Duhallow News
Riparian Buffers
By MIKE O’CONNOR
Ecologist at IRD Duhallow Tackling declining water quality and maintaining good water quality is becoming increasingly important in agri-environmental policy. In this article we will explore riparian buffers, one of the most effective measures to protect water quality. Riparian zones are the transition zone between land and river. Riparian buffers are strips of vegetation that grow along watercourses. These zones offer many significant ecosystem services. Tap roots from trees, for example, act as a filter to maintain water quality, protecting the watercourse from pollutants such as nitrates. Roots of riparian zone plants also stabilise the riverbank, minimising the impact of bank erosion. They also create a habitat for many terrestrial (land) species and their leaf matter feeds many aquatic insects which play an important role in the food chain. Other benefits include natural flood management, carbon sequestration and natural beauty. A healthy riparian buffer zone will have a diversity of plant species. At the river margin you will find plants capable of
brambles will be the first plant to colonise, but it is important to remember that although they may be prickly and unattractive, they offer important benefits to High quality riparian buffers support wildlife and protect biodiversity rivers and water quality and waterlogging but also periods of trees will eventually succeed them. dry conditions, such as Hemlock It is crucial for biodiversity and Water Dropwort and Reed Canary water quality that fence lines are Grass. Trees, brambles, and not sprayed. wildflowers may dominate the Where bank erosion is riparian area as it transitions from occurring, buffers can be the river margin to dry land. established by planting trees. Establishing Riparian Buffers on Trees should be planted about Farmland afive feet back from the edge of Establishing a riparian buffer the bank, especially if erosion is can be done by fencing (ideally severe, to give them a chance to at least 2m) back from the put down roots and function as watercourse. From then onwards, natural bank stabilisers. These maintenance is minimal and, trees should always be native provided no invasive species are and of Irish provenance; Willow present, you can then let nature (Sallys), Alder and Birch are do its own thing. It is likely that native trees that thrive on wet soil. Willows can be grown by simply cutting a branch off another willow and staking it into the ground! Riparian buffers are a popular measure implemented by farmers participating in the Duhallow Blue Dot project and the Owentaraglin River EIP project, both coordinated by IRD Duhallow. They will also form an action in the new agrienvironment climate measure ‘ACRES’ and tree planting will count as a measure in the upcoming eco-scheme that will be rolled out in 2023.
High levels of bank erosion in the absence of a buffer Issue 67 July 1, 2022
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