Conferences & Workshops

The UCSRB and Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest convened a three-day workshop in October 2019 to learn about and discuss techniques for restoring annual floodplain connectivity. The workshop was taught by the US Forest Service Pacific Northwest Region Restoration Assistance Team (RAT), Dr. Colin Thorne of Nottingham University, and by local experts and attended by Forest Service staff, permitting agencies, partners, funders, and sponsors to allow for a good discussion. The first day of the workshop provided an overview of the Stream Evolution Model (Cluer and Thorne, 2013) and the impact on floodplain connectivity; shared examples of restoration work; discussed permitting; and introduced the Geomorphic Grade Line modeling approach to restoration using LiDAR (Powers et. al., 2018). The second day was field-based, with site visits in the Wenatchee watershed and an overview of how to use the Relative Elevation Model (REM) results in the field. The third day covered other restoration techniques including wood loading, beaver dam analogs (BDAs) and beavers. See below for all associated workshop materials including recorded WebEx, meeting summary, participant list, presentations, and resources.