The workshop’s purpose was to help the Chesapeake Bay Program determine if there is sufficient scientific foundation to quantify the beneficial effects of stream protection/restoration on nutrient and sediment processes. It is widely recognized that there is a growing need to better credit stream restoration actions for various purposes, including use in the Chesapeake Bay watershed model. In fact, the existing Chesapeake Bay Program watershed model’s efficiency number for stream restoration is based on a single study site with limited data. Panelists were asked to address questions such as how their research helps to determine a scientific foundation to quantify the beneficial effects of stream protection/restoration on nutrient and sediment processes, to provide specific recommendations for efficiencies for stream restoration practices, and if the consensus is that there is insufficient science for a specific efficiency recommendation, is there a surrogate (interim) efficiency that could be used? If not, then what research or analysis would be needed to obtain this information? Three stream restoration sub-topics were addressed during the workshop through a series of expert panel presentations and group discussion: urban stream systems, sediments, and nutrients. The information resulting from this workshop will be used in the Chesapeake Bay Program (CBP) effort to model and track nutrient and sediment reductions from BMPs, e.g., rural stream restoration and protection.

Return to the STAC Workshop Webpage

Quanitifying the Role of Stream Restoration in Achieving Nutrient and Sediment Reductions Workshop Presentations

Opening Remarks     Margaret Palmer, UMD Center for Environmental Science Stream Restoration to Acheive Nutrient and Sediment Reductions Panel 1 - Nutrients in Stream Systems: Quantifying Reductions Achieved Through Stream Restoaration Practices     Greg Noe and Jud Harvey, U.S. Geological Survey Nutrient Retention and Transport in Stream-riparian Corridors     Lary Band, University of North Carolina Measuring and Mapping the Magnitude and Timing of Nitrogen Export from Urbanizing Catchments: Implications for Restoration    Daniel Galeone, U.S. Geological Survey Streambank Fencing Project: Mill Creek Basin, Lancaster, Pennsylvania Panel 2 - Sediments in Stream Systems: Quantifying REductions Achieved Through Stream Restoration Practices    Dorothy Merritts and Robert Walter, Franklin and Marshall College Erosion Rates and Nutrient Loads from Stream Corridors in Pennsylvania's Chesapeake Bay Watershed    Jim Pizzuto, University of Delaware On the Effectiveness of Stream Restoration to Reduce Sediment Loading from Watersheds    Peter Wilcock, Johns Hopkins University Streambank Stabilization: Problem or Solution? Panel 3 - Urban Systems: Quantifying Outcomes of Urban Stream Restoration    Paul Mayer, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and Ed Doheny, U.S. Geological Survey Geomorphic Controls on Carbon and Nitrogen Processing in a Restored Urban Stream    Elise Striz, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Effects of Hydrology on Nitrogen Processing in a Restored Urban System    Peter Groffman, Institute of Ecosystem Studies Baltimore Ecosystem Study    Sujay Kaushal, UMD Center for Environmental Science Effects of Stream Restoration on Denitrification of an Urbanizing Watershed of the Mid-Atlantic United States