Are you looking for a way to attract wildlife while at the same time protecting your watershed?  Well, look no further, one of the easiest ways to do this is by incorporating riparian buffers into your waterfront landscape.  A riparian zone is the place where land and flowing water meet.  

Riparian buffers offer many benefits once they are established.  They improve water quality by trapping sediment and other pollutants moving across the landscape before they enter water and then also by filtering the water as it moves downstream.   The plants found along the water’s edge provide habitat to all sorts of aquatic and terrestrial wildlife.  They also shade portions of the water, keeping the sun from warming the waters too fast.  Decomposed plant material from the riparian zone is an important part of the aquatic food chain.  Finally, riparian buffers also increase property value—a win-win for homeowners and wildlife!

Many plants and wildlife thrive in close proximity to water and a continuous riparian corridor along a stream provides a safe passageway for wildlife and migrating birds.  Forested riparian buffers are particularly important for the coldwater streams of Rockymarsh Run and the fish that depend on this cold water.

If you already have a riparian buffer on your land, please preserve it.  If not, you can create a buffer simply by not mowing or cutting vegetation with in 35-100 feet of any streams on your property.  A grassed buffer strip will be greatly enhanced by planting trees and shrubs within it.  However, in this area extra care will need to be taken to prevent your plantings from becoming food for deer.

The plants that you find in these areas tend to love wet feet.  Here are a few native to our area:

Trees

• Silver maple, Acer saccharinum
• American sycamore, Platanus occidentalis
• Black walnut, Juglans nigra
• Black willow, Salix nigra
• River birch, Betula nigra
• Honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos

Shrubs

• Wild hydrangea, Hydrangea arborescens
• Black chokeberry, Photinia melanocarpa
• Common elderberry, Sambucus canadensis
• Black haw, Viburnum prunifolium
• Highbush blueberry, Vaccinium corymbosum

Forbs

• Joe-Pye weed, Eupatorium dubium
• Common boneset, Eupatorium perfoliatum
• Cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis
• New England Aster, Aster novae-angliae
• Blue Vervain, Verbena hastata

Grasses

• Broomsedge, Andropogon virginicus
• River oats, Chasmanthium latifolium
• Tussock sedge, Carex stricta
• Switchgrass, Panicum virgatum