Pacific

Stream restoration has become a catch-all phrase nationwide to describe all sorts of river management activities including flood and erosion control, habitat enhancement and endangered species recovery, and sediment and nutrient reduction efforts. An understanding of fluvial geomorphology can be helpful in establishing the underlying causes for stream degradation and bank erosion, anticipating how the stream will change over time if no restoration occurs, developing appropriate restoration strategies for the given setting, and foreseeing how streams will respond to a proposed restoration project. In this way, the actual needs for restoration can be documented, restoration projects tailored for a given site, and better restoration outcomes achieved. This course will utilize examples from around the country (and in fact the world) with particular focus on New England, the Pacific Northwest, and the Chesapeake Bay Watershed, but will be of value to all, regardless of location, as the basic principles of fluvial geomorphology and stream restoration to be covered in the course are applicable everywhere.