CONFLICTING CONVICTION: ROCKY MOUNTAIN PERSPECTIVE ON STREAM RESTORATION
Lucas Babbitt, PE, CFM
WaterVation
Salida, Colorado
The practice of stream restoration did not exist in the abundance that it does today prior to the catastrophic flooding of September 2013 in Colorado. The reason for this was that there wasn’t a strong driver (i.e., salmonoid habitat restoration, stream/wetland mitigation, etc.), and there was a general apprehension towards “soft” stream designs and their ability to withstand floods and disbelief that these projects could cost less than a hardened solution.
Over the past nine years, flood recovery efforts fueled a massive amount of stream repair work and have increasingly incorporated requirements for holistic stream restoration projects. The rollout of these projects was clunky, criteria were absent or developed on-the-fly, several projects failed, but several succeeded. Through this process, we all learned. We learned as a community of restoration practitioners, and we learned as a region. We finally have proof that stream restoration improves flood resilience, and the corresponding benefits of ecologic uplift and aquatic connectivity are actually quite nice. The driver for restoring impaired streams and rivers has started to become “it’s just the right thing to do”. The practice of holistic stream restoration is now being broadly applied to a wide variety of projects including habitat restoration,
The practice of stream restoration in the Rocky Mountain Region is still not as mature as within other regions, however, our passion is unrivaled. Unfortunately, this combination of a developing stream restoration market with intense passion has led to an intense bias towards an individual/entities/companies preferred specific approach. Popular approaches include Natural Channel Design, Stage-0, Process-Based Restoration, Stabilization, Field Fitting, and Do Nothing.
At the confluence of this mess are ongoing arguments between different schools of thought that have started to impede project progress.We need to learn from the maturation of the restoration practice in other regions and let the process of multi-disciplinary assessment dictate the appropriate restoration approach by critically analyzing a project, evaluating project goals and objectives, and developing a restoration strategy that will best serve the project.
About Lucas Babbitt, PE, CFM
Lucas has been working in the river and watershed restoration practice for 18 years. He holds Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Colorado State University and a Master’s Degree in Water Resources Engineering from Colorado State University. Lucas started WaterVation in 2017 and has had the privilege of leading many assessment, planning, design, and construction projects within many of the states within the Rocky Mountain Region. He has been responsible for designing and overseeing the implementation of restoration projects with budgets up to $7MM and has co-authored stream restoration assessment and design criteria for various public entities in Colorado and Texas.