Habitat Webinar: Using the Clean Water Act to Protect & Restore Habitat/Flow

River Network's Habitat Program is excited to host a well-known Clean Water Act expert -- Bob Adler -- as a guest presenter in our on-going webinar series. River advocates interested in more effectively applying the power of the Clean Water Act to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems would be crazy to miss this chance to talk with one of the country's best thinkers on the issues we all care about....crazy!

The Basics
The Clean Water Act Through the Biological Lens
Presenter: Bob Adler, Professor of Law, University of Utah
Date: Friday, November 18
Time: 10 am pacific/11 am mountain/Noon central/1pm eastern (90 minutes)
RSVP: Required. RSVP by November 15: use our handy on-line form to RSVP

The Details
This summer River Network produced an issue of our newsletter -- River Voices -- with a focus on how to look at the Clean Water Act through a biological lens. That is: from a legal and policy perspective, how can the Act be better used to protect and restore ecosystem integrity, the physical structure of a system, habitat, flow and all the interrelated aspects that make a system whole? (Free to Partners, the relevant River Voices issue is available in our website’s publication area.)

As follow up to that issue, we’re hosting a webinar to cover several of the newsletter topics in a format that mixes a presentation from a very well-known Clean Water Act legal expert – Bob Adler --- and discussion of YOUR ideas and experiences with the topics. Don’t miss this exciting chance to think creatively about one of our nation’s most important environmental laws and to hear how your peers around the country are applying it creatively to protect and restore flows, riparian habitats, and more!

This will be an intermediate-level Clean Water Act webinar. Participants will need a basic understanding of water quality standards, Total Maximum Daily Loads, wetlands permitting and 401 water quality certification. If you’re new to some or all of these policy tools, visit our online course to get yourself prepared! Already pretty familiar with these programs? You might find the resources we’ve pulled together on the issue of the Clean Water Act and flow restoration/protection.

RSVP by November 15th. Space is limited so the webinar may fill before that time. The webinar is free but you must RSVP using our handy online form

Share Your Ideas and Examples
We’d like this session to include plenty of lively discussion! So, please come ready (if possible, it is totally okay if you have no examples) to share any concrete examples you might have about how you or others have used the following legal to protect or restore aquatic ecosystems:

• biocriteria;
• Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs);
• 401 water quality certifications;
• 404 permits and mitigation requirements; or
• flow-based water quality standards.

If you have an example from those areas to share, we’d love to hear things like : (1) examples where the strategy has worked well, and why; (2) examples where the strategy has failed, and (3) barriers to use of those strategies…along with any ideas you have about how we might overcome those barriers.