Don’t miss February’s Restoration Webinar Series double header coming up in February!
1) Coming Live from the Urban Riparian Symposium in Austin, TX
February 12, 2015
7:30 am – 9:00 am (Pacific Standard Time)
The bio-geo-socio-chemistry of urban riparian zones
Riparian areas are “hotspots” of plant-soil-water-microbial-human interactions in watersheds. Urban land use change has been shown to have dramatic effects on these interactions altering “connections” between streams, riparian zones, upland ecosystems and people. Efforts to restore urban riparian zone need to focus on reestablishing these connections. Geomorphic stream restoration designed to reverse structural degradation can restore biogeochemical functions but also considering the “human element” create positive feedbacks between ecological restoration and human preferences that can be key for achieving specific biological, chemical and social goals in urban and suburban watersheds. In this talk I will highlight results from research on the bio-geo-socio chemistry of urban riparian zones in the National Science Foundation funded Baltimore urban Long Term Ecological Research Project and discuss relevance and applications of this work in more arid regions.
Presented by: Peter M. Groffman, Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Click the link below for more info and registration.
http://nctc.adobeconnect.com/e3l2vq3zk40/event/event_info.html
2) Restoration Webinar Series Regular Schedule
February 18, 2015
11:00 am – 12:00 pm (eastern)
Evaluating restoration effects on age-0 salmon habitat in a large regulated river system in Northern California.
To combat decades of anthropogenic degradation, restoration programs seek to improve ecological conditions through habitat enhancement. Rapid assessments of condition are needed to support adaptive management programs and improve the understanding of restoration effects at a range of spatial and temporal scales. Previous attempts to evaluate restoration practices on large river systems have been hampered by assessment tools that are irreproducible or metrics without clear connections to population responses. We modified a demonstration flow assessment approach to assess the realized changes in habitat quantity and quality attributable to restoration effects. We evaluated the technique’s ability to predict anadromous salmonid habitat and survey reproducibility on the Trinity River in northern California. Fish preference clearly aligned with a priori designations of habitat quality: the odds of observing rearing Chinook Salmon or Coho Salmon within high quality habitats ranged between 10 and 16 times greater than low qualities, and in all cases the highest counts were associated with highest quality habitat. In addition, the technique proved to be reproducible with “substantial” to “almost perfect” agreement of results from independent crews; a considerable improvement over a previous demonstration flow assessment. The technique is now being implemented to assess changes in habitat from restoration efforts at several scales and inform adaptive management decisions.
Presented Damon Goodman, USFWS.
Click the link below for more info and registration.
http://nctc.adobeconnect.com/e99yp4vuqkt/event/event_info.html
Once you register, you will receive information on how to join the webinar.
Note: Captioning Services will be available for this webinar. Please send an e-mail to matthew_patterson@fws.gov if you are interested in captioning services for this webinar.
If you have any questions, please contact myself or Marilyn Williams.
Thanks,
Matthew
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Matthew Patterson
Fish and Wildlife Biologist/Course Leader
National Conservation Training Center
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
698 Conservation Way
Shepherdstown, WV 25443
“If a problem can be solved there is no use worrying about it. If it can’t be solved, worrying will do no good”. The Dalai Lama.