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Friday, 2:00pm

Discussion on river and riparian restoration innovations, tools, and priorities based on on-the-ground case studies.

Speakers

• Brett Brownscombe, Conservation Director, Oregon Trout
  The StreamBank Project: scaling restoration pace and volume in the face of climate change – policy and technology innovations to bring efficiency and incentives to stream restoration work

• David Forestieri, Restoration Ecologist and Assistant Project Leader, Department of Fisheries Resource Management- Watershed Division, Nez Perce Tribe
  Crossroads: reducing threats of road systems to stream health--an integrated approach in western Idaho
  
• Mary O'Brien, Southern Utah Forests Project Manager, Grand Canyon Trust
  Beaver restoration: more important to watershed health than you ever figured
• Steve Parrett, Senior Project Manager, Oregon Water Trust
  Whiskey is for drinking, but is water only for fighting?: Restoring Instream Flows--Pacific NW experience, tools, and common ground incentives with landowners

Moderator

Brett Brownscombe, Conservation Director, Oregon Trout

Recommended Readings

• For more information about StreamBank.
• Oregon Solutions and StreamBank.
  
  
  

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Brett Brownscombe

Brett Brownscombe is the conservation director for Oregon Trout, a state-based organization with the mission of protecting and restoring freshwater ecosystems and the fish that call them home.  He is a lawyer with a degree from Lewis & Clark College, a BS in political science from Kenyon College, and ten years of fish and wildlife work in Montana, Alaska, and Oregon.  Brett oversees Oregon Trout’s on-the-ground habitat restoration work, policy, and overall conservation program, including the StreamBank project.  StreamBank seeks to bring efficiency, through policy changes and web-based technology, to the system of funding and permitting of stream restoration projects, with the purpose of improving the pace and scale of the ecological and local economic benefits tied to this work.

David Forestieri

David Forestieri is a Restoration Ecologist and the Assistant Project Leader for the Nez Perce Tribe’s Department of Fisheries Resource Management- Watershed Division in the upper Lochsa River. Based out of Powell Ranger Station, in the Clearwater National Forest, the project area is part of the Tribe’s Watershed Restoration Partnership with the Clearwater and Nez Perce National Forests.
David has worked on both sides of the partnership since 1998, and began work with the Nez Perce Tribe in 2004. David is particularly interested in native plant re-establishment on road removal and culvert replacement projects, and is overseeing a fledgling invasive plant treatment program. David also wears an ‘engineering tech’ hat on aquatic passage and other restoration projects within the partnership.
Prior to working in watershed restoration, David supervised an exotic plant control program in Everglades National Park, and spent 14 years in Fire and Aviation with the National Park Service, the Forest Service, and the State of Montana. David holds a degree in Forest Resources Management from the University of Montana, and moonlights as a professional violin maker.

Mary O'Brien

Mary O’Brien (Ph.D., botany) has been working for Grand Canyon Trust since 2003 as Utah Forests Project Manager, joining with other organizations to encourage the Forest Service to conserve wildlife habitat and native ecosystems on southern Utah’s three national forests (Dixie, Fishlake, and Manti-La Sal).  She is currently working with private landowners, permittees, the Forest Service, and Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to encourage restoration of aquatic and riparian resources through beaver reintroduction, and development of a beaver management plan for southern Utah.  For 21 years previously, she worked as a staff scientist and organizer for toxics reform and conservation organizations including Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides, Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, Environmental Research Foundation, Science and Environmental Health Network, and Hells Canyon Preservation Council.

Steve Parrett

Steve has been a Project Manager at Oregon Water Trust since December 2001, working with landowners and water right holders in the John Day, Rogue, Umpqua, and other coastal basins. Before joining Oregon Water Trust, Steve spent several years as a consulting environmental specialist and staff geologist, and worked with property owners and governmental entities to ensure successful completion of a variety of projects.  Steve holds a degree in geology from the Southern Oregon University in Ashland.