Resources for Volunteer Urban Stream Restoration

Topic

Topic pages summarize knowledge and resources within a subject area

• Anthropogenic Topics
  • Climate Change
  • Infrastructure
    • Aquaculture
    • Energy
    • Flood Management
    • Shoreline Management
    • Transportation
    • Water Management
  • Land Use
    • Agriculture
    • Conservation Lands
    • Forestry
    • Industrial
    • Rural
    • Urban
  • Socioeconomics
• Ecosystem Topics
  • Biology
  • Ecology
  • Geophysics
  • Landform

Salish Sea References

• Watershed Characterization Mapper
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
• PRISM Project Search
• Washington Coastal Atlas
• WDFW's Salmonscape Map

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Many people live in urban areas with damaged streams and want to do things to protect and restore those ecosystems. This page aims to organize information that might be useful for those communities.

Small Stream Ecology

• B-IBI or Benthic Index of Biological Integrity is a method of harvesting and counting invertebrates growing on rocks in streams that can be used to evaluate and compare stream health.
• Vegetation and Revegetation is a starting point for resources related to restoration of native plant communities.
• Fox and Bolton 2007 describes typical amounts of wood found in natural washington state stream channels. Wood is critical for sustaining stream structure and preventing deterioration of stream health.

Restoration Strategy

• Cramer et al 2012 provides a detailed overview of stream habitat restoration.
• Wheaton et al 2019 - describes strategies by which hand crews can restore streams, but focused on arid-land systems.

Urban Degradation

Urban ecosystems suffer from a particular set of impacts that could be described as "urban aquatic habitat syndrome". Failure to address root causes of aquatic ecosystem degradation puts stewardship efforts at risk.

• Coho Mortality from Road Stormwater is a topic important because we have recently discovered that specific chemicals in tire rubber cause high mortality on coho Salmon.
• File:Azous & Horner 1997 wetlands and urbanization.pdf is part of a body of seminal work which describes impacts to urban wetlands caused by increased water level fluctuation.
• Booth et al 2004 is part of a body of work that observed common patters of stream degradation in stormwater-influenced urban streams, including downcutting of stream channels.

Related Efforts and Workgroups

• Thornton Creek Alliance is a community group that has supported and been supported by extensive city efforts to restore Thornton Creek Watershed in North City of Seattle.
• Earthcorps has extensive experience working in small urban creeks and coordinating volunteer efforts.

facts or skills acquired by a person through experience or education.