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Restoring Neighborhood Streams pp 53–187Cite as

Neighborhood-Scale Restoration Projects

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Abstract

Many urban stream restoration projects tend to be opportunistic, reach-scale projects constructed to enhance a neighborhood or business district as opposed to projects contained in plans that set priorities for ecosystem restoration. This chapter is a selection of reach-scale projects fitting this description. They range from small-scale projects located in parks and a school ground to a large-scale housing development and city business districts. The selected projects describe a historic continuum from the early 1980s, when the concept of restoration was being discovered and defined, to the 2010s, when restoration practices and planning evolved to much greater sophistication. Each case provides a lesson in historic context, community organizing and planning, restoration design, and long-term project maintenance. Together, the cases produce common themes on how they came to be implemented and important discoveries on project designs for long-term restoration planting success. In all cases, the projects inspired more projects that followed them and therefore influenced changes in the watershed that went beyond a project’s limited boundaries.

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© 2016 Ann Riley

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Riley, A.L. (2016). Neighborhood-Scale Restoration Projects. In: Restoring Neighborhood Streams. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-741-4_3

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