News
New California Case Studies
Posted November 16, 2007
The NRRSS California Node has just finished up its final report to its funders and from that present 9 new model stream restoration project case studies: Arroyo Mocho, Baxter Creek, Clarks Creek, Carmel River, Chorro Flats, Clear Creek, Miller Creek, Redwood Creek, and Tassajara Creek
View all NRRSS Example Projects here
Special Issue of Restoration Ecology
Posted November 16, 2007
Our work is now complete, and the final results are now available online in a special section of the September 2007 issue of the journal Restoration Ecology.
River Restoration in the Twenty-First Century: Data and Experiential Knowledge to Inform Future Efforts Margaret Palmer, J. David Allan, Judy Meyer, and Emily S. Bernhardt
Restoring Rivers One Reach at a Time: Results from a Survey of U.S. River Restoration Practitioners Emily S. Bernhardt, Elizabeth B. Sudduth, Margaret A. Palmer, J. David Allan, Judy L. Meyer, Gretchen Alexander, Jennifer Follastad-Shah, Brooke Hassett, Robin Jenkinson, Rebecca Lave, Jeanne Rumps, and Laura Pagano
Freshwater Habitat Restoration Actions in the Pacific Northwest: A Decade’s Investment in Habitat Improvement Stephen L. Katz, Katie Barnas, Ryan Hicks, Jeff Cowen, and Robin Jenkinson
Stream Restoration in the Pacific Northwest: Analysis of Interviews with Project Managers Jeanne M. Rumps, Stephen L. Katz, Katie Barnas, Mark D. Morehead, Robin Jenkinson, Stephen R. Clayton, and Peter Goodwin
Two Decades of River Restoration in California: What Can We Learn? G. M. Kondolf, S. Anderson, R. Lave, L. Pagano, A. Merenlender, and E. S. Bernhardt
Systematic Postproject Appraisals to Maximize Lessons Learned from River Restoration Projects: Case Study of Compound Channel Restoration Projects in Northern California Mark R. Tompkins and G. M. Kondolf
River Enhancement in the Upper Mississippi River Basin: Approaches Based on River Uses, Alterations, and Management Agencies T. Kevin O’Donnell and David L. Galat
River and Riparian Restoration in the Southwest: Results of the National River Restoration Science Synthesis Project Jennifer J. Follstad Shah, Clifford N. Dahm, Steven P. Gloss, and Emily S. Bernhardt
Evaluating Stream Restoration in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed through Practitioner Interviews Brooke A. Hassett, Margaret A. Palmer, and Emily S. Bernhardt
Stream Restoration Practices in the Southeastern United States Elizabeth B. Sudduth, Judy L. Meyer, and Emily S. Bernhardt
River Restoration in Victoria, Australia: Change is in the Wind, and None too Soon Shane S. Brooks and P. Sam Lake
The ending of the NRRSS Project
Posted June 20, 2007
The end of the NRRSS project will be official as of the printing of our articles in the September special issue of Restoration Ecology. The project had discrete goals and a finite period of funding. While we are continually asked if the NRRSS database will be updated, that was never our intention. We set out to obtain a representative sample of restoration project records and interviews that would allow us to characterize the current state of river restoration in the nation and that is what we accomplished. We do believe that updating the database would be useful and have in fact advocated that national funding be allocated for such an effort (Palmer & Allan 2006); however, as of this writing we have seen no evidence that this is likely to happen. It is our hope therefore that a project such as ours will be undertaken at least every decade and that a plan to strategically monitor restoration projects be implemented. The field of stream restoration will advance not only by keeping track of the trends in and effectiveness of restoration practices, but also by determining if practitioners are learning from past efforts and if not, work to rectify the situation.
Results from interviews on restoration projects coming out
Posted June 20, 2007
During 2006, the NRRSS project team completed the data analysis of 317 interviews with different restoration practitioners and project managers from around the country. The interviews were completed using a detailed, calibrated interview protocol on project designs, implementation and project outcomes. The movitation was to obtain more information tha we were able to obtain from written project records (see previous publications such as Bernhardt et al. 2005). The results of interviews for the midwestern U.S. are in Alexander and Allan (2006 and 2007) and the results for the rest of the country, including a national level synthesis of the interview results will appear in a special issue of the journal Restoration Ecology coming out in September 2007.
Here we post excerpts from an introductory article to this special issue that provides information on the contents and focus of each article in the forthcoming issue Restoration Ecology as well as an excerpt from an article summarizing the national-level interview results.
