Process-Based Restoration and the Rise of the Stage Zero Channel As a Stream Restoration Goal

The stage zero channel (sensu Cluer and Thorne 2013) is increasingly recognized as having intrinsic high value because of the multiple and synergistic ecosystem goods and services that such channels provide. Stage zero channels have well connected floodplains with elevated water tables, spatially variable hydrologic regimes and structurally complex aquatic and riparian habitat. As such, they provide incredibly valuable habitat for a suite of terrestrial and aquatic taxa, including several Pacific salmon species that are in decline. In this presentation, we provide an overview of the features and types of stage zero channels, where in the landscape they are likely to be found, how they evolve under natural conditions, and restoration techniques for converting less ecologically valuable channel types into stage zero channels. We compare the structure and function of stage zero channels to more traditional channel restoration targets. We conclude that new approaches to stream restoration are needed that take into account society’s economic and ecological imperatives to create resilient, structurally complex and dynamic systems, and that the spatial scale of restorative actions should be expanded where possible to better recognize and integrate the interdependent nature of longitudinal, lateral and vertical linkages in stream systems.