News

Riverscapes Consortium lead and Utah State University professor Joe Wheaton is featured in the “Waters” episode of PBS’s new series Shared Planet, which highlights hopeful stories of people and wildlife thriving together.PBS’s new series Shared Planet explores hopeful stories of how people and wildlife can thrive together. The final episode, “Waters,” airs Wednesday, May 20 at 10 p.m. ET/8 p.m. MT

Latest Updates to the Data Exchange + Riverscapes Viewer Did your work just get easier? Probably. Check out the latest updates to Riverscapes Viewer and the Data Exchange below ⬇️ Download Data Exchange Projects in QGISWith the Riverscapes Viewer plugin, you can now download projects from the Riverscapes Data Exchange to your computer from within QGIS. Browse the Exchange to find the project ID, s

TLDR: Please take our survey!Hello Riverscapes Community,Our New Year’s resolution is to continuously improve our service to riverscapes and their advocates (you). And our riverscapes don’t need more dry Januaries, so we’re diving into the deep end now with an update to the Riverscapes community platform. We want to make the community platform more useful and more engaging for everyone who cares a

A New Paper Defines Principles of Riverscape Health  A new paper published by a global coalition of 37 authors from 28 organizations offers a definitive framework for understanding and supporting riverscape health. Principles of Riverscape Health distills decades of riverscape science into a clear, pragmatic set of principles that can guide policy, restoration, and conservation. “A need exists to

New Updates & Improvements Now Live on PBR ExplorerSince launching in late July, PBR Explorer has become a hub for tracking, showcasing, and sharing process-based restoration work. Our first round of updates is now live, featuring user-requested enhancements. Read on to see what's new ⬇️ Map EnhancementsNew Basemaps: Toggle between basic, satellite, and topographical basemaps in the Project Explor

Last week, we launched PBR Explorer, an upgraded reporting platform that supports all types and all stages of process-based restoration projects. New features and functionality make PBR Explorer a simple way to capture and share projects. Check out the highlights below. Expanded Project Reporting FeaturesProject ActionsNew project actions to support all types of process-based restoration. You can

Riverscapes Launches PBR ExplorerRiverscapes Consortium is excited to announce the launch of PBR Explorer, replacing the LTPBR Explorer with an upgraded platform to support all stages and all types of process-based restoration projects. PBR Explorer makes it easy to track, map, and share the full scope of your restoration work across teams, organizations, or private or public audiences. Map-integr

New Features & Improvements Now Live on the Data ExchangeThe Riverscapes Data Exchange was recently updated with new functionality features. Log in here to explore. Major Data Exchange Updates Archive ProjectsYou can now archive outdated or duplicate projects. They'll still be accessible for legacy reference, but won't clutter your Data Exchange experience. The search pages have options to show or

This fall, four weeklong advanced Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration (LTPBR) courses will be offered for the first time, led by Dr. Joe Wheaton and Utah State University. Designed for professionals in riverscape restoration and river restoration, these courses are eligible for continuing education units, graduate-level university credit, and Level III in the Federal training series. Advanced LTPBR

Ellen Wohl and Shreeram Inamdar just published a really interesting perspective piece and reivew on the difference between natural beaver dams, beaver dam meadows, man made dams and beaver dam analogues. They lay out some helpful conceptual distincitions between different structural elements with the label of "dam" tied to them.It is worth noting that BDAs without mainteance (by humans) or as inte

Dear Colleagues and Friends, We are pleased to inform you that abstract submissions for the session on Using geomorphology in river management: From science to action at the 11th IAG International Conference on Geomorphology are now open. This session will include a Joint keynote address: Professor Kirstie Fryirs and Professor Joe Wheaton - “Same but different: Using generic geomorphic principles

Check out the Process-Based Riverscape Restoration Education and Training Needs Assessment  based on Meridian's work and hosted workshops on Nature-Based Solutions on Public Lands. Based on input from industry experts and professionals, they synthesize the needs and issues facing the community. Download Report Now

CaptionNew Protocol Released Today!Today, the Low-Tech Process-Based Restoration Design and Monitoring Protocol - version 2.0, was published.  This a project-based, flexible and extendible protocol for action-effectiveness monitoring of LTPBR projects.  The protocol lays out the basics for how to do document, quantify, record and analyze  the planning, design, as-builts and evaluation steps of LTP

H20'Lyon recently led a wonderful 3-part seminar on "How can beavers help river managemetn and climate resilience?" The series featured national and international presentations, and field visits, addressed to researchers, managers, naturalists and students. Even if you missed it live, you can still watch the webinar portions!After a long period of decline, beaver populations have been expanding in

On May 2nd Joe Wheaton and Jeremy Maestas delivered a Conservation Outcomes Webinar for CEAP - NRCS. The presentation provides a little introduction to the next generation of production grade Valley Bottom Extraction Tool VBET (3.1.0 and beyond). For those using some of our network modles, this webinar coupled with this Quick Start Guide might help you understand the importance of mapping our rive

Konrad Hafen and co-authors just published a paper based on an extension to the RC's BRAT model, which estimates how much of an increase in transient water storage might be possible with different levels of beaver dam activity. The paper was just published in Water! Hafen, K.C.; Wheaton, J.M.; Roper, B.B.; Bailey, P.; Macfarlane, W.W.; Neilson, B.T.; Tennant, C.J. Estimating Increased Transient Wa

Last week, a series of four Fact Sheets on healthy riverscapes were released by NRDC and co-authored with American Rivers and the National Wildlife Federaton. These fact sheets provide tangible policy and management actions that can lead to more resilent and healthy riverscapes in the US. Moreover, they are aligned with the mission and vision of the Riverscapes Consortium. NRDC is pleased to share

A new article published last month by Hayley Glassic and colleagues in WIREs Water highlights the use of remote sensing and RC models to inform the prioritization riverscape restoration at multiple scales. The article is open access.Glassic, H. C., McGwire, K. C., Macfarlane, W. W., Rasmussen, C., Bouwes, N., Wheaton, J. M., & Al-Chokhachy, R. (2024). From pixels to riverscapes: How remote sensing