Project Summary
One of the most significant issues facing many stream restoration managers is the ability of the new stream feature to retain organic matter. The retention of organic material is an important functional feature of all streams. PE has been working cooperatively with Will Harmon at Stream-Mechanics on the development of a shredder metric that which will be used as a surrogate measure of organic retention.
Benthic insect data used to generate this potential metric have been generously supplied by biologists with the NC Division of Water Resources. We expect that the measurement of shredder populations in streams as a measure stream restoration effectiveness will continue to be monitored.