Degradation and Loss of Riparian Buffers

Riparian refers to the bank of a natural watercourse such as a river, lake or tidewater.  Riparian and shoreline buffers are those areas of trees, shrubs and other vegetation along streams, rivers, and other open waterbodies.  Riparian buffers are essential to the ecology of aquatic systems.  Riparian vegetation protects streams from erosion and scouring, provides valuable wildlife habitat, and protects water quality by removing sediment and nutrients from runoff draining from lands adjacent to the waterway.  The fishable and swimmable goals of the Clean Water Act can not be achieved in Rhode Island’s waters without the careful protection of riparian buffers.

Status of Riparian Buffers

During 2004, the RIDEM Sustainable Watersheds Office assessed the condition of riparian buffers in the Greenwich Bay Watershed, Ninigret and Green Hill Ponds, and portions of the Woonasquatucket and Blackstone Rivers.  This work showed:

• Coastal waters are the most threatened with significant areas having no buffer between developed land and the water.
• Stream and pond buffers are in better condition, with up to 70 percent of streams in the Greenwich Bay watershed having some form of buffer.  However, since many small headwater streams are not mapped their condition could not be assessed.  It should also be stressed that even small openings or disturbances can significantly reduce the functions and values of riparian buffers.
• Along the Woonasquatucket River, only 19 percent of the river corridor exhibits an existing riparian forest buffer. Most of this existing buffer is located in the upper portions of the watershed with only small fragments of forested riparian areas found in the middle and lower portions. In 2001, the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council working in partnership with the DEM Office of Sustainable Watersheds and the US Forest Service conducted an inventory of riparian buffer areas along the Woonasquatucket River. The Watershed Council has used this report to select buffer areas for restoration.
• Commonly observed riparian buffer impacts include removal of forest vegetation and ongoing mowing, impervious surfaces directly adjacent to the river (including roads, roofs, and parking lots), invasive exotic species, channelization and floodwalls that hydrologically segregate the river from historic riparian buffers and floodplains, and storm drains that bypass vegetated buffer areas.  

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