6/08/2017  |   11:00 - 11:15   |  302A

WHY ARE SUCCESS CRITERIA IN STREAM MITIGATION BANKING ALMOST EXCLUSIVELY GEOMORPHIC? At present, it is very rare for U.S. Army Corps Districts to require in-stream biological success criteria for stream mitigation projects. In this presentation, I draw on data from NSF-funded social and physical science research conducted between 2009 and 2015 to explain this surprising deviation from the core focus of the Clean Water Act. I argue that the primary drivers of regulators’ almost exclusive focus on physical success criteria include concerns about upstream influences on biota and water chemistry, lack of baseline data for evaluating changes in biological diversity and abundance, and the absence of established, very rapid assessment methods for evaluating the biological and chemical impacts of stream restoration. I will address national trends in stream mitigation banking, but focus primarily on North Carolina, a hot spot for mitigation banking and for stream restoration more broadly.

Rebecca Lave (Primary Presenter/Author), Indiana University, rlave@indiana.edu;


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6/08/2017  |   11:15 - 11:30   |  302A

DESIGNING AND ASSESSING STREAMS TO ULTIMATELY ENSURE BIOLOGICAL SUCCESS Successful stream creation or restoration consists of properly defining desired system attributes, classifying the system type, and establishing restoration goals. One must first establish expectations via historical data or reference sites and identify physical, chemical, and/or biological stressors affecting the stream. Next, one must mitigate the stressors and re-establish key ecosystem attributes to provide for a functioning ecosystem. Finally, one must show that the efforts were successful by conducting effective habitat and biological assessments. This presentation provides overviews of the Stream Continuum Concept, stream community types and attributes, restoration building blocks, Kiefer’s stream morphology, water quality stressor identification methods, aquatic habitat assessment methods, and post-project biological monitoring using Stream Condition Index and BioRecon methods. Recommendations are provided, such as conducting annual biological monitoring until success criteria area achieved, as well as examples involving Florida stream creation associated with mining activities.

Russel Frydenborg (Primary Presenter/Author), Frydenborg EcoLogic, russ@frecologic.com;


Beck Frydenborg ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Frydenborg Ecologic, LLC, beck@frecologic.com;


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6/08/2017  |   11:30 - 11:45   |  302A

CHUTES AND LADDERS: RECOVERY OF THE BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE COMMUNITY FOLLOWING RESTORATION OF AN IMPOUNDED STEEPHEAD SPRING RUN IN NORTHERN FLORIDA Long-term biomonitoring was conducted in conjunction with dam removal and restoration of a spring-fed headwater stream located in sand hill, steephead habitat in the Apalachicola River basin in the Florida panhandle (Liberty County). Kelley Branch, a third-order stream draining steephead ravines, was impounded with an earthen dam in the 1950s. Beginning in 2006, The Nature Conservancy oversaw a project that drew down the impoundment, reconstructed the stream channel and removed the dam/culvert. One pre-restoration bioassessment and several post-restoration assessments of the macroinvertebrate community were carried out by the Florida Department Environmental Protection over a ten-year-period. In addition, university-sponsored research compared the aquatic insect community of Kelley Branch with that of a reference stream. Changes in various biometrics indicated rapid changes to macroinvertebrate community structure and function as restoration efforts returned stream flow, habitat, and other physico-chemical parameters to more natural conditions. Community structure and functionality metrics tracked stream disturbances, including sediment releases and post restoration impoundment by beavers. Lack of riparian forest limits allochthonous energy input and is restricting a recovery of the habitat and biological communities to reference conditions.

Andrew Rasmussen (Primary Presenter/Author), Florida A&M University, andrew.rasmussen@famu.edu;


Rick Abad ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Florida Department of Environmental Protection, rick.abad@dep.state.fl.us;


Donald Ray ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), retired, Florida Department of Environmental Protection, dray02468@yahoo.com;


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6/08/2017  |   11:45 - 12:00   |  302A

