River Restoration
Increasing urban development, threatened aquatic population levels, and ever-tightening budget constraints demand restoration efforts that are well designed and implemented. Stillwater Sciences employs a performance-led approach to process-based restoration planning and implementation that includes:
- Watershed and corridor planning (at various spatial scales and including limiting factor analyses)
- Improving stream network connectivity (including levee setbacks and barrier/dam removal)
- Improving habitat diversity and function (including riparian/wetland revegetation, gravel augmentation, and habitat enhancement)
- Reconstructing channel morphology to achieve ecological goals
- Strategic bed and bank protection
- Monitoring and evaluation with measurable success criteria and adaptive management
We identify the watershed-specific context, the limiting physical and biological conditions, the biological performance criteria, a prioritized suite of measures best suited to restore natural aquatic function, and a monitoring strategy to ensure the long-term achievement of management goals. The result is a recommendation for restoration that is tailored to the specific needs of the watershed and site, taking into account both historical and future conditions (e.g., land use and potential climate change impacts). Capitalizing on the diversity of our expertise and experience, our restoration projects incorporate watershed-scale understanding of the physical and biological context, channel morphology, natural recovery, flow and sediment transport processes, habitat structure and diversity, and the specific needs of critical or endangered species.
