River Continuum Concepts is a small consulting firm offering large values.  I have worked for Academia, Government, and Industry. In all these work environments I have found that there are many smaller organizations that require the  input and guidance of an experienced professional environmental biologist. They often have neither the need, nor resources, to fill a full time aquatic biologist position. Or, if they have an aquatic scientist, they often need input from a more-experienced specialist in ecological study design. Spending a few hours meeting during the early stages of an assessment can help ensure that you get what you need from your monitoring program--and, equally important, ensure that your resource managers understand the limitations of your monitoring design.  This is why we are here at RCC!

Nearly every county, in nearly every state, has at least one Conservation District. These groups are tasked with working toward conservation and stewardship of soil and water resources locally, cooperatively. They fill a niche between local, state and federal governments and must work effectively with all levels of organization--and they do amazingly well at this task. Yet, it is not always easy to keep everyone happy.  State and Federal agencies often have goals that are divergent from local interests.  River Continuum Concepts is here to help balance the scales... to ensure application of the very best science for local concerns is considered as well as regulatory objectives.  Often there is a significant overlap, and local, state and federal goals can all be attained with a little planing.

River Continuum Concepts specializes on local projects--all over the USA!  We are based in Willow Creek, Montana, a small riverside town of ranches, hayfields, and recreational river enthusiasts. We focus on developing local monitoring programs to provide goal-oriented information. That sounds like a mouthful of fluff (this is a family website :)), but it has a very specific meaning. For example, we design studies to produce data to specifically demonstrate the benefits of restoration activities--to demonstrate the efficacy of new effluent treatment procedures... or to ensure that certain land-use activities don't start to have ecologically significant impairments of water quality--BEFORE they cause violations of legislated water quality criteria.  It is obviously in everyone's best interest to resolve things before the regulatory authorities become involved.

The River Continuum Concept (Vannote et al. 1980) is a scientific framework for describing the predictable ways in which flowing ecosystems are expected to change spatially. For example, small headwaters are naturally different from large deltas. These differences extend beyond appearance to the very function of the food webs and the species comprising aquatic communities. Changes may appear categorical, but actually occur gradually, along a continuum.  Not all streams fit the river continuum model, but even so, the river continuum concept is the most common framework used to discuss how these streams deviate from expectations.

This is an important concept for biological monitoring for many reasons. Among these reasons is the fact that many impairments or disturbances cause streams to behave differently than expected according to the river continuum concept (Vannote et al. 1980). Thus, although my team's name: River Continuum Concepts is a play on words, it is reflective of the underlying biological and physical interactions that make each stream unique--and the importance of understanding this uniqueness.

We apply this and other ecological concepts to develop specific monitoring plans to meet your groups specific needs.

Planning:
One of the most important services we offer is planning. We can draw on my experience and that of my team to help you plan a monitoring program to meet your goals. This is more important than most people realize and few people are actually prepared for key initial step.
Once stakeholders have developed quantitative goals, realistic budgets can be prepared. Or, if the budget is predetermined, we can help you prioritize sampling efforts to help you attain your goals--or adjust the goals as required.

Field Work:
We can help with the field work or training your field crew. Field sampling designs often need to be modified to meet specific goals. These may include habitat-based sample stratification or some other quantitative alteration of standard sampling protocols. If you cannot afford for us to collect the samples we can train your staff to collect samples.

Analysis:
We can process field and laboratory data in to meaningful results. With a broad array of statistical tests, descriptive statistics,  and graphical analysis.

Reporting:
We can summarize analytical results into technical reports that meet the requirements of "credible analysis," as laid forth in credible data laws of the united states.  These reports are however too thick for public consumption. Therefore clients often have us follow-up with non-technical reports--which highlight the main findings and aspects that the client finds particularly important to share with the public. Finally, many clients need to periodically present the results to the public. We can help prepare public meetings and facilitate communication of results to the public. Finally, i often present results at scientific meetings to ensure that the analysis and results meet the rigors of scientific peer-review process.  If there is need, i can help you get these results published in peer-reviewed journals.

We also have patented an invertebrate sampling method for large rivers--or fine sedimented rivers. we can sell the samplers to you directly or rent them to you. email me for information. (see link on left!)