Poster Details
SOCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS TO URBAN STREAM REHABILITATION: INSIGHTS, CHALLENGES, AND OPPORTUNITIES
The 4th Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology brought together a large group of ecologists, engineers, managers, and others from academia, government, private industry, and non-governmental organizations to discuss current research in urban stream ecology. One focus of the symposium was to characterize the social and institutional barriers to urban stream rehabilitation to generate novel avenues for transformative research in urban stream ecology. Most symposium participants acknowledged 1) the influence these barriers have on project success and 2) the challenges that exist for implementing effective strategies to overcome these barriers. Yet, plans for future initiatives to improve urban streams presented during the symposium typically neglected to characterize the depth of work needed to address these issues. We present observations from the 4th Symposium and discuss challenges and opportunities that exist for stream ecologists. This interdisciplinary work requires a diverse skillset best achieved through collaborative approaches that engage social scientists, stakeholders, landscape planners, and others whose expertise can be applied to urban streams. Through fostering these connections and utilizing a social-ecological systems framework, stream ecologists may be better equipped to tackle the challenges facing urban stream rehabilitation.
Robert Smith (Primary Presenter/Author), Lycoming College, smithr@lycoming.edu;
Rikki Lucas (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Virginia Commonwealth University, lucasr2@mymail.vcu.edu;
Jade Ortiz (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Idaho State University, ortijade@isu.edu;
Keysa G. Rosas (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), University of Georgia, keysa.rosas@gmail.com;
Peter Zaidel (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Massachusetts Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Massachusetts Amherst, pzaidel@umass.edu;
Jessica Miller (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Dragons Wynd, jessica@dragonswynd.com;
Josh Ward (Co-Presenter/Co-Author), Missouri Department of Conservation, Josh.Ward@mdc.mo.gov;