EVALUATION OF 20 YEARS OF LAND USE CHANGE ON BENTHIC MACROINVERTEBRATE DIVERSITY AND FUNCTION IN PIEDMONT STREAMS Long-term monitoring data represent a unique resource that can be applied to the management of freshwater ecosystems. We investigated the relationship between land use and stream benthic macroinvertebrate diversity and function by analyzing Mecklenburg County Water Quality Program data from Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. We examined 20 streams whose watersheds span a gradient of rural to urban land use over a 20-year time period. Comparable to other urban stream ecosystems, we quantified decreases in diversity (total, EPT) with increasing % impervious cover (IC) as well as changes in the ecological function. Shredders disappeared in systems with %IC > 15%; however, collector-gatherer, predator, burrower and clinger traits increased with increasing %IC. Diversity and function are further impacted by hydrologic variability due to changes in climate as seen in low %IC streams where EPT richness decreased after 2 droughts that occurred in the Piedmont between 2002 and 2009. This analysis illustrates the need to evaluate bioassessment data in a larger context than simply land use as well as the need to utilize longer term data sets for stream management decisions.

Anthony Roux (Primary Presenter/Author), Mecklenburg County Storm Water Services, Water Quality Program, Charlotte, NC; William States Lee College of Engineering, University of North Carolina Charlotte, Tony.Roux@MecklenburgCountync.gov;


Sandra Clinton, PhD ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of North Carolina at Charlotte, sandra.clinton@charlotte.edu;
This session is being submitted on behalf of the SFS Science and Policy Committee.

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6/08/2017  |   12:00 - 12:15   |  302A

DO STREAM RESTORATION PROJECTS GET BETTER WITH AGE? RESULTS OF LONG TERM MONITORING OF URBAN STREAMBANK STABILIZATION PROJECTS I revisited 4 bioengineered stream bank stabilization sites in the Peachtree Creek watershed in Atlanta, GA, USA previously evaluated in 2002-2003 to evaluate how physical and biological metrics had changed as the restoration sites aged (oldest site was 21 years since restoration). The sites were compared to other sites in the watershed: an unrestored site and a reference site within a nature preserve. Most restoration sites had maintained stabilized, vegetated banks, although the oldest site had suffered erosion of previously stabilized banks. The bank macroinvertebrate communities were generally similar across all 6 sites and similar to previously observed communities, although several new taxa were found in 2014, including Hydroptilidae. As in the previous study, the limited macroinvertebrate community change following restoration suggests that the watershed conditions rather than the local conditions primarily determine the bank macroinvertebrate communities in these urban streams. In both studies, the macroinvertebrates showed a preference for organic habitat, such as wood and roots, habitat which had increased in abundance by 2014. Thus, focusing short term monitoring on this habitat creation could be an effective indicator of future community status.

Elizabeth Sudduth (Primary Presenter/Author), Georgia Gwinnett College, esudduth@ggc.edu;


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6/08/2017  |   12:15 - 12:30   |  302A

PHASED RECOVERY OF MACROINVERTEBRATES FOLLOWING CHANNEL RECONFIGURATION RESTORATION Our understanding of ecological responses to stream restoration involving channel reconfiguration is incomplete. While the goal of many restoration projects is to recover natural macroinvertebrate communities, studies document that channel reconfiguration acts as a disturbance. We proposed that different responses result, in part, from restoration initiating ecosystem development within benthic and riparian zones, which manifests as phased recovery of macroinvertebrate communities. Such temporal variation complicates assessment of restoration success. We compared habitat, canopy cover, periphyton, and macroinvertebrate communities to reference conditions at three sites across three predicted recovery phases- <2, 2 – 15, and >15 years since implementation. Sites showed no significant difference in habitat condition from restored to reference. Sites in the second phase displayed reduced canopy cover (4.6% vs. 67.3%) and greater algal standing crops (73.4 vs. 26.9 mg/m2 as chlorophyll a). Macroinvertebrate communities at reduced canopy sites are characterized by increased percentage of chironomidae and decreased taxa richness, shredder abundance, and biotic index scores. Our results suggest that ecosystem development occurs following restoration and that desired macroinvertebrate response will likely not occur until associated recovery processes stabilize.

Jacob Dyste (Primary Presenter/Author), University of Montana, Systems Ecology, jdyste@gmail.com;


Marc Peipoch ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Stroud Water Research Center, mpeipoch@stroudcenter.org;


H. Maurice Valett ( Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Montana, Division of Biological Sciences, maury.valett@umontana.edu;


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