Resource Guide
Education, Memberships, Journals, and Events

This is a very small sampling of U.S. and (a few) non-U.S. restoration resources; it largely excludes regional and community resources because they number in the thousands, and new ones appear almost daily.

The free, constantly updated resource guide at www.restorica.org gives a more complete listing.

(Note: Lists are in alphabetical order. Italicized copy is from the organizations’ own literature or websites.)

WHERE ARE THE FOR-PROFIT BUSINESSES?

With the exception of a few magazines, for-profit firms are not listed here. The next book in this series, tentatively titled Leaders of the Restoration Economy, will profile 8 top companies—one for each of the 8 restorative industries—and will list the 10 leading firms in each industry. Please contact the author at [email protected] to nominate a firm you feel should be profiled (and to notify him of any errors or omissions you find in this book).

HIGHER EDUCATION

• The New Academy for Nature and Culture, in Evanston, Illinois, is a new national program being developed to provide college-level training for leaders of community-oriented conservation efforts. Their primary focus is on ecological restoration, which isn’t surprising, considering that its president, William R. Jordan III, co-founded both the Society for Ecological Restoration and the journal 320Ecological Restoration. New Academy is currently developing regional centers in Texas, Arizona, and California, and it works closely with the Society for Ecological Restoration.
  
  Their first regional center is being established in Chicago, and courses have begun at two Chicago-area partner schools: Northeastern Illinois University and Loyola University. Contact Bill Jordan III at (847) 328-8389.
• Ball State University [www.bsu.edu/cap/arch/preservation/MA_Hist.html] offers a master of science degree in Historic Preservation. Contact: James A. Glass, Director, Graduate Program in Historic Preservation, College of Architecture and Planning, Ball State University, Muncie, IN; Tel: (765) 285-1900.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) offers a wide variety of training programs. As readers would expect, it has courses related to brownfields remediation, but many other subjects as well. For example, its Watershed Protection division has a site at www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/corsched.htm which aggregates both EPA and non-EPA training programs related to watershed issues. Programs related to river and stream restoration appear frequently, such as this non-EPA sample: Oct. 15-24, 2002, River Restoration and Natural Channel Design (Wildland Hydrology, Tel: (970) 731-6100 [www.wildlandhydrology.com]). USEPA’s River Corridor & Wetland Restoration site is www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/restore.
• The University of Maine’s Humboldt Field Research Institute offers a Certificate in Ecological Restoration [http://maine.maine.edu/~eaglhill/ECREDITS.html].
• University of Vermont, Master’s Degree in Historic Preservation. Contact Thomas Visser, Historic Preservation Program, University of Vermont, Burlington, VT; (802) 656-3180; www.uvm.edu/histpres.
• University of Victoria, Division of Continuing Studies, PO Box 3030 STN CSC, Victoria, BC V8W 3N6, Canada [www.uvcs.uvic.ca/restore]. Restoration of Natural Systems is an accredited program created to disseminate information about environmental restoration and to provide practical background knowledge, training, and skill development for those working in areas related to the restoration of natural systems. The program is designed for those who need to study part-time.
• The Arboretum at the University of Wisconsin-Madison [http://wiscinfo.doit.wisc.edu/arboretum/] This is the mecca of ecological restoration in the United States, and it shows in many 321areas of the university’s curriculum. For instance, the landscape architecture department has a heaver-than-usual focus on restoration ecology. In addition to a wide variety of related studies, the Arboretum publishes Restoration Ecology for the Society for Ecological Restoration, and is connected with the oldest ongoing ecological restoration projects in the United States (tallgrass prairies).

WEBSITES IN GENERAL

There are far too many websites (tens of thousands) related to restorative development to list here, and they change too often for inclusion in a book. As a sample, here are a few useful sites from one of the newer restoration industries: brownfields remediation.

