We are excited to announce that we are opening our Call for Abstract for the 2025 Upper Midwest Stream Restoration Symposium (UMSRS), to be held at the Hotel Julien Dubuque, Dubuque, Iowa from February 23rd – 26th, 2025.
Here are the key deadlines associated with this coming year's UMSRS:
- October 11th, 2024: Deadline for Oral Presentation Abstract Submission (submit your oral abstracts!); Early Bird Registration Opens
- December 31st, 2024: Early Bird Registration Closes, Regular Registration Opens
- January 31st, 2025: Regular Registration Closes, Late Registration Opens, and Poster Abstract Submission Deadline (submit your poster abstract!);
- February 10th, 2025: Late Registration Closes
Our technical committee is beginning to craft the technical program and would welcome abstracts on any topic relating to river restoration. We have identified the following topics of interest to help generate abstract submittals.
Midwest rivers in a changing climate: research, adaptation, design approaches: The climes they are a changin’! This session will focus on climate change and its impact on our streams and rivers. Presentations could center on observations over time, research, design modifications, lessons learned, design-for-resiliency, bio-geo-chemical aspects, etc.
Novel Restoration Approaches: You probably aren’t Newton and Leibniz, but have you solved the calculus that is stream restoration in a way you’ve never seen done before? Were you able to integrate some new analysis or design? Possibly derive a new construction method? We’d like to hear about it.
Long Term monitoring; Then & Now perspectives: No pain, no gain! This most often applies to exercise, but the exercise of stream restoration has often been advanced and refined through the process of trial and error. What former projects did you learn the most from? Have you done some long-term monitoring that has helped you determine a better way to do things? Don’t be afraid to talk about successes and failures.
Riparian Vegetation and Invasives: Restoration of rivers and streams often requires establishment or management of aquatic and riparian vegetation. The success or failure of a project can be strongly influenced by practice selection, invasives management, and the timing, method, and species composition of establishment. We invite presentations covering botanical or ecological principles, best practices, or case studies of vegetation management, both successful and otherwise.
Sediment Transport: Designing resilient restoration projects often requires understanding and planning for sediment transport. This theme includes studies of theoretical or empirical modeling and monitoring of sediment transport, application of sediment transport models, and case studies of sediment transport or management.
Stream Connectivity: Restoring downstream, lateral (floodplain), and vertical connectivity can have important impacts on passage of desirable or invasive species, flood mitigation, biogeochemical processing, and more. This theme seeks to attract presentations covering all aspects of connectivity, practices for promoting it, and both the benefits and risks associated with it.
Constructability: A successfully implemented stream project involves actions from many individuals and often organizations. What combinations of people should work together on the various phases of a project? What are the steps we should take on every project to ensure the plan written on paper is the plan that is executed by the operators? How do we know if the project was a “success” and aligns with the original goals? This theme invites presentations on key measures that can be taken to smooth the transition from ideas to implementation.
Policy in Action: “Sorry, it’s just policy.” Policies from the city, state, and national government can drive restoration practices, funding options, project timelines, and more. Contemporary policy changes add another layer of complexity and uncertainty. How have government policies aided or abated your stream project goals?
Floodplains: Floodplain functions offer numerous ecosystem services, yet they are continuously encroached and mismanaged. Floodplain functions can be restored through many means; levee setbacks, bank shaping, land use changes.
Urban Streams: Got the channel evolution blues? Are your floodplains no longer functioning? Hate garbage? The effects of urbanization on streams are well documented, and restoration of these resources can come in many forms. We welcome abstracts discussing research on urban streams and restoration projects addressing these issues.
Partnerships: Have you heard the joke about the person who restored a stream on their own? We haven’t either. Partnerships between agencies, landowners, governments, regulators, designers, and private parties are essential to any successful restoration project. We welcome abstracts that highlight how partnerships have led to successful restoration outcomes.
GIS and Emerging Technologies: Comprehensive coverage of high-quality LiDAR data, drones, automated feature extraction, and machine learning models are becoming increasingly accessible. How can these types of newer tools improve watershed assessments, geomorphic analyses, and stream design?
Stream Mitigation Updates: How has the recent roll-out of stream mitigation guidance in Wisconsin impacted stream design projects, and what is the long-term outlook for these projects and quantification tools in Wisconsin? What are the ongoing successes and challenges seen in other states with stream mitigation programs in the Upper Midwest?
If your abstract doesn’t fit neatly into one of the categories above, please submit your abstract anyway! We want to hear from you!