American Fisheries Society Virtual Workshop: Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes

March 2, 2022

Description

This half-day virtual-based workshop will be presented as part of the American Fisheries Society Continuing Education Program at the Colorado/Wyoming annual meeting. The workshop is intended to introduce resource managers, land-owners, and conservation groups to ‘low-tech’ process-based (LTPBR) approaches for restoring streams and their associated riparian areas (riverscapes) to benefit fish and wildlife. People that have some knowledge of LTPBR can also benefit as the instructors will be providing lessons learned from assessing, planning, and implementing dozens of LTPBR projects across a wide variety of geographic settings in multiple states. Participants will learn principles guiding low-tech process-based restoration, become familiar with basic beaver ecology, and different types of low-tech structures, including Beaver Dam Analogues (BDAs) and Post-Assisted Log Structures (PALS). The focus of the workshop will be on the guiding principles, the construction of different low-tech structures, and the impairments the structures can treat. Specific examples related to fish population responses will be presented.

Resources & Course Materials

Because the course will be online, it will be helpful to refer to digital copies of the Design Manual and the Pocket Guide. We encourage workshop participants to review Module 1 of the online resources or Chapter 1 of the Design Manual can be viewed either as videos or pdf documents. We encourage workshop participants to review some of the lecture material before the workshop.

Link to LTPBR Design Manual Link to LTPBR Pocket Guide Link to LTPBR Resources

To sign up, please contact Dan Kowalski, Aquatic Resource Specialist at dan.kowalski@state.co.us; tel. (970) 252-6008

Instruction Team

Agenda

PDF of Agenda

1. Introductions & Agenda

800:00-8:15

Introductions, Agenda, & Goals of Workshop - Steve
Slides: 1. Introductions and Goals

Introductions, Goals, Agenda, and Logistics
Who reviewed Module 1 or read Chapter 1 of the Design Manual?

2. Background and Principles

8:15-8:30

Background and Purpose ( Pocket Guide p.5, Design Manual Ch.1) - Steve
Slides: 2a. Scope of the Problem

Scope of Problem

General degradation; loss and importance of structure (beavers and wood)

Questions/Discussions/Exercises 5-10 mins

8:30-9:00:

Guiding Principles ( Pocket Guide p.1, Design Manual Ch.2) – Steve/Scott
Slides: 2b. LTPBR Riversape Principles
Slides: 2c. LTPBR Restoration Principles

Riverscape Principles - Steve
Restoration Principles - Scott
Questions/Discussions/Exercises 5-15 mins

3. Assessment, Approachs and Implementation

9:00-9:45

Connecting Observations with Goals and Objectives ( Pocket Guide p.7, Design Manual Ch.3) – Scott
Slides: 3a. Planning, Uncertainty and Adaptive Management

Uncertainty - Adaptive Management and Expectation Management
Think about hydrology, geology, sediment supply, confinement, riparian, other
Reading riverscapes - Valley Bottom, Recovery Potential, Risk Assessment
Questions/Discussions/Exercises 10-15 mins

9:45-10:00

Low-tech Approaches & Implementation ( Pocket Guide p.23, Design Manual Ch.4&6) - Steve
Slides: 3b. LTPBR Approaches & Implementation

Low-tech toolbox (beaver mgt, riparian mgt, forestry mgt, structures)

Connect these back to degradation

Questions/Discussions 5 mins

10:00-10:15

–BREAK–

4. Science and Policy

10:15-11:00

Science behind Low-tech process-based restoration (Module 1) – Steve/Scott
Slides: 4a. Supporting Science
Slides: 4b. Where LTPBR Doesn’t Work*

Case-studies of riparian and beaver management, and low-tech structure projects

Where it works – Steve
Where it does not - Scott

Questions/Discussions/Exercises 5-10 mins

11:00-11:15

CO/WY and Engineering Constraints aka FEMA (Module 5C) – Brian
Slides: 4c. CO/WY and Engineering Constraints

Social, permitting, and legal aspects of low-tech design and implementation in CO/WY
Quetions/Discussions/Excercises 5-10 mins

AFS Colorado & Wyoming Virtual Workshop

American Fisheries Society Virtual Workshop: Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration of Riverscapes