Updates to Restoring Rivers.org
Posted March 3, 2006
There have been two recent updates of to Restoring Rivers.org. The first is a short explanatory essay of the form and function of the NRRSS database hosted at NBII. We hope that this will make the database a little less mysterious. The second is the posting of the final report on the Central US Node. The next two months will see the site expand quite a bit, so please check back regularly!
Supreme Court Prepared to Hear Challenges to the Clean Water Act
Posted February 21, 2006
From the New York Times:
More than half of the nation's streams and wetlands could be removed from the protections of the federal Clean Water Act if two legal challenges started more than a decade ago by two Michigan developers are supported by a majority of the newly remade Supreme Court.
Read More on this case which could have massive environamental repercussions across the entire country.
June Short Course
Posted February 20, 2006
The Ecological and Geomorphic Principles of Stream Restoration
June 12-16, 2006
This five-day introductory course at Cromwell Valley Park in Baltimore County presents the ecological and geomorphological foundations of stream restoration, emphasizing their application in restoration practice. The course focuses on understanding and measurement of ecological and geomorphic processes and their application within an integrated approach to stream restoration. The course is designed for anyone that deals with rivers and streams and who can benefit from a more in-depth understanding of how they work - engineers, geologists, biologists, planners, land managers, landscape architects, and government officials. The number of participants is limited to 25 to provide ample opportunities for one-on-one instruction. The 2005 course closed out and included graduate students and professionals from the Mid-Atlantic and West Coast. The course may be taken for graduate credit ($2,286) or as a non-credit workshop ($1500). All course materials and most meals are provided. Hotels are nearby for out-of-town participants.
Click here for information on registration
Primary Instructors
Margaret Palmer - University of Maryland Peter Wilcock - Johns Hopkins University Sean Smith - MD Dept. of Natural Resources Jack Schmidt - Utah State UniversityA New Policy Paper
Margaret Palmer and J. David Allan write the first major policy paper to come out of the NRRSS project. Please read Policy Recommendations to Enhance Effectiveness of River Restoration, which was published in National Academy of Science Journal: Issues in Science and Technology, Winter 2006.
A New Dynamic Stream Restoration Bibliography
January 9th, 2006
The Water Quality Information Center at the National Agricultural Library has created an impressive new tool, a dynamic bibliography on stream restoration. The tool is broken into a large number of sub-settings, and runs quite well. The creators have also included a general explanation of the bibliography, its function, and the design philosophy that drove their development process.
NRRSS Database Goes Public!
December 15th, 2005
The NRRSS Summary Database is a representative database of stream restoration projects throughout the country, with focus on seven geographic regions--California, Chesapeake Bay, Central US, Pacific Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, and Upper Midwest. These data were collected from a variety of electronic, paper, and human sources from 2002 to 2004. Information from this database has been summarized in Bernhardt et al 2005 (link) as well as published and forthcoming regional summaries. As of December 15, 2005, the information in this database is now freely searchable, downloadable, and usable by members of the public.
Welcome to restoringrivers.org
December 15th, 2005
RestoringRivers.org is a website devoted to the science of stream restoration. It represents the combined efforts of the National River Restoration Science Synthesis (NRRSS)--an international group of ecologists, engineers, and geomorphologists--together with the non-profit river advocacy group American Rivers. Come here to find information about the results of NRRSS, including regional and state summaries, case studies, and publications, as well as future information on the science and policy of stream restoration.
Silent Streams
December 15th, 2005
An excellent 5-page story from the Washington Post Magazine that gives an overview of stream interconnectedness, citizen action, and restoration, all tied to a single anecdote about a tributary of the Potomac, Donaldson Run.
Article in Science
May 20, 2005
Read our article Synthesizing U.S. River Restoration Efforts in the April 29, 2005 issue of Science, and the supporting online material (or download a version of the paper with supporting online material included).
To view the Science article, please go to Emily Bernhardt's webpage, and click on the link there (Number 2 under "Representative Publications").
NRRSS on NPR's Morning Edition
April 29, 2005
Listen to the story about NRRSS on NPR's Morning Edition.
NRRSS Standard Paper in Journal of Applied Ecology
April 19, 2005
Read our paper Standards for ecologically successful river restoration published April 2005 in Journal of Applied Ecology. Press release for this paper. Read the editor's introduction to the special issue on ecological standards for stream restoration.