Van Clothier, founder

Van Clothier graduated from the University of California in 1982 with a bachelors degree in physics and a math minor. He started his watershed restoration business Stream Dynamics, Inc. in 2002 after various careers including computer modeling of infrared sensor performance, and managing recycling programs in California, Hawaii, and New Mexico.

Purchasing remote property on the last free flowing river in the state in 1990 led him into riparian restoration. He enjoys collaborating on projects with regional drylands stream restoration and water harvesting experts including Bill Zeedyk, Craig Sponholtz, Steve Vrooman, and Brad Lancaster.

He has completed the Natural Channel Design stream restoration course schedule taught by Dr. Dave Rosgen, and is a licensed user of RiverMORPH, software specifically designed for this application. Other equipment includes laser level, Sub meter GPS, ArcGIS 9.2.

He is an experienced riparian restoration heavy equipment operator. Van has worked extensively with Bill Zeedyk on a variety of restoration projects in New Mexico and Arizona. He has recently finished co-authoring a book with Bill Zeedyk Let the Water Do the Work: Induced Meandering, an Evolving Method for Restoring Incised Channels.

Van is an avid ground and aerial photographer and maintains a stream restoration photo database. Stream Dynamics, Inc. specializes in drylands fluvial geomorphology, riparian restoration and water harvesting earth works. This includes grant writing, watershed assessment, design, restoration construction, monitoring, report writing and educational presentations.

Clients include the Malpai Borderlands group, a landscape scale restoration project that has built 3,000 rock water harvesting structures to date; Amigos de Valles Caldera, currently doing watershed restoration work on Valles Caldera Trust lands; and a wide variety of large and small private and public landowners, land managers and watershed groups who have erosion problems that can be turned into water harvesting opportunities. 

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