PARENT SESSION
Oral Session #38: The Human Spirit in Landscape Restoration.
Presiding: D. Borland
Tuesday, August 6. 1:00 PM to 4:45 PM. Greenlee Meeting Room, TCC.
Smart municipal development: Three case studies in watershed planning, stormwater management and urban stream restoration.
Malmkvist, Lehna*,1, Lucey, Patrick2, Barraclough, Cori2, 1 University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada2 Aqua-tex Scientific Consulting Ltd.
ABSTRACT- Within the past decade, efforts have begun to seriously address the rehabilitation of freshwater habitat in municipal watersheds. Strategic planning has focused on protecting, or restoring, a complex suite of values including potable water, fisheries, aesthetics, and habitat. Since 1996 we have collaborated with the USDI Forest Service and USDA Bureau of Land Management National Riparian Service Team to adapt their Proper Functioning Condition (PFC) assessment protocols as the basis for municipal watershed planning, restoration and management. The functional PFC approach integrates hydrological, vegetational and soils processes on which aquatic health assessments and restoration design criteria are formulated. Restoration works result in enhanced floodplain development, extensive replanting of riparian vegetation, replenishment of large wood with attached root-wads and address aquatic trophic interactions. The program, which also includes a Watershed Management and Monitoring program for protecting municipal potable water supplies, has five basic elements: 1) Strategic Watershed Plan, 2) Aquatic Health Diagnosis, 3) Prescriptions, 4) Treatments, 5) Auditing and Monitoring. The program, which accelerates cooperative riparian restoration and management, engenders collaboration between the private development sector, municipal staff, regulatory agencies, educational institutions and funding agencies, and forms the basis for a Smart Municipal Development program of Best Management Practices, including urban storm water wetland treatment, which yield both ecological and economic stability. Case studies include freshwater management in a residential subdivision, an agricultural setting and a high technology park (LEED Gold Certification).
KEY WORDS: watershed planning, stormwater, urban streams, stream restoration