Riparian forests established by the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program in Virginia: Implications for managers

Excerpt

Forested riparian buffers are known by several names, including streamside management zones, riparian management zones, buffer strips, and vegetated buffer strips. Regardless of the name, riparian forests are generally established to protect water quality and/or enhance wildlife habitat. The Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) has provided incentives for landowners to establish forested riparian buffers between land management activities and streams. CREP plantings are generally viewed as a very successful incentive program, and thousands of acres have been planted under CREP auspices. However, few efforts have been made to monitor the success of regeneration on the planted sites. During 2008, the Virginia Department of Forestry and Virginia Tech Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation entered into a cooperative effort to identify and monitor the success of 63 CREP plantings established in the Coastal Plain, Piedmont, and Ridge and Valley physiographic provinces. Sites were randomly selected from the Virginia Department of Forestry records, and success of both natural and planted species were evaluated with between 5 and 15 fixed radius plots within any one planting. The data indicate that the CREP sites were successfully established in both the Coastal Plain and Piedmont regions, but that riparian forests in the Ridge and…