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The Science of Stream Restoration - NYTimes.com <br />system' but said it was wrong to think that "just by knowing what channel type you have you <br />would know what to do." <br />But there is not a great deal of other guidance. Some geologists point to a 1992 report by the <br />National Research Council, the research arm of the National Academv of Sciences, that <br />emphasizes understanding underlying natural conditions and the importance of monitoring. <br />Among other agencies, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service cites the Rosgen system, as does <br />the North Carolina State Universitv Stream Restoration Program. Overall, though, "The <br />strategy is still largely a`kick it and see' approach," Dr. Dietrich of Berkeley said. "We don't <br />know whether any of this stuff that's being done is worth it." <br />He said he hoped better answers would emerge from the National Center for Earth Surface <br />Dynamics, a research center supported by the National Science Foundation and based at the St. <br />Anthony Falls Laboratory, on the Mississippi River, in Minneapolis. Scientists and engineers at <br />the lab, which is affiliated with the University of Minnesota, use computers to model stream <br />and river behavior, including sediment movement, channel and floodplain dynamics and dam <br />removal. <br />The lab is also working on what Dr. Dietrich described as "the first major, outdoor, to-scale <br />experimental facility to do experiments on a large enough scale to figure out how to bring a <br />scientific basis to stream restoration." <br />This "outdoor streamlab" relies on bypasses once used to send river water around falls, and <br />researchers hope that it will let them try building restoration projects "to the scale of small, real <br />channels" and test the results, Dr. Dietrich said. Researchers are lining up to use it. Dr. <br />Dietrich said he hoped work at the lab and elsewhere would help make river and stream <br />http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/24/science/24str...l?_r=1&oref=siogin&ref=science&pagewanted=print (6 of 7) [6/24/2008 12:37:57 PM]