RES

10/08/2026

After two seasons of intense work, construction is complete on three and a half miles of tributary restoration work across four creeks. And now the work of monitoring and adaptive management begins.

This summer, RES and the Yurok Tribe Construction Corporation completed the second year of restoration work on Jenny, Camp, Scotch, and Beaver Creeks. These tributaries had been closed off to spawning salmon since four dams on the Klamath River were established decades ago. The restoration team wasn't just moving dirt and rock. They were removing the conditions that could block fish from their spawning grounds. They were reconnecting floodplains so water could spread out and flow naturally. They were installing habitat features and then stepping back to let natural processes take over.

Before heavy equipment moved in, crews relocated juvenile fish from the work zone, including some of the first coho salmon detected in Camp Creek since dam removal.

After construction ended, winter came. Big storms hit. Some of our work was damaged. So we did what we always do – adapt and proceed. The streams have adjusted beautifully on their own. Channels split into multiple paths. Water spread across floodplains exactly as designed. Sediment and spawning gravels moved freely. Vegetation started to grow.

"By allowing the natural processes and not trying to control it, we allow for long-term sustainability and resilience," the restoration team explained.

With dam removal opening these tributaries, salmon returning to spawn will find restored habitat waiting. And the ongoing work of monitoring and adaptive management continues.

Watch the story unfold: https://hubs.li/Q04zjlHx0

Swiftwater Films

Watch how 3.5 miles of tributary restoration transformed four creek...

10/08/2026

We are excited to announce the rollout of our new patent-pending methodology that is changing how environmental projects are identified, evaluated, and prioritized.

By combining predictive analytics with geospatial, hydrologic, engineering, and ecological modeling, EcoSite IQ can rapidly screen broad geographic areas and uncover high-potential opportunities faster.

In early applications, it identified potential water-resource projects with estimated annual yields ranging from 26 million to 665 million gallons. RES is now expanding EcoSite IQ to assess water quality credits, watershed restoration, riparian habitats, and terrestrial biodiversity.

This is the next evolution of environmental project planning: more data, greater precision, and a clearer path from opportunity to action. Read more >> https://hubs.li/Q04zCmQJ0

10/06/2026

In ecology, a restored site is only as durable as the surrounding protection. Wetlands, streams, and native habitat can be rebuilt to function again, but without long-term safeguards, the ground beneath them stays open to development.

That's why we track a second kind of outcome alongside acres restored and miles of stream restored. Across our projects to date, 89,241 acres of land are conserved and protected.

A figure like that is hard to picture at landscape-scale, so we put it in context. Swipe through for the comparison, the role conserved land plays in every other ecometric we report, and one active example: more than 800 acres of longleaf pine savanna, cypress-tupelo swamp, and hardwood forest under restoration in Sam Houston Jones State Park, Louisiana.

Is there a wetland, stream, or forest near you that you’d want protected for the long-term?

See RES’ all-time ecometrics here: https://hubs.li/Q04zj-FB0

10/02/2026

Exactly two years ago today, our client, KRRC, announced the completion of all “in river” work for the removal of the four lower Klamath hydroelectric dams. For the first time in a century, the Klamath River was not bisected by towering barriers.

As the restoration contractor for the largest dam removal and river restoration in US history, our task is to revegetate 2,200 acres of formerly submerged lands. We faced a barren landscape of mudflats, and the race was on to plant the area before invasive exotic vegetation, like yellow starthistle and cheatgrass, dominated the newly exposed sediment.

Our work did not begin the day the dams were officially removed. Our team had been working for years – planning, permitting, and growing billions of native seeds and hundreds of thousands of plants, plugs, and trees. Two days after the reservoirs began to drain in January of 2024, our crews were broadcasting seed on the reservoir shores and following the waterline as it receded day by day. The reservoir footprints were ablaze with poppies, yellow lupine, and scores of other native plants months before the last scoop of material was removed from the last remaining dam.

The salmon have come roaring back, occupying habitat that was inaccessible for a century.

