A Guide to Designing Effective Riparian Buffers

Mike Dosskey

Riparian buffers are a land management practice that offers an efficient way to balance conservation and production needs in agricultural regions. Extensive conversion of land to crop and forage production often leaves little area suited for production and protection of ecological and social resources such as fish and wildlife, clean water, and recreation. Riparian areas, which include land next to streams, lakes, and wetlands, are uniquely situated on the landscape and capable of simultaneously producing numerous and varied conservation benefits. Through proper design, riparian buffers can effectively address multiple needs and be tailored to fit specific situations, thereby creating more balanced land use systems.

The design of a riparian buffer amounts to identifying its width, the vegetation it contains, and its management to produce and maintain desired benefits over the long term. There are four basic steps to follow when designing a riparian buffer:

1. Determine what benefits are needed. A landowner may have site-scale needs such as control of bank erosion and protection from flood damage. The surrounding community may be interested in watershed or landscape- scale objectives such as reducing non-point source pollution or creating wildlife corridors.

2. Identify the best types of vegetation to provide the desired benefits. Some vegetation types are better than oth ers for providing certain benefits. For example, grass is better than trees for filtering sediment from crop field runoff; forest provides more shade and large debris to a stream.

3. Determine the minimum acceptable width. Minimum acceptable width is one that provides acceptable levels of all desired benefits at an acceptable cost. It is determined by the specific desired benefit that requires the greatest width. For example, a narrow buffer may be adequate to stabilize banks and settle sediment from field runoff, but it must be wider to create an effective wildlife corridor and filter nutrients from runoff. Since a wider buffer costs more for materials and installation, as well as removes land from commodity production, a mini mum-acceptable-width approach seeks to balance conservation and economics.

4. Develop an installation and management plan. For installation, consult local experts for preferred species, sources of plant materials, and establishment techniques. Periodic vegetation management activities may be required in order to maintain desired habitat structure and water filtering functions. The maintenance schedule should be flexible and fit around the landowner’s commodity production schedule.

In response to growing conservation issues in agricultural areas, several federal programs have been created to encourage farmers and ranchers to install riparian buffers. The USDA has established a goal of installing 2,000,000 miles of agricultural buffers, including riparian, by 2002. Financial incentives are provided though the Conservation Reserve Program, Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program, and Environmental Quality Incentives Program, among others. So long as riparian buffers are applied within the scope of these programs, much of the cost can be covered. The USDA-NRCS field offices provide help to get enrolled in these programs and to develop appropriate buffer designs. Many states, conservation districts, and conservation organizations provide additional assistance to landowners to augment these federal programs.

Mike Dosskey
USDA National Agroforestry Center
East Campus-Unl
Lincoln, NE 68583-0822
Tel: (402) 437-5178 ext. 25
mdosskey@fs.fed.us

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