Symposium Short Courses 2027

Half Day – Morning

Instructors:
The Whitener Group – Jennifer Whitener Ulrich, CEO, and Bob Whitener, Co-Owner
Website: The Whitener Group

Description:
Bring your real questions. This two-hour workshop is built around what you need to know about working with tribes, not a canned lecture. Before the symposium, registrants will get a short survey asking for their top two burning questions about tribal engagement, and we'll shape the session around the answers. Expect frank, practical discussion on topics like the legal framework tribes work within, how to work with tribal natural resources staff (and when an issue needs to go to tribal leadership instead), and how treaty fishing rights shape restoration work today. You'll leave with clearer answers, fewer assumptions, and a better sense of how to engage the tribes in your own watershed.

Course schedule:
10:00 am–12:00 pm
10:00–10:30 Welcome, introductions, and framing: tribes as governments and the legal framework they work within
10:30–11:00 Tribes and natural resources (treaty fishing rights, working with tribal staff and leadership, etc.)
11:00–11:30 Burning questions (topics set from registrant survey responses)
11:30–12:00 Open Q&A and wrap-up

Course objective and anticipated skill transfer:

Approach tribes as sovereign governments, using an intergovernmental framework rather than treating them as the “S-word” (stakeholders).
Understand the legal framework that shapes tribal authority over natural resources, including treaties and the federal trust responsibility.
Explain how treaty-reserved fishing rights continue to drive resource protection and restoration priorities.
Navigate tribal government structure: who to contact, what is appropriate to work through staff-to-staff, and when to engage elected leadership.
Leave with concrete next steps for engaging the tribes connected to your projects.

Material to be covered:
Content is shaped by the registrant Burning Questions survey (December–January). Planned topics, based on RRNW's input, include:

Tribal sovereignty and the intergovernmental framework: why it matters for restoration work
The legal framework tribes work within
Treaty fishing rights and their ongoing role in protecting resources
Working with tribal natural resources staff, including non-tribal-member staff: what to ask staff-to-staff and when to go to tribal leadership
Additional topics drawn from survey responses
Facilitated discussion and open Q&A throughout

Target audience and recommended prerequisites:
Restoration practitioners, agency staff, consultants, land trust and nonprofit staff, and anyone who works with, or will be working with, tribes on river and natural resource projects. No prerequisites. Completing TWG's Indian Country 101 (IC101) course beforehand is recommended so we can spend workshop time on your questions instead of the basics.

Recommended pre-symposium reading and/or web site:
Indian Country 101 (IC101), The Whitener Group

Equipment required:
None

Jennifer Whitener Ulrich, MBA – Jennifer holds a master's in business administration with an emphasis in sustainable business and entrepreneurship. She brings tribal business expertise combined with many years of marketing and strategic planning facilitation experience. Much of her work centers on tribal engagement training: she created the Indian Country 101 (IC101) course series, which teaches the history, governance, and legal foundations that non-tribal organizations need before they sit down with tribal governments, and she delivers live tribal engagement trainings for agencies, land trusts, nonprofits, and businesses working to build durable government-to-government relationships. In addition to her work with numerous clients over the last 11 years at TWG, Jennifer manages all of TWG's operations and serves as the point of contact between the majority of our clients and our consultants.

Bob Whitener, MPA – As an owner and managing member of The Whitener Group, Bob Whitener has over 30 years of experience working with tribal governments and enterprises within Indian Country. Bob has a bachelor's degree with an emphasis in Business Management and a Master of Public Administration. In addition to having run tribal corporations and governments, he has extensive experience in natural resources management, finance administration, human resources systems, tribal-state compact negotiations, policy development, and federal negotiations.

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Half Day – Afternoon

Instructor:
Janine Castro

We are offering a Part I online (Friday, January 8, 2027, 1:00-3:00 PM). This will allow those who are presenting at RRNW time to incorporate the information from this great workshop into their presentations. Part 2 will be in person on Monday, February 1.

Description:
River restoration is one of the most exciting and dynamic scientific fields – we should reflect our enthusiasm and passion in every talk we give and every message we deliver. Improve your speaking skills, feel less nervous, and begin to enjoy getting up in front of a crowd. Join me to learn simple tips and techniques to dramatically improve your delivery and impact. You will leave the workshop armed with useful skills to develop and deliver inspired presentations and to improve your everyday communication. Whether you are a seasoned speaker or a relative novice, if you are a ‘scientist who communicates’ then this course is for you.

