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Restoring Riparian
  Forest Buffers
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Restoring Riparian Forest Buffers

New Jersey's many streams, rivers, lakes, and bays are an invaluable natural resource. Clean and naturally-functioning water bodies are vital to New Jersey's environment, economy, and quality of life. It is important that measures to enhance and protect water quality become established practices and are incorporated into land-use planning efforts.

Nonpoint source pollution (NPS) is a major threat to New Jersey's water quality. NPS pollution differs from point source pollution or 'end-of-the-pipe' pollution because the pollution originates from many sources which are not easily identifiable, including agricultural operations, commercial development, industrial operations, residential development and the state's transportation system. NPS pollutants can be anything that is placed on or under the land's surface with the potential to wash or leach into our waterways and include such things as:

• fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides from agricultural and residential areas;
• oil, salts, and toxic chemicals from roadways, parking lots and urban development;
• sediments from construction sites, cropland and eroding streambanks;
• bacteria and nutrients from livestock, pet wastes, and defective septic systems.

Storms and snowmelt create stormwater run-off which can carry pollutants over and through the landscape into streams, rivers, and other bodies of water.

Riparian areas are the lands adjacent to streams, rivers, lakes, and bays, that form a transition zone between aquatic and terrestrial environments. Riparian forests are woodlands which occur in riparian areas. They are important for ensuring water quality and healthy aquatic environments.

Riparian forest buffers are one of the best management tools for enhancing water quality and protecting water bodies from NPS pollution. A riparian forest buffer is composed of trees, shrubs, and tall grasses planted to help protect the integrity of a waterway, act as a vegetative filter strip, and reduce impacts of the surrounding land-use on water quality. Riparian forest buffers:

• improve water quality by filtering sediments and absorbing chemical and nutrients;
• reduce erosion by stabilizing stream banks;
• provide wildlife habitat by providing cover and food;
• enhance aquatic habitat by stablizing water temperature, reducing sediment and providing woody debris;
• restore landscapes to a more natural state;
• offer both educational and recreational opportunities.

New Jersey's existing riparian forests should be protected and managed. Where they are degraded or missing, restoring riparian forest buffers should be a planning and management practice to help counteract NPS pollution.

There are also other alternatives for protecting riparian forests, including active forest management, easements, ordinances, public acquisition and incorporation of riparian protection into land-use planning and municipal master plans. Government officials, natural resource managers, land-use planners, private landowners - even the general public - must accept the challenge of clean water and healthy riparian enviroments.