Stream Restoration and Environmental Justice: Confluence or Countercurrent?
Sharon Moran, PhD
SUNY - Environmental Science and Forestry
Syracuse, NY
Kathy Hoverman, PE
RES
Richmond, VA
Authors: Sharon Moran and Kathy Hoverman
This session explores how the goal of environmental justice, increasing present in public discourse, can help to reinforce the goals of stream restoration projects – or alternatively, threaten them.
Environmental justice requires attention to disparities: a focus on those who get less protection under the law and fewer environmental amenities, and especially the institutional and social processes that give rise to these outcomes. However, the goals of increasing environmental equity may actually engender hostility: at a time when accomplishments of the civil rights movement seem to be under attack, the number of hate crimes reported has been rising, and divisive rhetoric has been tolerated, even at the national level, it is worth exploring the ways that this goal of environmental justice is being realized, specifically in the case of projects to restore watersheds and especially stream.
In this session, we plan to discuss: the ways the goal of environmental justice has come about and for whom, how it has (and has not) interfaced with stream restoration initiatives to dates, the ways that the project structure (and selection process) may mediate against restorations in minority communities, and how that might be addressed, highlighting some novel ways that restoration projects have been developed and implemented. The discussion will include key literature as well as examples from practice.
About Sharon Moran
Coming Soon
About Kathy Hoverman
Kathy has been combing her engineering and ecology knowledge for 21 years to restore rivers along the east coast and upper mid-west. Her favorite type of river restoration involves dam removal which is her focus with her recent move to RES. Kathy was featured in the World Fish Migration Foundation’s 2019 documentary Love Flows and is a recent Fellow of the Virginia Natural Resources Leadership Institute. These experiences and others have highlighted the need to ensure all communities are included in the benefits of stream restoration. Kathy is a former professional soccer player, an avid adventure racer, mom, and wife who strives to share her love of water and all things outdoors with everyone.