Course objective and anticipated skill transfer:
Boost your presentation confidence and impact. Join me for a highly interactive, 6-hour blended course (a 2-hour online session followed by a 4-hour in-person workshop) designed to sharpen your science communication skills.
Whether you are a novice or a seasoned speaker, this course uses real-time feedback and collective group experience to transform how you present. It is particularly valuable for anyone planning to speak at River Restoration Northwest.

What you will gain:
• Practical skills immediately transferable to your everyday professional communication.
• A comprehensive checklist to structure and deliver future talks.
• Optional personalized coaching on your verbal delivery and presence.

Material to be covered:

PLAN (months to weeks in advance)
Message – the single narrative
Planning before PowerPoint
DESIGN (months to weeks in advance)
Title – short and memorable
Opening Sentence
Closing Sentence
Prepare your audiovisuals – clarify, simplify, distill
PRACTICE (weeks to days in advance)
Memorize your visuals, message, opening sentence, final sentence
Practice out loud – PowerPoint coach
PREPARE (days to hours in advance)
Stop working on audiovisuals
Sleep and hydrate
Wear something that is ‘quiet’ and comfortable
Tour the room
DELIVER
Audio & Visual
Voice
Tone and volume
Inflection – avoid monotone
Pace – slow down
Pauses – the dramatic effect
Body language and eye contact
Props – books, cups, glasses, example materials
Stories
Questions
EVALUATE

Target audience and recommended prerequisites:
Everyone…especially if you will be speaking at RRNW or any other conference or gathering

Recommended pre-symposium reading and/or web site:
None

Equipment required:
None

Instructor Bio:
Janine Castro is a geomorphologist with more than 30 years of experience working in rivers across the United States, with a primary focus on the Columbia River Basin in the Pacific Northwest. She provides national and international training in stream restoration, river science, geomorphology, and public speaking for scientists. Janine is co-founder and Technical Director of the River Restoration Program at Portland State University, which offers an integrated professional certificate through five core courses. She also serves on the Columbia Estuary Ecosystem Restoration Program’s Expert Regional Technical Group, where she reviews large-scale ecosystem restoration projects in the lower Columbia River floodplain and estuary. Janine is one of the five founding members of River Restoration Northwest and the co-founder of Science Talk. She recently retired from federal service after 24 years with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, where she worked as a geomorphologist and supervisory scientist. Prior to that, she spent 10 years with the US Department of Agriculture, working directly with private landowners.

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Full Day

Instructor:
Maggie Chumbley

Description:
When the path forward is already clear, facilitating a meeting is mostly about sticking to an agenda. When the path forward is unknown, without precedent, and doesn't follow a clear cause and effect pattern, a meeting becomes a space for discovery. Uncertainty and complexity are where facilitation becomes leadership and offers its greatest value.

River restoration work is full of chronic, recurring challenges that do not resolve into clean answers. We face competing priorities, long timelines, shifting stakeholders, and lots of uncertainty. This course frames facilitation as a leadership practice suited to the terrain we navigate and the kinds of challenges where there is low certainty and low agreement on how to proceed.

We will explore key principles of facing complexity and the practical structures that allow us to apply these principals in our facilitating of meetings and collaborative initiatives.

Course objective and anticipated skill transfer:
Participants will come away understanding the core characteristics of complex adaptive systems and the kinds of challenges they produce. Alongside this understanding, participants will build a repertoire of structures that support skillful engagement with that kind of complexity. Participants will leave with both a new way of seeing their work and a set of practical structures for leading within them.

Material to be covered:
We will explore the concepts and facilitative practices for themes like holding paradox, allowing direction to emerge rather than specifying it in advance, working with uncertain futures, orienting a group around its foundational purpose, and doing strategy work that accounts for how nested systems influence one another.

Target audience and recommended prerequisites:
This course is for you if you lead or facilitate meetings, workgroups, strategy, or collaborative initiatives. If you're in a challenge that hasn't budged, a process that is stalled, or a decision that has no clean answer. This course is built for that kind of terrain.

No prior facilitation training required. It’s great if you come with a real challenge in mind. You'll leave with new ways of seeing it and specific structures to try.

Recommended pre-symposium reading and/or web sites:

Equipment required:
None

Instructor Bio:

Maggie Chumbley is the founder of Lead Groups Better Inc. and has worked as a professional facilitator, trainer, and coach in public sector and environmental contexts for over a decade. This training is offered in partnership with River Restoration Northwest.