• www.brownfields.com/env_newsltrs.cfm
• www.brownfieldstech.org
• www.epa.gov/brownfields
• www.nicole.org/nicole2/NICOLEindex.shtml
• www.dep.state.pa.us/hosting/phoenixawards/contacts/links.htm

NGOS, ASSOCIATIONS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES, AND RELATED JOURNALS

• American Society of Civil Engineers 1801 Alexander Bell Dr., Reston, VA 20191-4400; Toll-free: (800) 548-2723, Tel: (703) 295-6300, Fax: (703) 295-6222 [www.asce.org]. Associate ASCE memberships are available for nonengineers. ASCE is the premiere U.S. association of civil engineers, but most developed countries have their own. The original is the U.K.’s Institution of Civil Engineers [www.ice.org.uk], established in 1818, which has over 80,000 member engineers worldwide. The younger ASCE (only 150 years old) publishes Civil Engineering magazine and produces many conferences. An example was the “Wetlands Engineering & River Restoration” conference in 2001, sponsored by ASCE’s Environmental and Water Resource Institute (EWRI). EWRI is one of six semi-autonomous institutes recently founded by ASCE to promote greater integration of the engineering profession with other stakeholders and disciplines, such as contractors, architects, owners, etc. Another ASCE institute that deals with much restorative development is its Coastal Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute (COPRI).
• 322Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration (ASCR International) 8229 Cloverleaf Dr., Suite 460, Millersville, MD 21108; Tel: (800) 272-7012, Fax: (410) 729-3603 [www.ascr.org]. Disasters come in all sizes, and so do the businesses that restore their damage. Ever since we moved out of caves, our buildings have been burning down, so ASCR represents one of the world’s oldest restoration professions. Formed in 1946 (as a rug cleaning trade group), the growth of restoration in recent decades has forced ASCR to focus increasingly on that aspect of the business. ASCR is “the leading trade association for cleaning and restoration professionals worldwide, and the foremost authority, trainer and educator in the industry. ASCR is a professional association comprising more than 1,300 member organizations, representing over 20,000 cleaning and restoration professionals who specialize in the cleaning, treatment and repair of damaged buildings and their contents.” ASCR publishes Cleaning & Restoration magazine.
• Bioneers (Slogan: “Visionary and practical solutions for restoring the Earth.”) 901 West San Mateo Rd., Suite L, Santa Fe, NM 87505; Tel: (505) 986-0366, Toll-free: (877) 246-6337, Fax: (505) 986-1644 [www.bioneers.org]. The Bioneers use the term “restoration” copiously, but their conferences and publications focus primarily on sustainability, human health, and spirituality. The “restorative” content is a mélange of green business, sustainable development, organic farming, and other activities that will passively restore the planet, not active restoration. However, interesting restorative technologies sometimes appear at their annual conference, and they work to actively restore heritage species of food crops, such as Iroquois White Corn. They even have a “Restorative Development Initiative (RDI),” and Bioneers’ founder Kenny Ausubel can take credit for coining “restorative development” in the early ‘90s, though his usage is, again, mostly focused on agriculture. This book is re-coining “restorative development” as restoration (passive and active) of all aspects of the built and natural environments.
• Congress for the New Urbanism The Hearst Building, 5 Third St., Suite 725, San Francisco, CA 94103; Tel: (415) 495-2255, Fax: (415) 495-1731 [www.cnu.org]. “New Urbanism is an urban design movement that burst onto the scene in the late 1980s and early 1990s. New Urbanists aim to reform all aspects of real estate development.” Here are a few selections from CNU’s “Principles of New Urbanism”: “The metropolitan region is a fundamental economic unit of the 323contemporary world. . . Farmland and nature are as important to the metropolis as the garden is to the house. . . Infill development within existing urban areas conserves environmental resources, economic investment, and social fabric, while reclaiming marginal and abandoned areas… renewal of historic buildings, districts, and landscapes affirm the continuity and evolution of urban society.”
• Cultural Survival 215 Prospect St., Cambridge, MA 02139; Tel: (617) 441-5400 [www.cs.org]. CS has been working hard, with very limited funds, for over three decades to preserve and restore threatened (mostly indigenous) human cultures, including their languages, customs, rights, and land. For example, the theme of Cultural Survival Quarterly (Vol. 25, No. 2) was “language revitalization programs.”
