Quantifying the Role of Stream Restoration in Achieving Nutrient and Sediment Reductions

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.