Prior to the formation of Anabranch Solutions, the founding members worked with and developed many of our current ideas and practices of Low-tech Process-Based Restoration with Eco Logical Research (ELR).  Nick Bouwes is the founder and owner of ELR (which is closing it’s doors officially at the end of 2024) which he started in 2005. ELR specialized in developing survey designs for fish and habitat, and in the development of monitoring programs that demonstrate the effectiveness of stream restoration projects.  ELR was also a key member of the Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP) that worked to develop the CHaMP protocol. ELR was also an early adopter of the river styles framework which provides a comprehensive framework for assessing geomorphic setting and conditions, recovery potential, and prioritization of degraded riverscapes. Joe Wheaton (Principal Founder of Anabranch) and the ETAL Lab at Utah State University were hired by ELR to work on and develop these products. This is when sparks flew between Nick and Joe as they applied their two disciplines (Nick the fish ecologist and Joe the geomorphologist) to the complex issue of salmon recovery in the Columbia River Basin. All of these monumental efforts led to many of the ideas and understandings of riverscape health that spawned Anabranch Solutions and the practice and philosophy we now call Low-tech Process-based Restoration. Thanks ELR!