• Ducks Unlimited (USA) One Waterfowl Way, Memphis, TN 38120; Toll-free: (800) 45-DUCKS, Tel: (901)758-3825 [www.ducks.org]. With more than one million supporters, hunting-oriented Ducks Unlimited is the world’s largest wetland and waterfowl restoration and conservation group. For instance, Ducks Unlimited Canada [www.ducks.ca] boasts over 1,400 habitat rehabilitation projects. In an example of partnering between restoration groups, a 2002 press release stated, “Representatives of the Ontario Great Lakes Renewal Foundation (OGLRF) and Ducks Unlimited Canada (DUC) announced an unparalleled $2 million funding agreement today based on their mutual recognition of the urgent need to restore degraded habitats in Areas of Concern around the Great Lakes.”
• Mangrove Replenishment Initiative P.O. Box 510312, Melbourne Beach, FL 32951 [www.mangrove.org]. A small restoration initiative that “began as a local project along the central east coast of Florida; however, in the last few years it has contributed to a wide range of habitat creation and restoration programs that are international in scope.” It is included here as an example of the myriad tiny restoration organizations that are emerging from the passion and vision of single individuals.
• National Brownfield Association 5440 N. Cumberland Ave., Suite 238, Chicago, IL 60656; Tel: (773) 714-0407, Fax: (773) 714-0989 [www.brownfieldassociation.org]. As with everything else in the brownfields restoration industry, the not-for-profit National Brownfield Association is quite new, having been formed in 1999. Their members come from both the public and pirvate sector, and they publish the bimonthly Brownfield News.
• 324National Trust for Historic Preservation 1785 Massachusetts Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20036; Tel: (202) 588-6000 [www.nationaltrust.org]. This is the U.S. organization for the restoration of historic structures. Mostly focusing on buildings, “The National Trust for Historic Preservation provides leadership, education and advocacy to save America’s diverse historic places and revitalize our communities.” Most other countries—not just large ones—have their own national trusts. Some are very similar to the U.S. organization in structure and mission, while others differ significantly. In the United Kingdom, the premiere organization is the National Trust [www.nationaltrust.org.uk], but Scotland and Ireland each have several of their own, such as the National Trust of Scotland [www.nts.org.uk] and An Taisce, the National Trust for Ireland. The latter, An Taisce, is unusual in that, although it restores historic buildings and districts, the natural environment takes first priority.
• The Nature Conservancy (TNC) 4245 North Fairfax Dr., Suite 100, Arlington, VA 22203-1606; Tel: (800) 628-6860 [www.tnc.orgor www.nature.org]. TNC probably performs more ecological restoration (including estuary, wetland, littoral, watershed, and more) annually than any other NGO on the planet. Its expertise in creating collaborative, innovative solutions positions TNC nicely to move into integrated restoration, should it ever wish to expand its mission into the built environment. Beautiful quarterly magazine.
• Orion Society 187 Main St., Great Barrington, MA 01230; Tel: (413) 528-4422, Toll free: (888) 909-6568, Fax: (413) 528-0676 [www.orionsociety.org]. A nontechnical, often philosophical lay forum in two forms:
  • Orion: A literary exploration of the more subjective side of restorative development, conservation, sustainable development, and living on the Earth.
  • Orion Afield: A practical, knowledge-based publication, with a greater emphasis on restoration than its more “artsy” sister magazine.
• Restore America’s Estuaries 3801 N. Fairfax Dr., Suite 53, Arlington, VA 22203; Tel: (703) 524-0248, Fax: (703) 524-0287 [www.estuaries.org]. An alliance of regional, coastal community-based environmental organizations. “Our mission is to preserve the nation’s network of estuaries by protecting and restoring the lands and waters essential to the richness and diversity of coastal life.”
• 325Society for Ecological Restoration 1955 West Grant Rd., #150, Tucson, AZ 85745; Tel: (520) 622-5485, Fax: (520) 622-5491 [www.ser.org]. SER, although still young and small, is fast becoming one of the twenty-first century’s most essential scientific societies. Its annual conference is a must-attend event. The conference is endlessly fascinating; as much for the diversity, passion, and professionalism of the presenters and attendees as for the presentations. The conference is also a great way to quickly get “up-to-speed” on environmental restoration, even if you have no background in ecology or biology. Two publications are available in conjunction with membership, though neither is published by SER:
