Healthy Riparian Zone

This will improve habitat for native wildlife as well as creating a resilient community well prepared to deal with the variation in our kentucky climate.

Healthy riparian zone. These healthy riparian zones also soak up water like a sponge adding to stream flow during drier times. Additionally healthy riparian zones usually consisting of a ground layer shrub layer and tree layer work together to minimise the erosive force of the water. Plant habitats and communities along the river margins and banks are called riparian vegetation characterized by hydrophilic plants.

Riparian areas are vulnerable and easily degraded. Vegetation also provides shade which works to lower water temperatures. The wider the riparian zone the more effectively water is slowed down and erosion reduced.

Healthy riparian zones along the riverbanks can also help reduce the need for and the cost of city infrastructure for storm water management and flood mitigation because they help to absorb and thereby reduce the amount of storm water and flood impacts. The university of kentucky extension can be a valuable resource for learning about how to care for and repair your riparian zone. Riparian is also the proper nomenclature for one of the terrestrial biomes of the earth.

Removal efficiencies range from 61 of the nitrate 72 of the total phosphorous. Those that contain a mix of trees shrubs and grasses are much more effective at capturing a wide range of pollutants than a riparian buffer that is solely trees or grass. Unfortunately a lot of the land use practices over the last 150 years from really intense settlement have altered the natural state of some of these riparian zones.

Lower water temperatures support higher dissolved oxygen levels which are important to maintain fisheries. Rivers and the riparian zone are an important recreational resource with fishing swimming boating walking picnicking and bird watching all being common riparian zone activities. Structurally diverse riparian buffers i e.

Damage can be caused by uncontrolled stock access clearing for agriculture or urban development invasion by pests and feral animals such as rabbits weeds such as privet or from overuse by recreational activities. Contact your local uk extension office. Having riparian plants in the river adjacent zone can improve both water quality and quantity in the river even when we have drought conditions.