The practice of restoring rivers and streams has evolved much in recent decades.  Restoration strategies vary from volunteers spending weekends rolling rocks into their favorite streams to increase cover for trout, to professional staff developing, designing and implementing watershed-scale projects to restore hydrologic and fluvial processes in streams and rivers across the country.  

This presentation will describe some of the tools used, from the passive restoration projects that change land use, to low-intensity “hand-tool” projects that encourage beaver activity and increase instream wood, to massive construction projects that rebuild valley bottoms. The common thread in all these approaches is a focus on restoring the natural processes that build and maintain habitat and water quality to support fisheries and aquatic habitat.

This program will be livestreamed and available to watch later. Click here to watch online.

Warren Colyer is the National Restoration Director at Trout Unlimited, a grassroots sportsmen’s 501c(3) conservation organization that works to improve trout and salmon habitat across the United States. He has a background in political science and aquatic ecology and has worked to restore fisheries and rivers in Montana and throughout the West. His work has included various stream restoration techniques, as well as developing partnerships and communication strategies to ensure long-term success. Warren lives in Missoula, Montana.