution, pandemics, climate change and environmental degradation.

Environmental DNA: a cool new science that will benefit your ecological restoration

Finding Nemo – searching for species is a central part of what our scientists do each day.  As we continue to push towards monitoring and restoring critical habitat around the world, the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) is gaining traction.  Traditional surveys can be arduous, requiring permits and many hours in the field to capture, handle, and observe target species, often in remote areas. Is there a better way? Yes. eDNA tools are being used to detect species by sampling their habitat, such as a stream or coastal waters, without having to observe or capture them or disturb their environment. These tools are proving to be better for detecting species, less harmful to organisms, require fewer field staff, are safer for staff and take less time for sampling than traditional methods.  At Stantec, we have been using eDNA for several years in aquatic and terrestrial projects, exploring inland and coastal areas to answer key questions for our clients. Now, as our eDNA applications have advanced, we see more opportunities to use these tools to plan and measure success for our ecosystem restoration projects.  Tracking the migration of anadromous fish after a large dam removal project?  Searching for threatened and endangered mussels after recreating their critical habitat? In this webinar, our eDNA practitioners and restoration specialists will share how we have been using eDNA for our projects, and where the next chapter is taking us.

Germination strategies of selected Kuwaiti desert plants and their implications for dryland restoration

Desert plants use a number of strategies to survive in arid environments, which are characterized by extremely high temperature, intense radiation, strong winds, low and erratic rainfall, high evaporation rates, soil erosion, and lower nutrient availability. These species produce certain structures that help in seed dispersal to suitable microsites and/or regulate their germination response to prevailing conditions. Some species also produce heteromorphic seeds or maintain aerial seed banks to cope with extreme environmental conditions. The adaptive mechanisms in three of Kuwait’s native plants, namely, Farsetia aegyptia Turra (presence mucilage), Seidlitzia rosmarinus Boiss. (presence of wings) and Calligonum comosum (heteromorphic seeds) were studied and their germination behavior under different temperature and light regimes and elevated salinity conditions was determined in the present study. Irrespective of incubation temperature regimes and photoperiods, de-winged S. rosmarinus seeds germinated better (76-88% total germination) than intact seeds (24-41%) with the low temperature regime (20/15 °C) resulting in 10% higher germination (85-88% vs. 76-78%). Although the presence of mucilage and thermoperiod did not affect the germination, longer storage significantly increased the germinabilty of C. comosum seeds. Increasing salinity levels decreased the germination of all three species, but ungerminated seeds were able to germinate when the salinity stress was alleviated. These mechanisms allow them to minimize the impact of adverse habitat conditions and maintain seed viability. The implications of these adaptive mechanisms for dryland restoration will be discussed in this paper.

The importance of root hydraulic function for the survival of planted seedlings in dry conditions

Root function and growth is critically important to the survival and performance of planted seedlings, especially in ecosystems with seasonal dry periods. In many restoration sites, limited access to soil moisture has the potential to reduce outplanting success. Root hydraulic conductance, Kr, measures the capacity of a plant’s root system to supply the shoot with water. Kr can be impacted by planting practices, environmental conditions, and subsequent seedling growth. Using techniques from plant hydraulic physiology, we conducted a greenhouse experiment to measure changes in root hydraulic conductance in Douglas-fir seedlings (Pseudotsuga menziesii) after transplanting. Douglas-fir is a key forest species in the western United States and planted Douglas-fir seedlings must survive summers with very little rainfall. We found that Kr increased linearly with seedling leaf area in well-watered conditions. However, in water-limited conditions, Kr did not increase as seedlings grew new needles, which in turn reduced photosynthesis and lowered total seedling biomass. These results indicate that water limitation changes root function even before the seedlings experience xylem cavitation and in ways that impact the water supply to the shoot. From these conclusions, we emphasize the importance of restoration practices that can mitigate water stress after planting, such as the timing of planting, site preparation methods that reduce competition for soil water, and nursery growing and handling protocols that promote high capacity for root growth. Careful attention to root quality, understanding root function, and taking actions to ensure root growth will be important for the success of restoration with planted seedlings.

Using dispersal and germination life traits of native vegetation to promote ecological restoration in southern New Caledonia

New Caledonia is considered to be one of the main “hotspots” of biological conservation. Its exceptional level of endemism is increasingly threatened by the expansion of human activities. One of the most important threats is habitat fragmentation due in part to fires and mine exploration on ultramafic massifs that erodes habitat quality. Natural environments affected must be restored to maintain the ecosystem services they provide. Over the past 40 years, revegetation techniques have aimed to reduce the impacts of erosion. However ecological restoration has only been pioneered in the past 15 years. Present research compliments previous studies and aims to (1) characterize dispersal and germination of plant species found in early successional maquis and forest mosaics on the Goro plateau in southern New Caledonia, (2) evaluate the trajectory of mine revegetation plantations based on the life traits of the species used from surrounding vegetation. A database was constructed and presents data dealing with 41 life-traits of 407 taxa found in the vegetation mosaic. In addition, an assessment restoration progress using the five-star recovery system developed by SER was conducted from surveys and measurements of both planted and colonizing vegetation. Finally, inventories of surrounding natural vegetation provided details of their structure and composition that highlight the ecological succession and permitted establishment of a local indigenous reference ecosystem. Recommendations based on results were provided to managers to assist in implementing ecological continuities projects including a list of candidate species to prioritize in future restoration programs.

Restoration Guidelines for Shellfish Reefs