Stillwater Sciences

Stillwater applies a watershed-wide approach to guide river restoration and management, examining the watershed as a whole to identify opportunities for maintaining, restoring, or enhancing existing habitat. Watershed-based resource management planning supports public access and land use, environmental resource protection, cultural and historic resources, and varying levels of water facilities and management operations.

• Watershed analysis including ecological flow evaluations, riparian habitat establishment, and instream habitat creation and maintenance
• Watershed Management Plans, Master Plans, and Integrated Regional Water Management Plans
• Feasibility studies and evaluation of alternatives for funding prioritization by ecological benefit
• Restoration prioritization planning and evaluation of physical processes and ecological responses

Stillwater combines fisheries biology, geomorphic and hydrologic processes, engineering principles, and construction methods to design and implement fish passage projects addressing culverts, dikes, diversions, dams, and other artificial barriers in waterways.

• Multi-species fish passage requirements analysis
• Culvert passage analysis using FishXing software
• Geomorphic assessments and hydraulic modeling
• Sediment transport modeling
• Engineering and design support
• Construction-related fish rescue and relocation planning and implementation
• Permitting support and endangered species consultations
• Pre- and post-construction fish habitat and population monitoring

Stillwater Sciences employs a performance-led approach to process-based restoration planning and implementation, identifying watershed-specific context, limiting physical and biological conditions, and a prioritized suite of measures to restore natural aquatic function. Restoration projects incorporate watershed-scale understanding of channel morphology, flow and sediment transport, habitat structure and diversity, and the specific needs of critical or endangered species.

• Watershed and corridor planning including limiting factor analyses
• Improving stream network connectivity including levee setbacks and barrier/dam removal
• Improving habitat diversity and function including riparian/wetland revegetation, gravel augmentation, and habitat enhancement
• Reconstructing channel morphology to achieve ecological goals
• Strategic bed and bank protection
• Monitoring and evaluation with measurable success criteria and adaptive management

Stillwater's scientific approach ensures targeted, streamlined, and defensible impact assessments and mitigation measures for environmental compliance.

Stillwater staff have supported over 30 FERC projects in study plan development, relicensing, compliance monitoring, and related support throughout the western US.

Stillwater supports levee improvements and maintenance to meet flood control mandates using resource protection measures that reduce overall mitigation need.

Stillwater planners and engineers evaluate, manage, and create naturally-functioning ecosystems within large urban centers, with experience in west coast cities.

Stillwater scientists specialize in evaluating the impacts of dam removal, including effects on sediment transport, water quality, and fisheries, and how to model and mitigate those effects.