Decades, or even centuries, of changing and competing land uses have left many of the world’s streams degraded, in poor health, and out of balance with the ever-shifting dynamics of their watersheds. A Handbook for Stream Enhancement and Stewardship is a basic resource intended to help individuals, groups, organizations, companies, communities, and governments plan and carry out environmentally sound, cost-effective stream corridor assessment, enhancement, and stewardship programs. Using the watershed as the basic unit of reference, the Handbook provides ideas and information with which readers can assess and document local stream conditions, learn about and evaluate methods of enhancement, devise and implement enhancement plans, and then maintain the stream and stream corridor in its enhanced state of better health and balance. While not a comprehensive technical manual for professionals trained in stream restoration, this resource does provide a solid foundation by which volunteers may become informed observers, advocates, and organizers of stream enhancement programs and participants in their implementation.

The Handbook is written in clear, accessible language and consolidates much otherwise-dispersed information into a compact, easily manageable, single volume. Following an introduction to the scope and purpose of the book, Chapter One presents an overview of stream corridors, beginning with the concept of the watershed and then looking more closely at streams and stream corridors and their hydrologic, vegetation, and land-use characteristics. The second chapter describes essential steps in assessing the condition of the watershed, and the third chapter provides guidance in how to plan for, carry out, and document a detailed survey of the stream. Chapter Four reviews many methods of stream enhancement, discusses their advantages or disadvantages for use in different situations, and describes the process of implementing those that are appropriate for the existing situation. The final chapter provides information on stream corridor enhancement in range lands and pasture lands. Nineteen appendices provide valuable, detailed information about specific skills, processes, procedures, and other planning considerations that will be necessary for a successful stream enhancement program. A Glossary contains definitions of many technical terms used throughout the book, and a list of useful references is contained in the Bibliography.

The Handbook will be of value to those who want to acquire a solid grasp of the fundamentals of assessing the physical condition and ecological health of a stream, of realizing what might be done at the local level to improve the ecological health of a stream, and of implementing an effective stream enhancement program in their communities. The book will be of immediate value to the myriad volunteers who devote valuable time, labor, and other resources to the study, protection, and enhancement of watersheds and waterways at the local level, but it also will be of value to professional resource or property managers, planners, educators, landscape architects, naturalists, conservationists, and others whose work includes stream management, assessment, or enhancement work, or the mentoring and advising of those who do this work.

This handbook is a co-publication of the McDonald and Woodward Publishing Company and the Izaak Walton League of America.

About the Izaak Walton League

The Izaak Walton League is a private national organization founded in 1922 and dedicated to conserving, maintaining, protecting, and restoring the soil, water, and other natural resources of the United States and other lands, and to educating the public about such resources and their needs. For more than thirty years, the Izaak Walton League’s watershed stewardship programs have developed innovative educational programs for groups and individuals. The League has educated and motivated citizens to clean-up stream corridors, monitor stream health, restore degraded stream banks, and protect dwindling wetland acreage. These important watershed stewardship activities have been implemented nationally and in communities across the country through the League’s more than 300 local chapters.

REVIEWS:

... An excellent resource that covers the basics of stream enhancement and stewardship. It is a simple easy to follow handbook that explains the science of stream systems, how to assess the systems health and the paths and programs to follow to revitalize your local creeks, rivers and streams.  ... offers many descriptive and accurate diagrams as well as comprehensive glossary of terms. It is an invaluable one of a kind tool that will make watershed conservation and protection easier for individual and groups. Rarely does an effort come along that supplies such a vital need and enables so much positive work to be brought forth. ... an exceptional reference manual.  -- The Ecobeetle Eco-Library -- Books for Kids, April 2007

A complete guide to evaluating stream and watershed health. Designed for community groups with little hydrological expertise who are nonetheless concerned about surface water quality..... Full of specific, practical advice and additional resources. Guides reader through advanced stream restoration techniques. An invaluable book for community watershed groups.  Highly recommended. -- Southeastern Naturalist, Vol. 4, No. 4, 2006

The handbook is a thorough resource guide to help "citizens, communities, organizations, companies, and governments understand, recognize, and take an active role in planning for environmentally sound, cost-effective stream enhancement." ...provides ideas and information the reader can use in any and all aspects of stream enhancement.  One of the best-written chapters is the one about understanding stream bank enhancement on range and pasturelands. Each chapter will "provide citizens with a crash course in the science behind stream systems, the techniques used to assess a watershed and inventory, the health of a stream, and the basic principles and planning of stream enhancement."  Figures, graphs, and tables are well designed, and the overall composition of the handbook is excellent.  The authors stress the concept, "Healthy streams are critical to providing communities with the economic, ecological, and social benefits that come from clean water."  This can only be accomplished by working together.    --Jan Wiedemann, College Station, TX, Texas Section Society for Range Management, Rangelands,Volume 28, Number 6, Dec. 2006                                                                                

A Handbook for Stream Enhancement & Stewardship...is an excellent study of conservationist activities in dynamically aiding the restoration, enhancement, and environmental maintenance of rivers and streams. Deftly providing readers with a conceptual grasp of the "stewardship" responsibilities of various groups, organizations, individuals, companies, communities, and government planning agencies, A Handbook for Stream Enhancement & Stewardship informatively presents ideas and expertise with which to actively make a difference in maintaining and enhancing rivers and streams for purposes of the flora and fauna dependent upon them....  A core addition to personal, professional, environmental activists, academic, and community library Environmental Studies reference collections.   A Handbook for Stream Enhancement & Stewardship is very strongly recommended as an expert informational resource for environmental and waterway restoration and conservation.                       ---James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief, The Midwest Book Review, June 2006