River and Stream Restoration

Extension

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Extension projects at New England Land Grant Universities are interpreting and communicating river and stream restoration research to home and business owners, agricultural producers and municipal officials via outreach, training and technical assistance.

Sim-Stream logo The Northeast Instream Habitat Program (NEIHP), external link at the Department of Natural Resources Conservation (NRC) at UMass Amherst, is an integrated research, teaching and extension program with a strong commitment to research and development, sustained outreach, training and technical assistance, and development of expanded graduate and undergraduate education. The program aims to improve the sustainable management of running waters in the Northeast U.S. by developing a research base and management tools incorporating quantitative computer simulation techniques with the MesoHabSim program. Some example NEIHP extension projects in New England include:

outdoor instruction NEIHP, in conjunction with the US Fish and Wildlife Service and The Nature Conservancy, held a workshop entitled Hydrologic Alteration and Ecological Communities in the East external link. This workshop defined a research agenda for relating hydrologic alteration and associated habitat impacts to ecological health to improve the scientific information available to policy makers in the Northeast, increase collaboration among interested parties, and define opportunities and collaborations.

extension personnel attending the Meso Habsim course In-service training in river and stream restoration was provided for regional water quality personnel in the summer of 2006. A summer course external link on the MesoHABSim methodology was conducted in 2006 and 2007. Additional in-service workshops will be offered restoring continuity of river and stream ecosystems.

Educational materials on river ecology and management will be developed for the public. The intention of these educational materials will be to reach landowners, local decision-makers, municipal officials and others about the benefits of intact aquatic ecosystems. Currently, a brochure external link highlighting the NEIHP prgram has been developed.

Volunteers participate in electrofishing surveys for the NEIHP on three New England Rivers.

The River and Stream Crossing Continuity Project external link at UMass inventories and addresses barriers to fish movement and river and stream continuity. This project has:

expanded the online database external link for road-stream crossings to accomodate more than 2,300 volunteer-based surveys collected in CT, RI, VT and NH. Data and computed scores from the database are available for viewing and may be downloaded from the web site.

developed River and Stream Crossing Standards external link. Elements of these standards have been incorporated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers into the Programmatic General Permits (PGP) for MA, ME, CT and RI. The standards are serving as a model for the development of state standards in CT and NH.

led 19 workshops to more than 1,200 participants including MA Conservation Commissioners, US Army Corps of Engineers, USDA Forest Service, other state and federal agency staff, the Association of State Wetland Managers, the Society of Wetland Scientists and various environmental consultants, engineers and surveyors.

provided technical assistance to the Department of Environmental Protection in CT, MA, and NH, enabling these agencies to develop statewide minimum stream flow.