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Full Day

Instructors:
Peter Skidmore, P.G.
Jeremy Sueltenfuss, PhD

Description:
Process-based restoration (PBR) is a conceptual philosophy of restoration that recognizes rivers as dynamic systems driven by interacting processes and encourages engagement of those processes to improve and sustain river health. The uncomfortable truth is that most restoration is not realizing its goals because it is not embracing these principles. Riverscape restoration isn’t rocket science, but there are practical considerations and principles that can make or break a project or lead to greater certainty in outcomes. This course is designed for project sponsors and project managers who want to give their projects the best chance of success. It presents principles and applications of PBR and a structured framework and practical take-home tools for project management. Through this training you will come to understand the state of the science and practice of river restoration, how to carry those principles of PBR through funding, contracting, project design and stewardship. Whether you know a little of the science and practice or a lot, the workshop will serve as a forum to learn and share.

Your instructors for this course bring a wealth of experience in practical project management, teaching and training, and development of restoration science and foundational industry guidance.

Course objective and anticipated skill transfer:
The objective of the course is to empower restoration project leaders to integrate process-based restoration principles in project development and management.

Material to be covered:
The course covers: principles of riverscape health, principles of process-based restoration, restoration project development and management and project design and contracting.

Target audience:
The target audience is anyone responsible for funding, sponsoring or managing a river restoration project. This is a non-technical workshop with no prerequisites other than curiosity.

Recommended pre-symposium reading and/or web sites:
Course Pre-Reads

Equipment required:
None

Instructor Bios:

Peter Skidmore is Principal of Dipper Consulting, working to protect and restore healthy river systems. Peter is a Professional Geologist with a degree in Water Resources Geography from Montana State University and expertise developed through his career in hydrology, geomorphology and riparian ecology. Peter has focused his 30+ years career on improving outcomes for river restoration and conservation including work in restoration design, conservation planning, river management guidance and training, and river-focused philanthropy and NGO leadership. He provides expertise to inform restoration programs and projects and is currently advising tech corporations on mitigating water footprints, foundations on nature-based solutions strategy, public agencies on programmatic restoration funding, and NGOs on project-specific restoration. When not working, Peter spends most of his time enjoying wild places on public lands.

Jeremy Sueltenfuss is an associate professor at Colorado State University where he leads the Mountain Systems Ecology and Restoration lab. Jeremy’s research and teaching focus on ecology and ecological restoration. He and his graduate students focus on degraded floodplain and wetland ecosystems with the aim of designing and implementing enduring restoration solutions and advancing the practice of ecological restoration. Jeremy is also a technical advisor for SWCA environmental consultants, and has worked on restoration projects throughout North and South America.

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Full Day

Instructors:

Luke Swan (Fluvial Geomorphologist) – Inter-Fluve
Emily Alcott (Ecologist) – Inter-Fluve
Peter Benchetler (Water Resources Engineer) – Inter-Fluve
Leif Embertson (Water Resources Engineer) – Natural Systems Design
Tim Abbe (Geomorphologist) - Natural Systems Design
Paul Schlenger (Fisheries Biologist) – Natural Systems Design

Description:
Large wood can play a transformative role in river processes and in restoration actions, but successful projects depend on understanding when, where, and how to use it. This one-day short course provides a practical, process-based framework for integrating large wood into restoration planning and design, helping participants connect river processes, project objectives, and site constraints. Through real-world examples and applied decision-making, attendees will gain the knowledge and confidence to develop effective, defensible strategies that support both biologic and geomorphic restoration goals.

Course objective and anticipated skill transfer:
By the end of the course, participants should be better able to:

Interpret how large wood functions within river systems and how wood behavior varies with river and reach context.
Determine where and how wood should be part of a restoration strategy based on processes, objectives (both biologic and geomorphic), and constraints.
Distinguish when natural wood processes can be supported versus when deliberate design or engineering is warranted.
Translate restoration objectives into expected river responses and key design considerations.
Evaluate mobility, stability, risk, consequence, and constructability when developing a wood approach.
Develop and communicate a defensible planning- or concept-level strategy for incorporating wood into a restoration project.

