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RESTORATION OF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS <br />RIVERS AND STREAMS <br />Given that healthy, vegetated riparian habitat and bottomlands <br />are essential to the natural ecological functioning of associated streams <br />and rivers-and are among the nation's rarest habitats due to prior <br />devastation-riparian habitat and bottomland restoration should be <br />made a high national priority along with the restoration of the stream <br />or river channel itself. <br />Because a river and its floodplain are intimately linked, they should <br />be managed and restored as integral parts of an ecosystem. Remnant <br />and undisturbed large river and floodplain ecosystems. axe rare and <br />ecologically valuable. Therefore, reaches of certain large rivers and <br />their floodplain ecosystems (such as portions of the Atchafalaya River <br />and the Upper Mississippi River Fish and Wildlife Refuge) and at <br />least 50 other large rivers (greater than approximately 120 miles in <br />length) should be designated as "reference reaches" for use as resto- <br />ration templates and should be protected as quickly as possible. Ref- <br />erence reaches should be designated and protected on representa- <br />tives of all orders of streams and rivers in each of the nation's ecoregions. <br />Highest priority should be given to protecting representative orders <br />of rivers and streams not already protected as national wild and sce- <br />nic rivers, or by being located in national or state parks. <br />Stream and river restoration should begin with improved land <br />management practices that will allow natural restoration of the stream <br />or river to occur. Therefore, the committee recommends the follow- <br />ing: <br />• Erosion control programs in watersheds should be accelerated, <br />not just to conserve soil, but also for the purpose of restoring streams <br />and rivers. <br />• Grazing practices on federal lands should be reviewed and then <br />changed to minimize damages to river-riparian ecosystems and to <br />restore damaged rivers and streams. <br />• Erosion control by "soft engineering" approaches, such as bio- <br />engineering techniques for bank stabilization and repair, should be <br />considered first, in preference to "hard engineering" approaches, such <br />as dams, levees, channelization, and riprap. <br />• Dikes or levees no longer needed or cost-effective should be razed <br />to reestablish hydrological connections between riparian and flood- <br />plain habitats and associated rivers and streams. <br />• Classification systems for land use and wetlands should explic- <br />itly designate riparian environments and floodplains that retain their <br />periodic connections to rivers. <br />