Summary of Riparian Management CFE Workshop
February 21 & 22, 2002 Fairbanks, Alaska
We gathered together for CFE Credit,
Bob Ott gave you notebooks so you'll remember who said
it.
Chris kicked it off with a look back in history,
When buffers and impacts were largely a mystery.
I followed up with modern day attitude,
Urged buffers designed with longitude and latitude.
Then Tom spoke of critters -- unlike trees, they move.
With coarse filter applied you'll be in the groove.
Riparian areas, you be the witness,
Yield habitats galore for reproductive fitness.
Hydrologist Bob waxed river dynamics,
With dikes, dams and drains and some of man's antics.
Far ranging questions kept interests high,
Bob had the answers with never a sigh.
Riparian zones, to archeologist Bob,
Have "information potential" with discovery his job
.
His advice to us was "look to the past",
Start early, dig deep, and don't go too fast.
While foresters focus on trees one might fell,
He tries to learn from stories tress tell.
Call Sattler ahead, don't scarify alone,
For you have entered the "no plow zone".
Marty took us through the current regulations,
The balance of social and bureaucratic stipulations.
Stream classification and science review,
Three years of meetings with consensus anew.
Stakeholder conference, Board of Forestry fun,
All give us hope for HB one three one.
Next Dr. Haas rolled with the punches
As he shared his perspective and climatic-change hunches.
Gordon, like Tom, notes trees don't move 'round,
But forests of the future, might be on new ground.
We all like the fish that like water cold,
But should we seek shade with no timber sold?
Day one finished up with Harry the Lawyer,
Although we all know, he's really a sawyer.
He laid out for novice, the public trust doctrine,
Clarifying jargon, bringing light to our nocturne.
Alaska as sovereign must do what's good,
For wildlife and water, and streambeds not wood.
It seems kinda strange that the public it serves,
Can't advise state on the good it preserves.
Opportunity for access for all guaranteed,
As long as your rich, well connected, and freed.
A taking's not a taking for the State as Trustee,
It's for your own good, in posterity.
Ok, I get it, the load has be trucked,
The earth's for the living, in usufruct!
Now there's a strange word-you'll cry "what's up"?
Well hey, it's a workshop, take it home, look it up!
Day Two
Day two we dove under with Mike Lilly as guide,
Where geologist and hydrologist and flow net preside.
Upwelling, downwelling, some near some far,
The direction of flow depends where you are.
We debate hyporheic, its meaning unclear,
Is it bug in the well or exchange far or near?
Then Dave took us up and out of the fray
With an aerial view --that's the best way.
Many the systems, oblique or stereo,
Photo or image or airborne video.
Pluses and minus, which do I choose,
Stick to objectives, then you can't lose.
You'll want high info, low cost, right away.
Be happy if 2 of the three you can sway.
We then turned attention to the impact of mining,
Common sense, good partners, good planning not whining.
Bill Jeffress showed slides of reveg so tall,
Of moose, and of burbot and a duck on a wall!
He spoke of the myths of staunch bureaucrats,
And the challenge presented by flat-tailed rats.
The break was followed with bio-engineer,
Brett uses life to keep waters clear.
The cost can be high or the tally sheet low,
A spruce log held tight, or burrito to go.
Concrete and rock can work in large scale,
But alive and well placed, organics won't fail.
Katherine and Jim then made quite a team,
Upland erosion to dynamics of stream.
KK reviewed surface loss by the ton,
Mass wasting, and slumps, and debris on a run.
Jim, like Albert E, laid out the equation,
Of sediment transport and channel persuasion.
If water or load, you add or subtract,
Bed slope, width, and depth will surely react.
Now I missed Trish's talk, having been called away,
But had read her great words the previous day.
Willow Island's a study of experimentation,
Of nature and man, and reforestation.
Regardless of treatment, densities were high,
On seedbed organic, unplanted oh my!
The growth seems controlled by temperature below,
Delayed a few years as degree-days grow.
When stands were thinned, close spacing grew more.
When opened too wide, lost water from floor.
No hares on the island, perhaps they can't swim,
But with ice-bridge and snowshoes they should hop right in!
Or perhaps big critters and open terrain,
Keep hares from crossing to island from main.
Kevin reported on nitrogen status,
Throwing graphs of data, in color, right at us.
The data no "shotgun" but a hystoresis loop,
Clue of changed path or clue of changed poop.
Scott then put forth good science design,
Good sampling, good stats, we must keep in mind.
A difference he found, chum summer and fall,
Regarding success, survival and all.
In oxygen dissolved, heat and fine seds,
Was the fate of the eggs, in baskets, in beds.
Lem Butler then took us terrestrial again,
For a look at the way succession has been.
Moose, willows, and river together are key,
Now plans for a model to couple all three.
Bob Ott wrapped it up with riparian buffer,
The fate over time, and which trees suffer.
He also reviewed the action of river,
Over space and time -- it gives one a shiver.
On the Tanana river for 500a-mile,
He showed where and when, and presented with style.
We all learned a lot by the end of two days,
as suggestions for more emerged from the haze.
SAF wants to thank all those involved,
And invites your comments when your thoughts have evolved.
-- John D. Fox, Jr
<< ffjdf@uaf.edu>>