Our rivers are in crisis and the need for river restoration has never been more urgent. Water security and biodiversity indices for all of the world’s major rivers have declined due to pollution, diversions, impoundments, fragmented flows, introduced and invasive species, and many other abuses.

Developing successful restoration responses are essential. Renewing Our Rivers addresses this need head on with examples of how to design and implement stream-corridor restoration projects. Based on the experiences of seasoned professionals, Renewing Our Rivers provides stream restoration practitioners the main steps to develop successful and viable stream restoration projects that last. Ecologists, geomorphologists, and hydrologists from dryland regions of Australia, Mexico, and the United States share case studies and key lessons learned for successful restoration and renewal of our most vital resource.

The aim of this guidebook is to offer essential restoration guidance that allows a start-to-finish overview of what it takes to bring back a damaged stream corridor. Chapters cover planning, such emerging themes as climate change and environmental flow, the nuances of implementing restoration tactics, and monitoring restoration results. Renewing Our Rivers provides community members, educators, students, natural resource practitioners, experts, and scientists broader perspectives on how to move the science of restoration to practical success.

Mark K. Briggs is a stream ecologist with more than twenty-five years of experience restoring streams in the western United States and northern Mexico. He led binational restoration efforts along the Rios Grande and Bravo and the Colorado River. He is the author of Riparian Ecosystem Recovery in Arid Lands. Briggs is an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona and sits on the editorial board of the international journal Restoration Ecology.

W. R. Osterkamp (1939-2020) was a research hydrologist, emeritus, for the U.S. Geological Survey. His research included bottomland dynamics, interactions of vegetation with water and sediment, channel islands, and fluvial processes of arid areas. He published articles on geomorphology, hydrology, geology, sediment movement, ecology, water quality, archaeology, and the economic benefits of earth-science and sediment networks.

“The practitioners of restoration science arrive at the profession from many disciplinary and experiential directions. Proper orientation concerning the appropriate spatial and temporal scales of analysis, as well as basic hydrologic processes, are essential to the development of efficient restoration designs. Further, the design must be implemented, monitored, and maintained to achieve the environmental goals. This book provides a foundation for entry into and progress through the restoration of stream corridors in dryland areas. For new practitioners, this book provides a guide through the complexities of stream corridor restoration.”—Terrence J. Toy, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography and Environment, University of Denver

“Flowing water is the miracle of dryland regions, and restoring streams is a courageous and heroic act in any circumstances. Renewing Our Rivers is the best guide to the restoration of these vital and diverse ecosystems especially in a time of exceptional challenges in a changing world.”—Donald A. Falk, former Executive Director of Society for Ecological Restoration and Professor, School of Renewable Natural Resources and the Environment, University of Arizona

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