Riparian Vegetation Response to Dam Removal

Dam removal is an approach to river restoration that is becoming increasingly common. In most cases, dam removal is driven by considerations other than river restoration like dam safety, but how dam removal affects aquatic and riparian systems is of great interest in many dam removals. My work in this area has had two areas of focus thus far: 1) studies of vegetation and geomorphic change associated with dam removal along the Elwha River, Washington, where the world’s largest dam removals occurred in recent years; 2) syntheses of dam removal effects.

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Below are publications associated with this project.

September 1, 2016

Synthesis of common management concerns associated with dam removal

Managers make decisions regarding if and how to remove dams in spite of uncertainty surrounding physical and ecological responses, and stakeholders often raise concerns about certain negative effects, regardless of whether or not these concerns are warranted at a particular site. We used a dam-removal science database supplemented with other information sources to explore seven frequently-raised c

Authors

Desiree D. Tullos, Mathias J. Collins, J. Ryan Bellmore, Jennifer A. Bountry, Patrick J. Connolly, Patrick B. Shafroth, Andrew C. Wilcox

By

Ecosystems Mission Area, Species Management Research Program, Fort Collins Science Center, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Western Fisheries Research Center, Columbia River Research Laboratory (CRRL)

February 25, 2015

Large-scale dam removal on the Elwha River, Washington, USA: river channel and floodplain geomorphic change

A substantial increase in fluvial sediment supply relative to transport capacity causes complex, large-magnitude changes in river and floodplain morphology downstream. Although sedimentary and geomorphic responses to sediment pulses are a fundamental part of landscape evolution, few opportunities exist to quantify those processes over field scales. We investigated the downstream effects of sedimen

Authors

Amy E. East, George R. Pess, Jennifer A. Bountry, Christopher S. Magirl, Andrew C. Ritchie, Joshua B. Logan, Timothy J. Randle, Mark C. Mastin, Justin Toby Minear, Jeffrey J. Duda, Martin C. Liermann, Michael L. McHenry, Timothy J. Beechie, Patrick B. Shafroth

By

Ecosystems Mission Area, John Wesley Powell Center for Analysis and Synthesis, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Western Fisheries Research Center

January 1, 2007

Early vegetation development on an exposed reservoir: Implications for dam removal

The 4-year drawdown of Horsetooth Reservoir, Colorado, for dam maintenance, provides a case study analog of vegetation response on sediment that might be exposed from removal of a tall dam. Early vegetation recovery on the exposed reservoir bottom was a combination of (1) vegetation colonization on bare, moist substrates typical of riparian zones and reservoir sediment of shallow dams and (2) a sh

Authors

G.T. Auble, P.B. Shafroth, M.L. Scott, J. E. Roelle

January 1, 2002

Potential responses of riparian vegetation to dam removal

Throughout the world, riparian habitats have been dramatically modified from their natural condition. Dams are one of the principal causes of these changes, because of their alteration of water and sediment regimes (Nilsson and Berggren 2000). Because of the array of ecological goods and services provided by natural riparian ecosystems (Naiman and Decamps 1997), their conservation and restoration

Authors

P.B. Shafroth, J. M. Friedman, G.T. Auble, M.L. Scott, J.H. Braatne

By

Ecosystems Mission Area, Fort Collins Science Center

Riparian Vegetation Response to Dam Removal

Patrick Shafroth, PhD

Scientist Emeritus

Patrick Shafroth, PhD

Scientist Emeritus

U.S. Geological Survey

U.S. Department of the Interior