Restoring riverscapes’ natural physical and biological processes is a fundamental objective of beaver-based stream restoration practice. The stream and floodplain ecosystem benefits of rewilding riverscapes has been clearly documented; in particular, the population processes benefits to multiple species of anadromous salmonids. These biological benefits accrue from the diversity of process domains present across a natural rather than impaired riverscape. Returning the simplified stream and floodplain state of an impaired riverscape to that of a beaver dam dominated state means that the hydrological dynamics are altered to dramatically increase lateral and vertical connectivity. That is, groundwater elevation and extent and groundwater – surface water coupling are greater post-restoration, thereby strongly affecting surface water flow patterns and temperature. Planform complexity of stream reaches is also very different in the beaver dam dominated state when compared to a simplified, impaired stream reach. Channel length per unit valley length is much larger, as is the diversity of channel widths and depths and the diversity of geomorphic or habitat units. An increase in diversity of geomorphic habitat units drives an increase in the diversity of biological process domains, and thus the overall potential to support increased biological productivity at all tropic levels. A methodology for approaching the transformation of impaired streams to beaver dam dominated systems is emerging through the low tech process based (ltPBR) stream restoration practice. ltPBR focuses on restoring stream physical and biological processes primarily through the addition of structural elements that mimic beaver dams or logs. The practice is growing in application across the northern hemisphere, but the acceptance in the management realm is lagging, so coordination, documentation and collaboration is necessary within the restoration community to ensure the long term viability of these methods. Of key interest is the development of large-scale decision support tools to translate reach-scale restoration science to regional conservation and restoration planning.
