River restoration field boom...( ing to the authors of the paper at lea...)

ing to the authors of the paper, at least $14 15 billion has been invested in river restoration since 1990 an average of $1 billion per year. That's a lot of individual efforts the average cost per project is just $45,000. California, the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the Pacific Northwest are hotspots of restoration work.

"It's no mystery why river restoration is booming," said Andrew Fahlund, Vice President for Protection and Restoration at American Rivers. "Rivers in good condition more readily meet the needs of the surrounding community than polluted and degraded rivers."

According to the authors of the Science article, more consistent monitoring of projects after they are completed and sharing this data with other practitioners is the next step in the evolution of the river restoration field. Only 10% of the 37,000 projects in the database include any mention of monitoring effectiveness although some states are investing more in evaluation than others.

"Figuring out what does and does not work in individual restoration projects is the key to improving future river restoration efforts," said Dr. Judy Meyer, University of Georgia and another author. "Every organization that invests in a river restoration project should commit to monitoring the work and making those results available to their peers in the field."

"I'm optimistic about the future of river restoration in this country," said Dr. David Allan, University of Michigan. "We have an incredible suite of options for healing our nation's rivers. We just need the funding and political will to use them."

Reporters are encouraged to contact participating river scientists in their area to learn more about local river restoration projects. Tours of these projects are available as well as interviews of a variety of partner organizations. Contact information for each region is also listed below.

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Contact: Andrew Fahlund
afahlund@americanrivers.org
202-347-7550
American Rivers
28-Apr-2005

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