  • Restoration Ecology: The Journal of the Society for Ecological Restoration Blackwell Science, Commerce Place, 350 Main St., Malden, MA 02148 [www.blackwellscience.com/rec] (subscription requests should go through SER). This quarterly peer-reviewed scientific and technical journal comes from a leading commercial journal publisher. SER members get a significant discount.
  • Ecological Restoration 1930 Monroe St., 3rd Floor, Madison, WI 53711-2059 [www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/journals2.html]. This quarterly is a publication of the University of Wisconsin Arboretum, and is more accessible to lay readers than is Restoration Ecology. Some of the more technical articles are peer-reviewed, but most are selected by editor Dave Egan, who does a superb job. Contents include “progress reports on current restoration projects, topical and regional reviews of restoration activities, philosophical discourses on environmental ethics, descriptions of new restoration techniques, reviews of conferences and books, op-ed pieces, and letters from readers.”
• The Wildlands Project (Slogan: “Restore, reconnect, rewild.”) P.O. Box 455, Richmond, VT 05477; Tel: (802) 434-4077, Fax: (802) 434-5980 [www.twp.org or www.wildlandsproject.org]. The Wild-lands Project has been described earlier in this book. The project publishes Wild Earth, an excellent nontechnical magazine that explores the ethical, aesthetic, sociological, and strategic aspects of ecological restoration.
• The Trust for Public Land 116 New Montgomery St., 4th floor, San Francisco, CA 94105; Tel: (800) 714-LAND [www.tpl.org]. This well-funded, surprisingly low-profile organization is often a key player in restorative development. Like The Nature Conservancy 326(TNC), TPL’s primary focus is purchasing land. Unlike TNC, the properties are chosen for their value to humans (rather than wildlife), and ownership is always turned over to communities and public agencies. TPL’s role is to facilitate acquisition, often buying land when it becomes available, and holding it in trust until communities have time to raise the funds. “Founded in 1972, the Trust for Public Land is the only national nonprofit working exclusively to protect land for human enjoyment and well-being. TPL helps conserve land for recreation and spiritual nourishment and to improve the health and quality of life of American communities.” Its projects range from historic brownfields—such as its new Santa Fe, New Mexico, Railyard Park and Plaza—to disaster reconstruction sites. An example of the latter is Walton’s Walk park in Ft. Walton Beach, Florida, where a fishing pier and commercial property, destroyed by a hurricane, are being redeveloped into a community park, in a region with precious few public waterfronts.
• Urban Land Institute 1025 Thomas Jefferson St., NW Suite 500 West, Washington, DC 20007; Tel: (202) 624-7000, Toll-free: (800) 321-5011, Fax: (202) 624-7140 [www.uli.org]. ULI is a unique, constantly surprising organization. It was “founded in 1936, when many American cities were experiencing both suburban expansion and urban decay, with limited public sector planning and no guidance available to the private sector. No organization existed in the country to research, analyze, or encourage responsible patterns for long-term urban growth, or to conduct inquiries into what constitutes sound real estate development projects and practices.” I call ULI “surprising” because real estate developers—especially now, at the endpoint of new development’s dominance—are often seen by the public (not without justification) as the “bad guys.” ULI, especially as represented by its wonderful magazine, Urban Land, is at the forefront of restorative development. Urban Land articles about restorative development usually outnumber those dealing with new development by 2:1. But, as with many organizations born of new development, few ULI members have formally recognized this shift. It emerged from adaptive evolution—not revolution—because ULI’s core members deal daily with the Three Global Crises: Constraint, Corrosion, and Contamination. ULI has over 15,000 members in 52 countries.
• The Wetlands Conservancy P.O. Box 1195, Tualatin, OR 97065; Tel: (503) 691-1394, Fax: (503) 885-1084 [www.wetlandsconservancy.org]. 327This is an Oregon-only organization, included here for two purposes: (1) as an example of an excellent regional NGO, and (2) because it published (in 2001) Heroic Tales of Wetland Restoration, a book which “tells of 12 rural landowners, who changed their farming practices to reclaim wetlands, streams and rivers.”
• World Monuments Fund 95 Madison Ave., 9th floor, New York, NY 10016; Tel: (646) 424-9594, Fax: (646) 424-9593 [www.wmf.org]. A private, nonprofit organization devoted to onsite restoration and conservation of monuments and heritage sites worldwide. Publishes an annual list of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

