If You Build It, Do They Come? Biological Monitoring Pre- and Post- Restoration
Bree Stephens
RES
Richmond, VA
In the Mid-Atlantic, the focus of stream restoration is primarily nutrient and sediment load reduction and stabilization. Often, biological monitoring is overlooked because it is not the primary goal of restoration or it is seen as too risky to claim biological uplift because the overall watershed conditions are not being improved. When biological monitoring does occur, it is frequently initiated post-restoration, with comparisons drawn between restoration sites and reference sites. Stream restoration most often occurs in impaired watersheds with overarching water quality and runoff issues; these sites will likely never be able to achieve the biological diversity of reference streams. Comparisons of biological communities pre- and post-restoration made within the project site itself can provide more appropriate success criteria. Creating project-specific goals based on the pre-existing conditions and design features better highlights successes and failures in practices intended to attract or maintain biological communities. Through biological sampling during the existing conditions assessment phase of a project, these site-specific goals can be determined and implemented into design.
RES is conducting a long-term effort of pre- and post-restoration biological monitoring to help define what is achievable in different types of watersheds and with different types of restoration, specifically looking at which design features contribute to biological uplift. Since 2017, we have assessed 31 sites pre-restoration for benthic macroinvertebrates, with fish also being sampled at 18 of those sites. These streams range in design approaches, from rock-heavy flashy urban systems to rural baseflow channels with wide floodplains and woody structures to process-based restoration within the existing alignments. We sample prior to restoration, immediately post-construction before the site has vegetated, and 1+ years post-restoration. While we are still at the beginning stages of data collection, we are already seeing valuable results that will help us predict biological responses to stream restoration. I will present on several divergent sites that represent the types of responses we have been seeing.
About Bree Stephens
As a Designer for RES, Bree Stephens has over 8 years of stream restoration design and environmental science experience. She received a BS in Environmental Science from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, then went on to get her MS in Environmental Studies at the Virginia Commonwealth University. During her Masters, she focused on fisheries biology, working as a research assistant throughout her Master’s education. She interned twice for NOAA, once for the National Marine Sanctuary Program in Washington, DC as a Policy intern and once for the Chesapeake Bay Office in Annapolis, MD working on their dam removal prioritization program. After graduate school, she worked for Dominion Power within their Environmental Policy department before transitioning into their Biology department to do groundwater monitoring and fish surveys. She then moved to Baltimore, MD to work for McCormick Taylor as a stream restoration designer, where she spent 2.5 years doing extensive stream monitoring and existing conditions assessments. Ms. Stephens moved back to Richmond, VA and began working for RES as a Designer, where she has been for the past 3 years. While with RES, she has led the design and field work for several stream restoration projects where she incorporated her knowledge of aquatic biology into her designs. She has also been able to bring in her fisheries biology experience to build a biological monitoring program for RES’s stream restoration projects within the Mid-Atlantic. Outside of work, she enjoys gardening, cooking, sewing, riding bikes, and hiking.