Restoring an Urban Creek: Do's and Don't's

August 29, 2016

Presentation by Dr. Ann Riley, San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board

Monday, August 29, 2016 / 2 pm - 3:30 pm
Room 150, University Hall (big building on Oxford St, between University and Addison)

This presentation is organized around photos of the Do’s and Don’t’s of urban stream restoration. The topics covered will include the basic needs for quasi- stable channel dimensions and flood plain space and revegetation methods in order to achieve an ecologically functioning stream that can also enhance our urban environments. This presentation has been prepared for those who are planning a stream restoration project and need to know what the California resources agencies will permit. It is a good introduction to project design processes and methods.

This event is free and open to the public.

About the Presenter

Dr. Ann Riley organized, planned, designed, constructed and funded stream restoration projects during a period of 12 years as Executive Director of the Waterways Restoration Institute in California and other regions of the country. Her involvement with non-profit work at the community level countrywide spans over thirty years. She has also worked for local, state and federal agencies for a total of 31 years in watershed planning, water quality, water conservation, hydrology, flood management, stream science and restoration. Her career includes public policy work for the National Academy of Sciences and the John Heinz Center For Science, Economics and the Environment . A feature of both her private and public sector work has been to provide jobs and training for conservation and youth corps. In 1982 she co-founded the Urban Creeks Council in California and in 1993 was instrumental in organizing the first conference of the Coalition to Restore Urban Waters, a national network of urban stream and river organizations. She began a program in the California Department of Water Resources in 1984 that continues to provide grants to support urban stream restoration. Awards recognizing her work include an American Rivers award in 1993 for her leadership in establishing a national urban river movement, the California Governors’ Environmental and Economic Leadership award in 2003, and the Salmonid Restoration Federation Restorationist of the Year Award in 2004. She began her association with river scientist Luna Leopold in Washington D.C. in 1971 and completed two graduate degrees under his direction at the University of California, Berkeley. She is an urban farmer at her residence in Berkeley, California raising chickens, bees, growing food, and brewing county - and- state- fair- awarded mead and beer.