Introduction to our process-based riverscape restoration workshop.
This three-day workshop is designed to lay the science and practice foundation for what we are calling process-based riverscape restoration (PBRR) using examples from across California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho. Examples will show how practitioners are evolving their approaches to achieve ever greater ecological uplift, while at the same time exploring some potential impediments encountered by these projects that hinder scaling up in a way that is essential for salmon recovery.
The workshop is not a how-to session or a science conference. We have designed the workshop as a structured, logical progression that will take you on a journey of learning and sharing, and in the end, working to find pathways for scaling up riverscape restoration.
Program
Part 1
Diverse examples of process-based riverscape restoration
guided by Chris Jordan
Part 2
Science foundations of process-based riverscape restoration
guided by Emily Fairfax
Part 3
Evolution of thought and practice in process-based riverscape restoration
guided by Emily Fairfax
Part 4
Motivation: data-driven evidence of uplift
guided by Chris Jordan
panel moderated by Ryan Bellmore
Part 5
Motivation: healthy riverscape benefits
guided by Chris Jordan
panel moderated by Greg Addington
Part 6
The pivot moment
guided by Chris Jordan
Day 1:
Day 3:
Part 7
Challenge: collaborative conservation
guided by Irma Lagomarsino
Part 9
Challenge: historic land use
guided by Brian Cluer
Part 10
Challenge: cultural barriers
guided by Harv Forsgren
Part 11
Challenge: the structure of salmon funding
guided by Meta Loftsgaarden
panel moderated by Randi Shaw
Part 12
Challenge: federal regulations
guided by Meta Loftsgaarden
panel moderated by Michelle Nijhuis
Part 13
Workshop wrap-up: the way forward
guided by Meta Loftsgaarden
Keynote speakers: Scott Rumsey, Erika Lovejoy, and Amy Bowers-Cordalis
Introduction
Platform overview, workshop overview
Workshop runs 9am to 5pm pacific time, March 7, 8, and 9. Scroll down for detailed descriptions.
DAY ONE
Part 1
Diverse examples of process-based riverscape restoration
guided by Chris Jordan
Compelling stories of process-based river restoration
We kick off the program with four compelling process-based riverscape restoration stories of stewardship. Though they seem drastically different at first glance, each is a powerful testament to the power of restoring process and function. From a small creek to a raging river, from wild public land to the center of an urban hub, these examples will connect the dots on the concept of “what is a riverscape” and show how process-based riverscape restoration can be deployed anywhere and everywhere.
Part 2
Science foundations of process-based riverscape restoration
guided by Emily Fairfax
The foundation is solid.
In part two, experts in the physical and biological sciences present a series of master classes. We will explore: what the river-wetland corridor network looked like, how it functioned prior to being drained and disconnected, and how biological and physical processes jointly result in functional riverscapes. We bring salmon into the discussion and will dive into the evolutionary legacy that Pacific salmon represent in terms of species and life history diversity. Using the concept of “foodscapes,” we will illustrate the value of intact versus impaired habitat functionality. You will learn how we organize the elements of biological and physical process and functional complexity into “riverscape health.” Finally, we’ll wrap up the science overview with a summary of what process-based restoration looks like and what it means to restore processes in riverscapes.
Part 3
Evolution of thought and practice in process-based riverscape restoration
guided by Emily Fairfax
Evolution in thinking and practice.
With the science foundation laid, we shift back to implementation examples from different settings with different impairments where you will learn the thinking behind the actions. You will learn about restoration planning based on removing ecological constraints and allowing time for physical and biological processes to achieve measurable results, and about completely regrading valleys to restart fundamental deposition processes that allow emergent vegetation to play a large role in shaping the habitat. You will also hear from a group of restoration practitioners in the United States Forest Service (USFS) who evolved their thinking, and the approaches they applied over the course of a multi-phase valley restoration project. We will wrap up this part with a discussion meant to bring out the question, “Why not process-based riverscape restoration?”
DAY TWO
Part 4
Motivation: data-driven evidence of uplift
guided by Ryan Bellmore
What do the data say about process-based riverscape restoration?
Using examples from riverscape restoration projects that are being extensively monitored, we will present their successes as measured by biological and physical scientists. Where it has been documented, riverscapes and their biology respond dramatically in the ways predicted by theory and sometimes, in a surprising, novel manner that highlights the inherent resilience of natural, functioning systems.
Part 5
Motivation: healthy riverscape benefits
guided by Chris Jordan
panel moderated by Greg Addington
Coexisting with healthy, functioning riverscapes has broad societal and ecological benefits.
Healthy riverscapes are necessary for healthy salmon and steelhead populations across the West, but that is not where their value starts and certainly not where it ends. Intact, functioning riverscapes are necessary components of healthy forest and rangeland, of fire-adapted and fire-resilient landscapes, and of culturally critical harvesting lands. We will demonstrate this broad spectrum of values through stories from several restoration projects and conversations with the working lands community, as well as showing the direct connection to salmon recovery planning and actions.