Our Klamath StoryMap chronicles our progress with videos, commentary, and photos that we believe you will find captivating.
https://hubs.li/Q04y_3Tx0

09/11/2026

Urban streams face challenges: erosion, degraded habitat, strained infrastructure. The Lakewood Avenue tributary to Third Fork Creek in Durham, North Carolina, was no exception.

RES partnered with the City of Durham, NC Government on the Lakewood Avenue Stream Stabilization and Enhancement Project to address these challenges. Our work will repair and stabilize a tributary to Third Fork Creek in a highly urbanized area by combining natural-channel design, rock and wood structures, bank stabilization, floodplain reconnection, and native revegetation over approximately 1,000 linear feet.

Executing this stabilization around active stream flows, utilities, sidewalks, roadways, and residential development requires precision and expertise. The result: reduced erosion, improved water quality, protected public infrastructure, and healthier aquatic and riparian habitat.

This work strengthens the Third Fork Creek watershed and showcases what ecological restoration and skilled ex*****on can accomplish in urban settings.

09/09/2026

NFL football returns tonight, which means it won’t be long before South Philadelphia’s stadium lots are filled with cars, grills, and fans heading into the game.

At one of those lots, almost no one will think about the ground beneath their cars. There is no reason they would. But a few years ago, the site was a vacant food warehouse that had sat empty for two decades.

Today, a stormwater basin beneath the pavement captures water that would otherwise add pressure to Philadelphia’s combined sewer system. Fans park and tailgate above it while the infrastructure quietly does its job below.

It is a stadium parking lot and a stormwater solution occupying the same valuable piece of city land. Watch how RES built it and how grant funding helped make it possible: https://hubs.li/Q04x3c800

09/02/2026

Water quality update from the Klamath River. Our monitoring shows measurable improvements post-dam removal.

The dams that once fostered toxic algal blooms, atypical temperatures, and stagnant water have been removed. What we're seeing now: natural temperature rhythms returning, dissolved oxygen levels normalizing, and sediment flowing freely again.

Water warms three weeks earlier in spring and cools three weeks earlier in fall, creating the daily fluctuations that fish need to forage, move freely, and access new habitat. Algal blooms that plagued the former reservoirs have been largely eliminated. The river is improving.

Follow the Klamath River restoration progress at our StoryMap here: https://hubs.li/Q04wjTWZ0

Swiftwater Films

08/24/2026

Innovation does not always mean inventing something new. Sometimes it means recognizing that good science is not reaching the people who could use it and finding a practical way to close that gap.

RES arborist Larsen McBride brought that mindset to the University of Florida’s updated Florida Tree Selector. He worked with Dr. Ryan Klein to develop a tutorial that helps homeowners, landscape professionals and restoration practitioners turn site conditions such as soil, drainage, sunlight and available space into better planting decisions.

As part of our ongoing look at innovation across RES, we spoke with Larsen about making technical knowledge more accessible, avoiding common planting mistakes and one Florida tree he thinks deserves more attention. Check out the interview: https://hubs.li/Q04tS0gb0

07/28/2026

The Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library opened on July 4, 2026, and it's unlike any other presidential library in the country. Built on 40 acres of restored native prairie in North Dakota's badlands, the Library features a walkable green roof planted with more than 140,000 native plants. What makes it special? The entire site was designed so that the architecture and the landscape work together as one system.

RES helped make this possible by integrating ecological planning from the earliest stages of design. The Library is pursuing the world's highest sustainability certifications including Living Building Challenge v4.0, LEED Platinum, and SITES v2 Platinum. This is what happens when conservation design starts at the beginning.

Explore the full story:

Discover how the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library integrates architecture and ecology, creating a sustainable, immersive experience in North Dakota's native prairie.

07/15/2026

RES has been awarded a five-year contract to restore 785 acres at Dutch Gap Forest Preserve in Antioch, Illinois, one of the larger aquatic ecosystem restoration efforts underway in the region. The project spans wetland, prairie, savanna, fen, riparian, and channel habitats. More than 64,000 linear feet of legacy drain tile. More than 190,000 native plugs, trees, and shrubs. Many years of adaptive management ahead.

Read more: https://hubs.li/Q04pxVcT0