Adaptive Management of Urban Watersheds
Charles Smith
Fairfax County, VA
Department of Public Works and Environmental Services
Fairfax, VA
Authors:
Charles Smith, Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services
Jennifer Zielinski Missett, Biohabitats
Modern stream restoration is based primarily on 20th century characterizations of water movement, federal and state permit drivers and creation of stable transport systems. The result has often been significant plan form modification to reduce sediment loads and resultant impacts to stream-side forests without any demonstrable improvement to benthic populations. The future of urban stream restoration lies in better resource characterization, communication with stakeholders, restoration solutions that address site conditions, monitoring to determine outcomes and adaptive management to ensure success. This presentation will focus on efforts to work collaboratively between public and private partners as part of the Long Branch Central Watershed Management Area project in Fairfax County Virginia. This projects seeks to assess watershed conditions, engage stakeholders to develop acceptable restoration solutions, establish a monitoring framework to measure outcomes, and implement innovative methods catered to site conditions and use of adaptive management over time to ensure success.
About Charles Smith
Charles Smith is a restoration ecologist with 31 years of experience in natural resource assessment, planning, project implementation and management. He is a Certified Ecological Restoration Practitioner with the Society for Ecological Restoration, a board member of the Virginia Native Plant Society, and serves as an advisor and instructor for the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, Virginia Master Naturalists and Virginia Master Gardeners. Charles is a US Army veteran and native of Virginia. He is currently a Branch Chief with the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services Stormwater Planning Division where he focuses on water quality projects and riparian corridor restoration.