Part 6
The pivot moment
guided by Chris Jordan
Why does process-based riverscape restoration feel like an uphill battle?
Up to this point in the workshop we have heard how solid the physical and biological science and data are supporting riverscape restoration. How the approach rebuilds vibrant, resilient, functioning ecosystems that have intrinsic, societal, and cultural value. Yet, here we are, in a multi-day workshop to explore the barriers, constraints, challenges, and other key considerations to increasing the scope and scale of process-based riverscape restoration. What are these barriers, constraints, challenges, and considerations, where do they come from, and how do we collectively work through them?
Part 7
Challenge: collaborative conservation
guided by Irma Lagomarsino
Can you work with people?
Behind each habitat restoration project we find a diverse array of complex social drivers and settings arising from a group needing to reach shared goals and take collective action. Prominent social scientists Hannah Gosnell and Laura Van Riper will discuss the principles and practices of collaborative conservation in river restoration—focusing on approaches we can integrate into identifying restoration goals and planning and taking joint action—to reduce the risk that our projects will be slowed, significantly altered or abandoned. We’ll then be joined by several of the restoration practitioners whose projects we’ve profiled in our workshop case studies. They’ll share firsthand experiences of how their restoration goals impacted nearby neighbors and communities, the challenges they faced, the lessons they learned, and how they found their way through to success in the end.
Part 8
Challenge: current land use guided by Brian Cluer
Fitting process-based riverscape restoration into an occupied landscape.
Floodplains can occur anywhere in a watershed where valley confinement is relaxed enough for deposition processes to function. The largest floodplains are in lowland areas where most historical floodplain area is urbanized or developed for agriculture. Near the top of watersheds the second most common and second largest floodplain area occurs as mountain meadows. These are typically not arable due to their elevation and short growing season but they are or have been grazed and had their beaver removed long ago. We will explore the benefits, constraints, and opportunities of restoring floodplain functions in agricultural lands, industrial lands, lands at the urban interface, and lands in high mountain meadows.
Part 9
Challenge: historic land use
guided by Brian Cluer
Dealing with ghosts in your riverscape.
Past land use activities present a challenge for process-based riverscape restoration. It can be difficult to identify the source of disturbance, the impacts on the current riverscape, and thus, what a suite of appropriate restoration actions may be. Through interviewing experts in historical ecology and geomorphic reconstructions, we will demonstrate the difficulties, but also the value from a process-based restoration perspective, of developing this understanding.
DAY THREE
Part 10
Challenge: cultural barriers
guided by Harv Forsgren
Complicated work.
Restoring rivers is not for the faint of heart. Multiple agencies—with individual codified rules; planning and funding processes; and standard procedures and practices designed to protect and provide a variety of goods—make the process of riverscape restoration enormously complex. We also find tension between goals to improve riverscape process functions with goals to improve landscape condition (rangeland, forestland) on federal lands which can limit the scale of process-based riverscape restoration projects. On top of these challenges, restoration practitioners regularly face constraints with innovative approaches—even with scientific support—when up against institutional norms or society’s long-held cultural traditions and beliefs. We’ll examine constraints by diving into institutional and cultural challenges associated with restoring floodplains, illuminating these challenges with stories about beaver and wildfire followed by an engaging federal land management panel conversation.
Part 11
Challenge: the structure of salmon funding
guided by Meta Loftsgaarden
panel moderated by Randi Shaw
You need the capital.
Does scant restoration funding really hold back expanding the scale and pace of riverscape restoration? Process-based riverscape restoration projects can have sizable price tags and can take years to implement, but that certainly doesn't make them unique. Are there characteristics of process-based riverscape restoration project design and implementation that generate conflicts with the current model of restoration project evaluation, selection, and funding? This section features a live panel of state funding agency partners to share their experience with soliciting and sponsoring process-based habitat restoration actions..
Part 12
Challenge: federal regulations guided by Meta Loftsgaarden
panel moderated by Michelle Nijhuis
You need permits.
Project implementers need multiple federal, state, and local permits to implement a process-based habitat restoration project. But since science shows that process-based actions help us conserve salmon while providing myriad co-benefits for the public, couldn’t agencies make it easier to get permits? This final section dives into perceptions about federal regulations as constraints to process-based riverscape restoration. We’ll bring together key federal agency representatives in a live panel discussion to share how their agency’s mission and laws support process-based riverscape restoration; describe current streamlined procedures and challenges associated with permitting these types of projects; and ponder potential future regulatory compliance pathways to ease permit compliance.
Part 13
Workshop wrap-up: the way forward
guided by Meta Loftsgaarden
Wrapping up the workshop with inspiration for the way forward.
Closing out our three day journey we will feature key speakers to challenge and inspire our path forward. While the workshop is structured around six broad classes of barriers, constraints, and challenges, it does so in the context of many amazingly successful projects implemented by a dedicated community of practitioners backed by researchers, funders, land owners, and resource managers. Our workshop closing is meant to make you think, give you hope, make you curious, give you pride in your work, but most importantly, to make you want to see and do more process-based riverscape restoration.