How to Protect/Care for Your River Buffer

How to Protect/Care for your River Buffer

One of the most important places on your property is the riparia—the corridors of vegetation or buffers along the edge of the river. A buffer of vegetation defends the river from runoff pollutants and sediment, and protects your property from floods and erosion.

According to the Watershed Resource Center, there are three kinds of buffers:

•Filter Buffer, permanent areas vegetation along a river. This type works very well to reduce nutrient and pesticide run off and prevents soil erosion.

•Forest Buffers, strips of woodlots that work well along a fast moving stream. The deep root systems of trees provide the greatest natural protection and prevent soil from washing away.

• Contour Buffers, strips of permanent sod, mainly used on farms between row of crops, but variations can be used to provide edge habitat for wildlife and when trees are included, windbreaks along a river.

The United States Department of Agriculture Research Service is currently researching the affect of slope and rainfall on pathogens in buffers. Preliminary funding may be available in the spring of 2002.

The riparian zone

The riparian zone or filter strip idea for a river includes the sloping river bank and the 50 to 100foot strip of large and small plants behind it—native groundcover plants such as wild strawberry and clover; herbaceous wildflowers such as Virginia bluebell and trout lily; shrubs such as spicebush and pawpaw; and trees such as river birch, red osier and red maple.

In short, riparium (the singular of riparia) is the entire riverside ecosystem of plants and animals, soils and rocks that affect the river and, in turn, are affected by it. It needs to be protected, stabilized and cared for.

While healthy stream banks will not prevent flooding of your property, they minimize damage. The plants growing there can decrease the force of a flood, reducing the velocity of the water so it does less damage. Root systems also keep the riverside soils porous so they can absorb some of the rising flood water.

Not only does a healthy riparium benefit you, it also provides food and cover for animals such as otters, muskrats, deer, beavers, wood turtles and nesting sites for varieties of birds such as kingfishers, ducks and other waterfowl. Overhanging stream bank trees shade the stream in summer, cooling the water, and enhancing habitat for local fish such as smallmouth bass and rock bass. It also provides leaf litter as food source for aquatic life such as mayflies, dragonflies, stoneflies–an important link in the river food chain.

You can protect your riparia in many different ways–by planting live plants, or using materials such as straw and rocks to improve the value of your property. All this limits damage from erosion and flooding, safeguards the water quality of your waterway, and creates a pleasant area for swimming, walking, and enjoying nature.

Why are plants so important?

The buffer of trees, shrubs and ground vegetation along your river forms a network of roots that act as an anchor to hold your riverbank soil in place. It is a living filter that traps sediments and absorbs pollutants before they enter the river. It protects the river from many human activities that disturb the land—adjacent plowed fields, over-fertilized lawns and gardens, logged slopes, and roads under construction.

Eroding soil, sand and gravel from damaged stream banks are considered some of the most damaging impacts on the river. Silt spreads though the river and covers the river bed with a film of sediment that suffocates spawning beds of fish and aquatic insects. Soil erosion also causes the water to become turbid or muddy, clouding it with soil particles, irritating fish gills and making it difficult for fish to catch their food.

Over-fertilization of your lawn or garden can cause excess chemicals to drain into the river. Major pollutants of fertilizers include the nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus. These nutrients are essential for the growth and development of plants, but when they wash into the river, they encourage the rapid growth of algae that spreads across the river and blocks off sunlight from the more beneficial submerged underwater plants, so essential to fish and other aquatic organisms. As the vegetation dies, the decaying process depletes the oxygen in the water and causes suffocation of fish.

How to protect your riverbank

There are many things you can easily do to protect your riverbank from eroding or collapsing into the river:

•First, do not mow or remove the vegetation growing in the area near the river. Sometimes new riverfront lot owners like to clear a vista to the river, "tidy things up," "get rid of unsightly tangles" and "clear away the underbrush." Go easy! Such enthusiasm for neatness removes the very things that stabilize the banks: the plants!

•Encourage as wide a streambed vegetation buffer as possible, as much as 100 feet or more.

•Do not allow active running games such as soccer, football, baseball, or volleyball near the bank. Running feet can pack down the soil so hard that rain and air cannot percolate down through the soil to nourish plant roots, causing the eventual death of your valuable plants.

•Protect the bank by keeping it free from wandering animals, especially from cattle which trample down riverbanks in their search for water. Install wire fencing about 12 feet from the top of the bank, and develop springs, wells, and ponds with watering troughs for the livestock.

•Do not use the riverbank corridor as a parking lot, or for storing machines or unwanted junk.

•Instead, use the riverbank area for walking, bird watching, swimming, whistling. Put up a hammock under the trees and listen to the river or read a good book.

•Do not use heavy' machinery along the river, for it can compact the soil–and might overload the bank so it collapses.

•Prohibit all irresponsible use of motor vehicles along the riverbanks and adjacent steep slopes, especially all terrain vehicles (ATVs). Their destruction in tearing up the banks cannot be easily repaired.

•Do not erect structures in the riparia—most buildings are forbidden in flood plains.

•Be careful if you want to install steps in the riverbank to reach the river, or cut a boat access. Be sure you study and understand the dynamics of the river currents at your property, the geology and hydrology of the area. Get professional help to plan any digging you intend.

•Protect your river trees from beavers by wrapping them with wire mesh three feet high.