Old Intro LTPBR Workshop Materials

Below you can find PDFs of the slides we covered in the intro to low-tech process-based restoration workshops for 2019. Each is licensed with a Creative Commons licence, so you are free to re-use subject to the terms of the license. NOTE: These were superseded in 2020 by the free virtual workshop materials:

FREE! LTPBR Workshop Modules and Self-Paced Resources

Day 1 - Intro to Low-Tech Process Based Restoration

1. Logistics and Introductions

The workshop kicks off with some introductions and logistics.

2. Background and purpose

Next, we set the stage for why we’re here, underscore the scope of degradation, and lay out a vision for what is possible.

These talks are elaborated in Chapter 1 of design manual.

3. Build your first Beaver Dam Analogue exercise

To break the ice, and get people thinking about construction, logistics and safety we went out in the parking lot to build a BDA. Participants follow a simple wicker weave recipe.

This exercise is elaborated in the Pocket Guide.

4. Introduction to low-tech approaches

Having conquer the parking lot, we work through the diversity of low-tech approaches and structure types.

This talk is elaborated in Chapter 1 & Chapter 4 of design manual.

5. Guiding Principles

Perhaps the most important aspect to understand about low-tech process-based restoration: the underlying principles:

This talk is elaborated in Chapter 2 of design manual.

Day 2 - Planning and Designing Low-Tech Riparian Restoration

6. Beaver Ecology

In order to take advantage of beaver dam activity (one of the two key process we focus on in low-tech process-based restoration of structurally starved systems), we need to understand a bit about beaver ecology and why they build dams in the first place.

This talk is elaborated in Ben Goldfarb’s new award winning book: Eager - The Surprising Secret Life of Beaver and Why they Matter.

7. Conservation Planning Process

We reframe the process of undertaking low-tech restoration within the NRCS’s Conservation Planning Process. Among the key adaptations of the Conservation Planning Process are learning how to read riverscapes.

This talk is elaborated in Chapter 3 of design manual.

8. Planning in Detail

After returning from a field trip where we focused on reading riverscapes and identifying structurally-forced alterations to hydraulic and geomorphic processes, we worked through the planning phase of the CPP in detail with a series of desktop exercises.

This talk is elaborated in Chapter 3 of design manual.

Mimicking and promoting wood accumulation and beaver dam activity

We take a break from some of the exercises to focus on some of the science behind mimicking and promoting wood accumulation and beaver dam activity. Specifically, we focus on two Intensively Monitored Watershed Case Studies that have been the catalysts for low-tech process based restoration.

These talks are elaborated in Chapter 4 of design manual.

9. Case Study: Asotin Creek

We introduce the idea of Intensively Monitored Watershed and shared insights and results from the Asotin Creek IMW in Washington about mimicking and promoting processes of wood accumulation:

10. Case Study: Bridge Creek

The Bridge Creek IMW in Oregon case study is used to show some of the underlying science behind mimicking and promoting processes of beaver dam activity:

Extra Case Study Examples

In some workshops, Nick Weber shares additional examples from Bear Creek and Parish Creek of some BDA projects:

Please also see the resources pages, for more examples of case studies .

11. Design

We walk through the LT-PBR design process to prepare participants for doing their own designs in Day 3 in the field:

This talk is elaborated in Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 of design manual.

Example of Vision

An example from Wychus Creek to elaborate on concepts covered in design talk and show examples of:

  • Vision for Phased Implementation
  • Simple Indicators for Monitoring
  • Concept of Overlapping Complex Zones of Influence

Wychus - Slides

12. Implementation

We covered implementation on Day 3 in the field, but here are some overview slides:

This is based mainly on Chapter 6 of the design manual.

A Rancher’s Story: Reintroducing beaver to bring back perennial flow

Idaho rancher Jay Wilde shared his amazing story

Day 3 - Building Low-Tech Restoration Structures

References

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