THE BASIC THREE MEMBERSHIPS

For newcomers wishing to gain a well-rounded orientation to—and a broad spectrum of networking connections within—the Restoration Economy, I recommend joining—at minimum—these three organizations:

• The Society for Ecological Restoration for issues related to restoring the natural environment.
• The National Trust for Historic Preservation (or the local equivalent if you’re not in the United States) for issues related to restoring heritage.
• The Urban Land Institute for issues related to metropolitan redevelopment, including the restoration of infrastructure, brownfields, historic sites, watersheds, wetlands, and economies.

CONFERENCES AND TRADE SHOWS

• Brownfields 2003 (name updated annually) This is the premiere U.S. event in the brownfields industry, cosponsored and founded by the Engineers’ Society of Western Pennsylvania. At the first conference, in 1996, 400 attendees were planned for, but 700 arrived. One thousand attended in 1997, 2,000 in 1998, 2,300 in 1999, and 3,073 in 2000. The conference was on track to break 4,000 in 2001, but it was just days after 9/11, so only 2,000 showed.
• Restoration and Renovation Exhibition and Conference Restore Media, LLC, 1000 Potomac St. N.W., Washington, DC 20007; Tel: (800) 982-6247 [www.restorationandrenovation.com]. Focuses primarily on historic restoration and adaptive reuse of residential and commercial buildings, with some art-, antique-, and museum-related restoration, and increasingly has sessions 328dealing with community-level issues. Currently offering 60 seminars and 300 exhibitors, this show has a lot of growth potential, especially if expanded into other restorative industries.
• RTM Communications, Inc. 110 N. Royal St., Alexandria, VA 22314; Tel: (800) 966-7475 [www.RTMcomm.com]. RTM produces three annual conferences on brownfields, focused heavily on risk management. Its 2002 conference in Washington, DC, was titled “Contaminated Property Transactions—Converting Ruins to Rubies.” It also has publications and research services related to the insurance and financing aspects of contaminated property redevelopment.
• Inaugural National Conference on Coastal and Estuarine Habitat Restoration April 13-16, 2003, Baltimore, MD; Tel: (703) 524-0248 [www.estuaries.org]. Many new restoration-oriented conferences are emerging, focused on fast-growing activities that have never before had their own national or international events. This first-time-ever conference is a good example. It should be a well-integrated meeting: it’s sponsored by Restore America’s Estuaries, along with some two dozen federal and state agencies and other NGOs.

COMMERCIAL MAGAZINES

• Engineering News Record [www.enr.com] McGraw-Hill’s weekly news bible of the engineering world isn’t about restoration, but it’s hard to find an issue without a major wetlands, river, infrastructure, heritage, or building restoration project.
• Environmental Business Journal 4452 Park Blvd., Suite 306, San Diego, CA 92116; Tel: (619) 295-7685 [www.ebiusa.com]. Not overtly focused on restoration, this pricey ($495/year) “insider”-style journal (primarily for consulting engineers) reports on industry trends—plus the business ups and downs of key players—in fields such as brownfields remediation, water infrastructure (including integrated watershed management), solid waste, energy, etc.
• Land and Water: The Magazine of Natural Resource Management and Restoration Land and Water, Inc., 918B First Avenue South, P.O. Box 1197, Fort Dodge, IA 50501-9925; Tel: (515) 576-3191 [www.landandwater.com]. Described earlier in this book, Land & 329Water’s readers are property owners, environmental engineers, and contractors. Its focus has been shifting from new development to restorative development for two decades, thanks to the explosive growth of mitigation, the increasing use of constructed wetlands to treat stormwater runoff, river and stream restoration, etc.
• Old House Journal, Clem Labine’s Traditional Building, and Period Homes Restore Media, LLC, 1000 Potomac St. N.W., Washington, DC 20007; Tel.: (202) 339-0744. Restore Media, LLC was formed in 2000 to develop a media company serving the fields of building renovation and restoration. In less than two years, they acquired the Restoration & Renovation Exhibition and Conference (see above), as well as three magazines: Old House Journal [www.oldhousejournal.com], Clem Labine’s Traditional Building [www.traditional-building.com] and Clem Labine’s Period Homes [www.period-homes.com] magazines. They also publish The Restoration Journal, a buyer’s guide to product and service providers.
• Restoration Economy Leader [www.restorability.com] Storm Cunningham’s newsletter is the source of news and insight for leaders of organizations and communities desiring economic growth via restorative development. It covers the latest trends, new companies/associations/agencies/projects, success stories, profiles of leading firms, and an international calendar of events. Each issue has an in-depth feature article that is an advance peek at material from Storm’s next book, giving subscribers a significant head start on the rest of the world. Free sample issue.

A NOTE TO ORGANIZATIONS, PUBLICATIONS, AND EVENTS NOT INCLUDED IN RESOURCE GUIDE

My apologies! Please go to www.integratedrestoration.org and list your nonprofit organization in the online database. The Alliance for Integrated Restoration (AIR) has been formed to help communities and nonprofits locate resources, projects, and partners, so your free listing can serve to both offer and recruit resources. A donation will eventually be requested to list for-profit firms. AIR’s online resource guide should be considered a constantly expanded and updated version of this rudimentary print version.