[MAIPC] "Pause Stream Restoration"?

[Kathy Daniel]

Dear Marney and MAIPC members:

I thought the email and blog excerpt (below) from the Audubon Naturalist
Society Director of Conservation and Director of Restoration & Deputy
Director was so compelling that I asked Ken Bawer to remove my name from
the "Pause Stream Restoration" letter. I thought you also would find it
enlightening. It is especially exciting to me that "At the end of the (ANS
Woodend) project, the entire area will be planted with 370 native trees,
800 native shrubs and nearly 10,000 native herbaceous plants." It is a true
model of what "stream restoration" should be! I am delighted to be a donor
and encourage all of you to visit Woodend and support this impressive
endeavor (https://anshome.org/woodend-stream/).

Kathy Daniel
MNPS, MAIPC, Wild Ones
Brookmont, MD
---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Alison Pearce <alison.pearce at anshome.org>
Date: Tue, Feb 16, 2021 at 9:43 AM
Subject: FW: "Stop Stream Restoration"??
To: Kathy Daniel <kdaniel20816 at gmail.com>

Hi Kathy – As it happens, our Director of Conservation, Eliza Cava, copied
me on a response to another ANS member who had received a letter from Ken
Bawer. I thought you would be interested in seeing her response. Will reply
to your other email about legacy sediment, too.

Best,

Alison



Hi Pat,

Thanks so much for writing to us. This is a complex issue that has recently
become controversial around the region, and ANS does not support the
position of the Montgomery Coalition to Stop Stream Destruction (although
we are very familiar with it).



I’d be happy to speak more about it with you, but I also will excerpt from
some recent writing we have done on the subject that may be helpful as you
consider the issue:



>From our December blog Woodend Restoration Watch: Stream and Trail
Restoration Updates – ANS Conservation Blog (anshome.org)
<http://conservationblog.anshome.org/blog/woodend-restoration-watch-stream-and-trail-restoration-updates/>,
where Alison Pearce (Director of Restoration & Deputy Director) replied to
a comment asking about why our Woodend stream restoration includes tree
loss:

The stream restoration was necessary to stabilize the stream banks, which
had eroded into a 15-foot deep canyon below Jones Mill Rd. This erosion was
not only unsightly, but also washed hundreds of pounds of sediment and
pollutants downstream to Rock Creek and the Chesapeake Bay. With climate
change and increasingly intense storms, this situation would only have
gotten worse. Likewise, our main woodland trail at Woodend was eroded from
heavy stormwater runoff, forming tripping hazards and making it completely
inaccessible to those using wheelchairs, walkers or strollers. We combined
the stream and trail restoration into one project to minimize the amount of
disturbance in our forest.

Counterintuitively, restoration does sometimes require the removal of
trees. The trees that are being removed as part of the project are those
directly along the stream banks and in the area that must be graded to
construct the accessible trail. Logs from the trees that are being removed
are being put to good use on-site as part of the dams that make up the
stream restoration. At the end of the project, the entire area will be
planted with 370 native trees, 800 native shrubs and nearly 10,000 native
herbaceous plants. While it is painful to lose mature trees, the replanting
gives us the opportunity to improve the health of our forest in meaningful
ways. We will plant a diverse assemblage of native tree species including
those with high wildlife value, such as oaks and hickories that are
currently lacking in our forest. We will replace the non-native invasive
bush honeysuckle with native shrub species, such as chokeberry and
arrowwood that create quality bird habitat, and we will replace the forest
floor vegetation that was decimated by decades of overpopulated deer.

This project achieves major ecological improvement for habitat at Woodend.
We have also placed 23 acres of forest at Woodend into a permanent
conservation easement as part of this project.

>From pages 5-7 of a recent letter we sent on the County’s overall
stormwater permit, as part of our advocacy coalition Stormwater Partners
Network (read the whole thing at

Stormwater Partners Network comments on Montgomery County draft Stormwater
Permit — Stormwater Partners Network (stormwaterpartnersmoco.net)
<https://www.stormwaterpartnersmoco.net/current-recent-campaigns/2021/1/26/stormwater-partners-network-comments-on-montgomery-county-draft-stormwater-permit>).
I was a primary drafter of this section along with Ken Bawer, who is
circulating the “Stop Stream Restoration” letter. I am happy with the
position we came to as a coalition, which makes it clear that while we
don’t have full consensus on the issue, our various groups all agreed that
caution and care are warranted on any decisions about stream restorations.
This is the consensus position we have:

“…we do not have unanimity on every detail of the recommendations below,
nor on the overriding question of whether stream restorations are ever or
at all appropriate. But we do all believe that if they are done, they
should be done with extraordinary care, caution, and forethought to ensure
that they result in benefits to the ecology of the local stream valley and
riparian system, as well as downstream beneficiaries of reduced sediment
pollution such as the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. And, they should be
tightly coupled with extensive upland retrofits, ideally before restoring
the stream valley.”



>From a policy perspective speaking as ANS, in addition to the need for
stream restorations of some types in some places (i.e. at Woodend), we also
have concerns that a 'pause' at this point could completely upend the
current MS4 (stormwater) permit process and cause significant delays to
other, much-needed stormwater management projects throughout the county.



Please let me know if you’d like to speak on the phone any further, and
thank you for reaching out.



All the best,

Eliza



*In an effort to help contain the spread of Covid-19, ANS's offices are
closed to the public. Email is the best way to reach me. For information
about our current status please visit anshome.org/covid-19-updates/
<https://anshome.org/covid-19-updates/>*

Eliza Cava

Director of Conservation

*Pronouns: she, her, hers*

Audubon Naturalist Society

8940 Jones Mill Road

Chevy Chase, MD 20815

202-503-9141 (m)

*ANS has received a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for the
3rd consecutive year indicating that we are accountable, transparent and
adhere to financial best practices**.*
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