Urban Stream Discussion Synopsis

My synopsis is the 2nd half of the Urban Streams discussion from Wed, Dec 8th. We broadened our discussion to talk about urban stream restoration in general.

-Someone pointed out that urban stream restoration is a big business and is a good way of employing people. good job security! (assuming, of course, funding sources are reliable)

- We discussed the neccesity of accepting the fact that urban streams are and most likely will always be far from natural, and we can't return to reference conditions

- We talked about the great need to engage urban citizens in the restoration process, and using education of the public to obtain support for restoration activities

- We decided restoration activities should focus on addressing the "urban stream syndrome" before concentrating on in-stream issues: we are not at a place as a society where we can focus on small-scale processes before addressing large issues like flow regime and impervious surface

- We also decided that local ordinances (and possibly fed/state regs) are needed to kick-start folks into using Low Impact Development. The technology is there, we know pervious pavement, rain gardens, green roofs, and rain barrels reduce runoff and increase infiltration, but it is more expensive and there is little incentive for widespread use.

We concluded that for more effective urban restoration, we need an appropriate and reasonable guiding image, and increased knowledge of appropriate techniques and better monitoring.