Material to be covered:

How large wood functions in river systems, including wood recruitment, transport, retention, redistribution, and interaction with flow, sediment, channel form, vegetation, and aquatic habitat.
How to evaluate whether wood should be incorporated into a restoration strategy based on river setting, process understanding, biological and geomorphic objectives, constraints, and desired outcomes.
How to determine the appropriate level of design rigor, including when to rely on natural wood processes, when deliberate design or engineering is warranted, and how uncertainty, stability, dynamism, infrastructure, river use, and permitting affect design decisions.
How to translate restoration objectives into treatment strategies, design criteria, expected river responses, wood placement approaches, material selection, configuration, and restraint methods.
How to assess mobility, stability, risk, consequence, and constructability when developing a wood approach, including construction access, sequencing, equipment capabilities, safety, material handling, and field adjustments.
Application of course concepts through hands-on exercise, case studies, group discussion, and Q&A focused on developing defensible planning- or concept-level approaches for incorporating wood into restoration projects.

Target audience and recommended prerequisites:
River restoration practitioners including project planners, scientists and engineers looking to increase their understanding of wood processes and when and how to incorporate them into restoration treatment strategies.Several years of education and/or experience with river processes and the practice of restoration will support greater understanding in this class.

Recommended pre-symposium reading and/or websites:
Pre-symposium materials will be provided by January 15 and sent directly to registrants.

Equipment required:
None

Instructor Bios:

Luke Swan is a senior fluvial geomorphologist with 20 years of experience in the application of analytical and quantitative tools to watershed and stream restoration projects. In addition to leading complex restoration projects across the Western United States, he has also been an instructor in the areas of applied fluvial geomorphology, sediment transport, and stream simulation crossing design. Luke relies on a balanced mix of field and analytical skills to apply a science and evidence-based approach to restoration that seeks to understand the linkages between physical processes at the watershed, reach, and site scales. He believes that this approach is key to building resiliency in our projects and communities.

Emily Alcott, CE, PWS, RPBio is a principal ecologist and fluvial geomorphologist with 18 years of experience in river and wetland restoration throughout North America. Emily’s specialty lies at the intersection between riparian ecology and river processes and how these disciplines influence each other. She has experience in assessment, design, and construction observation across a wide range of river corridors, from wildland mountain streams in the North Cascades to constrained urban systems like Toronto’s Don River. Emily’s skillset includes riparian plant ecology assessment and design, stream and floodplain design, large wood and habitat structure design, and wetland assessment and delineation.

Peter Benchetler, PE is a senior water resources engineer with over 12 years specializing in process-based design for large, dynamic rivers, including helicopter-assisted large wood placements, and brings a focus on integrating geomorphic and ecological principles into restoration efforts. He is adept at applying complex hydraulic modeling to river restoration design, and developing in-house tools to streamline technical analyses, evaluate project effects, and assess outcomes such as river channel evolution and fish habitat improvements.

Leif Embertson, PE, MS, CFM — Leif brings 25 years of experience in river engineering, co-authoring the engineering and risk-considerations chapters of the National Large Wood Manual (USBR and ERDC, 2016) and spending two decades designing and analyzing large wood and engineered logjam structures for stability, hydraulic loading, and constructability. He served as principal in charge and design lead on Seattle City Light's Sullivan Creek program, where NSD designed placements more than 2,000 pieces of large wood across 15 miles of channel using ground, helicopter, and riparian-tipping methods.

Tim Abbe, PhD, LEG, LHG — Tim brings 37 years of experience in fluvial geomorphology and large wood design. His PhD research examined the hydraulic and geomorphic role of wood in river systems, work that led him to design and help install one of the region's first engineered logjams on the North Fork Stillaguamish River in 1999. He went on to help author multiple manuals and peer reviewed scientific papers including the National Large Wood Manual (USBR and ERDC, 2016), now a standard reference for wood-based restoration design nationally, and has spent decades assessing how wood is naturally recruited and distributed in rivers to inform large wood placement and structure design.

Paul Schlenger, MS, FP-C — Paul brings 26 years of experience as NSD's Fisheries Biology Lead, focused on the habitat side of large wood design: translating salmon and steelhead life-history needs into the habitat objectives that guide where and how wood structures get placed. He has served on the Washington Salmon Recovery Funding Board's Technical Review Panel since 2005 and reviews constructed large wood projects for fish use and habitat outcomes after installation.

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Monday Short Courses for 2027

Overview

Registration

HALF DAY SHORT COURSES

Tribal Engagement Workshop

Speaking of Science: Currents of Communication

FULL DAY SHORT COURSES

Facilitating Tough Terrain

Process-Based Restoration for Project Sponsors and Managers

Wood in a Functioning River System