myrockyriver.org
Rocky River Watershed
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myrockyriver.org |
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The
Ohio Lake Erie Commission (see info box) has granted the Cuyahoga Soil and Water
Conservation District $9,999.80 for the creation of a Backyard Buffers Program
in the Rocky River Watershed. The grant, awarded through the Lake Erie
Protection Fund, will be used to re-establish riparian buffers on private
property throughout the watershed. In total, an estimated 3 miles of riparian
corridor will be restored. Participating streamside landowners will receive
tree and shrub seedlings and planting guidance at no cost. Anyone owning land
adjoining any surface water in the Rocky River Watershed is eligible to
participate in the program. No stream is too small. In fact, the program has
the greatest potential for measurable environmental improvement on the smaller
headwater streams that can comprise up to 90% of the stream miles in a given
watershed.
The
Rocky River Watershed Action Plan, endorsed by the Ohio Department of Natural
Resources and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency in 2006, estimates that
approximately 10 miles of the watershed’s riparian corridor are in a highly
disturbed state. The Action Plan goes on to state that “maintenance of
functioning
riparian corridors along the streams of the Rocky River is
the single most important action that can be taken to maintain water quality in
the stream and to minimize problems from future development.” Functioning
riparian buffers stabilize stream banks, decrease peak storm flows, filter
nutrients and sediment from storm water, provide essential habitat for fish,
birds, and everything in between, and increase property values.
While
most people can recognize the importance of protecting and restoring larger
rivers such as the Rocky River and its major tributaries, such as the East and
West Branches and Plum Creek, headwater streams have been relatively ignored.
Due to their smaller size (often no more than a foot or two wide) and their
diminished presence on the landscape, these mostly unnamed streams have
traditionally been diverted, channelized, and culverted to accommodate human
activity such as urban and suburban development, agriculture, and related
infrastructure. Recent studies, though, stress the importance of headwater
streams in protecting and restoring overall watershed health. According to a
2000 report by the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, “The
spatial placement of buffer strips within a watershed can have profound effects
on water quality. Riparian buffers in headwater streams (i.e., those adjacent
to first-, second-, and third-order systems) have much greater influences on
overall water quality within a watershed than those buffers occurring in
downstream reaches. Downstream buffers have proportionally less impact on
polluted water already in the stream (Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay 1996).
Even the best buffer strips along larger rivers and streams cannot significantly
improve water that has been degraded by improper buffer practices higher in the
watershed.1” It is now clear that headwater streams are an integral
part of our water resources and ecological systems, and that they can no longer
be ignored.
All
private landowners in the Rocky River Watershed whose property contains or
adjoins a stream, creek, ditch, river, or other waterway, regardless of its
size, are eligible to participate. Please contact Jared Bartley, Rocky River
Watershed Coordinator, at 216-524-6580 x14 or
jbartley@cuyahogaswcd.org to enroll.
Brochures will be mailed to all known streamside landowners in August and
September, and tree and shrub orders will be placed with the state nursery in
November. All seedlings will arrive and be ready to plant in March/April of
2008. Not sure if you live in the Rocky River Watershed? Click
here to consult the maps at the
www.myrockyriver.org website.
Still not sure? Contact Jared Bartley at the phone number or email address
listed above.
1Fischer, R. A., and Fischenich, J.C. (2000). "Design recommendations for riparian corridors and vegetated buffer strips," EMRRP Technical Notes Collection (ERDC TN - EMRRP-SR-24), U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS. www.wes.army.mil/el/emrrp
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