Talk at the meeting centered on the best practices of the time: reconnecting the stream with some of its floodplains by reclaiming adjacent property, removing armoring and reintroducing native plants along the banks. Lynch boldly told the group the project should go further: rebuild the missing hyporheic zone. That would mean reclaiming space under the stream, filling it with sand and gravel and potentially bringing back the zone’s tiny inhabitants.

Source: To Revive a River, Restore Its Hidden Gut – Scientific American