Large-Scale Process-Based Restoration: Lessons from Bois d’Arc and the Klamath River
Mike Sachs
Matthew Johnson
RES
Pittsburgh, PA
This presentation provides an update on the challenges, performance, and broader implications of two large restoration efforts: the Bois d’Arc project and the Klamath River restoration. While different in context and scale, both projects reflect the increasing complexity of implementing process based restoration in dynamic and varying environments.
At Bois d’Arc, restoration was integrated within an actively managed landscape, requiring coordination between engineering, construction, and ecological objectives across large and variable site conditions. Key challenges included maintaining design consistency through construction, managing hydrologic connectivity, and sequencing work at scale. Long term performance highlights the importance of floodplain engagement, vegetation establishment, and constructability in achieving stable and functional outcomes.
The Klamath project reflects a system scale transition toward a process driven river corridor following dam removal. Challenges center on managing uncertainty in sediment transport, channel evolution, and ecological response in a rapidly adjusting system. Initial observations show both expected and emergent behaviors, reinforcing the need for adaptive management and performance based evaluation rather than reliance on fixed design conditions.
Together, these projects show that traditional restoration metrics, particularly those based on linear footage, do not fully capture cost, performance, or ecological lift at larger scales. They highlight the importance of aligning design intent with system processes, incorporating flexibility into implementation, and using metrics that reflect restoration intensity and long term function.
About Michael Sachs
Mike Sachs serves as Vice President of Mitigation Banking at RES, where he leads the company’s mitigation banking business and guides the delivery of large scale ecological restoration projects across the country. Throughout his career at RES, Mike has helped expand and diversify the business through compensatory mitigation, water quality restoration, innovative project delivery, and mine reclamation.
Mike values building strong teams and working alongside dedicated professionals with diverse technical and operational backgrounds. He believes the best restoration outcomes come from combining sound science, constructability, disciplined execution, and thoughtful long term planning. Mike is proud of RES’ role in some of the industry’s largest and most complex stream and wetland restoration efforts and works with regulators, engineers, scientists, and business leaders on project procurement, implementation, performance evaluation, and conservation and restoration finance. His recent work has focused on restoration scalability, lifecycle project performance, and the relationship between restoration design approaches, risk, and project cost.
About Matthew Johnson
River Restoration Engineer Matthew Johnson’s career is centered around a focus of stream systems. He has a strong background in hydrologic, hydraulic, and sediment modeling used for planning, analysis, and design. He uses this skill set, along with extensive fluvial geomorphic training, to lead watershed and stream restoration projects across the country. He has managed large and complex river restoration projects and served as design lead/project manager on stream restoration projects of significant length and with construction budgets exceeding $12M. Matthew values working collaboratively with passionate professionals to find solutions to challenging and complex problems. Within the intersection of creativity, field experience, and a strong technical foundation is where Matthew truly thrives. He has experience in working on every phase of project development; from grant writing and proposal preparation all the way to final project implementation and close out.