EcoMetrics is a small group of applied scientists united in the mission of improving ecological health for people and nature.  Mark Beardsley has a master’s degree in ecology and bachelor’s degrees in chemistry and biology.  Jessica Doran has a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s in wildlife and conservation biology.  Mark and Jessica have been working together since the 1990s and formed EcoMetrics to apply our passion for natural science in restoration.  Over the past 20 years, we’ve applied scientific methods to monitor dozens of projects in Colorado mountain headwaters, and we’ve seen what tends to work and what doesn’t.  Dave Sutherland came to EcoMetrics after a full career at the forefront of geodetic surveying.  In addition to being the smartest guy we’ve ever met, Dave brought the technical expertise that allowed us to up the scale of monitoring and assessment using sophisticated survey and mapping techniques, remote sensing, and drones.

 

We haven’t given up on nature.  We think restoration should be an ecological healing process and a logical extension of environmental ethics.  We believe that restoring healthy ecosystems by reviving natural processes is better than imposing designs and building habitat.  Stabilized stream channels and enhanced habitat have their places in the modern world, but when it comes to resilience, sustainability, and ecosystem services, there is still no substitute for the real thing.  We’ve been promoting the importance of ecological  health, complexity, dynamicity, and biological drivers for a decade, and have recently been teaching courses on the stream evolution model, Stage-0 restoration, beaver restoration, and low-tech process-based restoration.

 

We believe that testing hypotheses with rigorous scientific data and constantly challenging our assumptions in an open collaborative community is the best way to advance knowledge and the practice of stream and wetland restoration.  We are eager to share our experiences and learn from others, and we are constantly challenging ourselves and our peers to find the best ways of working with nature to accomplish stream restoration and management goals.  

 

Our decades of experience studying Colorado headwaters streams has led us to the inescapable realization that riparian connectivity and beavers are profoundly important drivers of stream health and function.  This is now our focus.  We now work mostly with land trusts, watershed groups, and other conservation partnerships to promote process-based restoration, beaver expansion, and enlightened land stewardship to Colorado headwaters.  We formed Riparian Reconnect in 2016 with our longtime friends and restoration partners at Colorado Open Lands, Dr. Brad Johnson and Scott Gillilan to upscale this work and study its effectiveness in the Colorado Rocky Mountains.

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