2. Principles

Chapter 2: Principles of Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration

The second chapter covers the underlying principles necessary to understand low-tech process-based restoration.

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Riverscapes Principles

Restoration Principles

Implications for Practice

  • Low-tech process-based restoration principles are critical to understand as both the basis for effectively applying low-tech restoration treatments and managing expectations about timing and magnitude of outcomes.
  • We propose and synthesize principles that help practitioners tackle low-tech process-based restoration of structurally-starved riverscapes. Many of these principles likely apply to a greater range of riverscapes, but we do not cover those applications here.

  • We break our guiding principles into:
    • Riverscapes Principles - those that represent an understanding of what constitutes healthy riverscapes to help define what restoration should be aiming for; and
    • Restoration Principles – those that influence the choices and approach we take in planning, designing and implementing low-tech restoration
  • Since we focus on structurally-starved riverscapes, low-tech restoration that mimics and promotes the processes of wood accumulation and beaver dam activity specifically emerge out of these principles.

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