Session Coordinators: 
Corey Phillis, Ph.D., Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Brian Cluer, Ph.D., NOAA Fisheries

Floodplain habitats provide growth and survival benefits to juvenile salmon and are identified as critical for recovery of California’s Central Valley Chinook salmon and steelhead populations. However, development for other benefits, including farming, waterfowl, and flood control has left 98% of riparian and floodplain habitat in the Central Valley and Delta inaccessible to juvenile salmon. Therefore, restoring floodplain habitat on the landscape will require creative solutions that identify and align social and ecological benefits. This session will feature two interrelated themes: 1) Presenting the range of floodplain restoration strategies that exist, including maintenance and protection of existing floodplains, reconnecting rivers to existing floodplain, and novel strategies that attempt to mimic floodplain processes through water management; and 2) identifying where on the landscape these different strategies are most likely to successfully align the social and ecological benefits of floodplains.

Protecting, Connecting, and Re-imagining Floodplain Habitat: Strategies for Restoring the Benefits of Floodplains to Juvenile Salmon
Brian Cluer, Ph.D., NOAA Fisheries

Mimicking Hydrologic Process to Restore Ecological Function
Jacob Katz, Ph.D., California Trout

Rescaling Central Valley Rivers: Reconciling Theory with Practice
Rocko A. Brown, Ph.D., Environmental Science Associates

Taking it Down a Notch: Entraining Juvenile Salmon Over Fremont Weir onto the Yolo Bypass Floodplain
Brett Harvey, Ph.D., California Department of Water Resources

A Contractor’s Prospective for Successful In-Stream Habitat Enhancement and Restoration Projects
Dena McCullough, McCullough Construction Inc.

Restoring the Mattole Estuary with Heliwood Whole Trees, Stream Barbs, and Riparian Plantings; An Anatomy of a Heliwood Project from Start to Finish
Sungnome Madrone, Mattole Salmon Group