The 2025 Urban Riparian Symposium, held in February in Waco, TX, brought together researchers, educators and water professionals from across the state for a three-day conference covering a wide array of topics related to urban riparian areas.
Cohosted by the Texas Water Resources Institute and the Texas Riparian Association, this year's conference focused on the theme, “Bridging nature and the city.” It highlighted urban challenges related to streams, while also opening the floor to people outside of the urban sphere who have riparian challenges, organizer and TWRI Program Specialist Alexander Neal said.
“Another part of that theme is urban corridors, these riparian corridors in our urban areas that are like little slices of nature in urbanized settings,” he said. “They're important, and we celebrated them through all of the information shared at the conference.”
The symposium is a biannual event covering topics, research studies and education efforts related to riparian ecosystems.
“We leave it up to our presenters who want to come speak on related topics,” Neal said. “We see what they're all bringing to the table, and then we organize our sessions to the topics people bring. Riparian topics are always covered, and then there's some more broad water resource topics, flood plain planning, nutrient enrichment and green stormwater infrastructure.”
With around 125 attendees at this year's symposium, Neal and volunteers worked to host an engaging event.
“I'm very fortunate to have a little army of committed volunteers who volunteer through the Texas Riparian Association and helped me put it together,” he said. “They work for all kinds of different local, regional and state governments in Texas, and for private companies and other agencies.”
Keynote speakers were Chris Johnson, owner of Living Waters Fly Fishing, and Robert Mace, Ph.D., executive director of The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University.
Along with hearing from keynote speakers, the symposium also hosted panels, smaller sessions, poster presentations and tables from various agencies.
“Our keynote speakers did a great job, and one of my favorite things was the long-term stream restoration maintenance panel moderated by Nora Schell from the city of Waco that had three panel members on it,” Neal said. “She did a great job asking them questions about challenges and methods in maintaining these restoration projects that a lot of us are a part of.”
Events like these help highlight the importance of riparian zones, especially as growing urban areas look to incorporate nature with infrastructure. The symposium also connects water professionals with each other and to resources they might not have otherwise known about.
“Riparian areas are very interesting, and require preferential treatment, but understanding those areas and figuring out how to manage them better requires pretty interdisciplinary thought and interdisciplinary backgrounds, and this conference is a great way to attend a lot of different talks that all can help your skill set in working on these challenging environments,” Neal said.
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