Since European settlement, over 50 % of coastal wetlands have been lost in the Laurentian Great Lakes basin, causing growing concern and increased monitoring by government agencies. For over a decade, monitoring efforts have focused on the development of regional and organism-specific measures. To facilitate collaboration and information sharing between public, private, and government agencies throughout the Great Lakes basin, we developed standardized methods and indicators used for assessing wetland condition. Using an ecosystem approach and a stratified random site selection process, birds, anurans, fish, macroinvertebrates, vegetation, and physico-chemical conditions were sampled in coastal wetlands of all five Great Lakes including sites from the United States and Canada. Our primary objective was to implement a standardized basin-wide coastal wetland monitoring program that would be a powerful tool to inform decision-makers on coastal wetland conservation and restoration priorities throughout the Great Lakes basin.
Stream restoration has accelerated in the Midwestern United States during the past decade, but the effects of restoration on stream biota are rarely evaluated. From 1997 to 2000, we studied the responses in fish communities to the attempted restoration of two channelized streams (Juday Creek and Potato Creek) in northwestern Indiana, each of which received two new meanders to a 1‐km reach of stream length. The restored meanders of Juday Creek also received major improvement to instream habitat, bank stabilization, and silt control. In contrast, Potato Creek received only reconnection of the stream to historical meanders. Fish were monitored for 3 years after reconstruction by use of electroshocking and salmonid redd surveys. In Juday Creek, trout size‐class distribution broadened and redd construction increased in the restored reaches. However, most fish metrics for reconstructed reaches did not surpass the levels in the channelized reaches after 3 years. Continued sedimentation from upstream sources, which reduced habitat quality, likely counteracted the positive effects of the restoration. In contrast, unanticipated geomorphic changes in Potato Creek led to decreased current velocity and highly altered fish community structure. The American brook lamprey Lampetra appendix, a sensitive species, was not collected after restoration, and the fish community changed from rheophilic species to highly tolerant, slow‐water species. Overall, changes in fish community structure revealed strengths and weaknesses in contemporary stream restoration approaches, findings that will aid future restoration efforts.
Reach-scale stream restorations are becoming a common approach to repair degraded streams, but the effectiveness of these projects is rarely evaluated or reported. We surveyed governmental, private, and nonprofit organizations in the state of Indiana to determine the frequency and nature of reach-scale stream restorations in this midwestern U.S. state. For 10 attempted restorations in Indiana, questionnaires and on-site assessments were used to better evaluate current designs for restoring stream ecosystems. At each restoration site, habitat and water quality were evaluated in restored and unrestored reaches. Our surveys identified commonalities across all restorations, including the type of restoration, project goals, structures installed, and level of monitoring conducted. In general, most restorations were described as stream-relocation projects that combined riparian and in-stream enhancements. Fewer than half of the restorations conducted pre-or post-restoration monitoring, and most monitoring involved evaluations of riparian vegetation rather than aquatic variables. On-site assessments revealed that restored reaches had significantly lower stream widths and greater depths than did upstream unrestored reaches, but riparian canopy cover often was lower in restored than in unrestored reaches. This study provides basic information on midwestern restoration strategies, which is needed to identify strengths and weaknesses in current practices and to better inform future stream restorations.
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