Riverbank Erosion Guide
A new publication, Tools for Addressing Rivberbank Erosion: Guidelines for Communities and Landowners along the Upper Missouri”. This small guide book distills a great deal of technical information for easy reference. It describes natural processes of a large river like the Missouri, and lists tools that landowners and local governments can use to protect riverbank lands and maintain natural rive processes. It reviews bank erosion issues along the Upper Missouri River, then lays out available options and resources to address these issues. Copies are available free from EPA Region 8 in Denver. Contact John DiPentino at 303.312.6594 or at dipentino@epa.gov.
Riparian Restoration
Two publications that discuss aspects of riparian restoration are now available from the US Forest Service. They are Management and Techniques for Riparian Restoration, Roads Field Guide, Volume I and Volume II. The volumes address practical issues involved with road design and building in relation to riparian areas. Topics discussed include retaining walls, slope rounding and revegetation, soil bioengineering, invasive species, ditch treatments, low water crossings, culverts, fish passage, and many more. To order both volumes, send an e-mail to rschneider@fs.fed.gov, or call 970.498.1392 , or write to Rocky Mountain Research Station, 240 W. Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526. Mention that the publication number is General Technical Report GTR-102.
The Land Stewardship Project in the midwest has a new publication available online: “Water, Grass, and Livestock: An Annotated Bibliography of Riparian Grazing Publications.”
Information about the ecology of streams is seldom seen in farm-oriented publications. Similarly, farming concerns are rarely addressed in ecology-oriented journals. Yet many farmers who manage livestock in riparian areas think deeply about the interactions between water, grass, and animals. They have to — the unique characteristics of a riparian setting require particular attention. And while creek side pastures are traditionally maligned as grazing acreage, their careful management can offer significant benefits in the way of farm cash flow, herd health, and environmental mitigation.
This is a reference for action by farmers and their colleagues who are determined to farm as though their decisions mattered — financially, yes, as well as ecologically. There are sections on the stream bank, the riparian influenced landscape beyond, and the influential uplands. Such aspects as sedimentation, insects, forest buffers, pasture systems, and issues unique to the Western United States are addressed. Note that each reference has been listed just once, even though it may well qualify for several sections. Also, while this publication was inspired by the apparent dearth of readily available materials on behalf of riparian grazing, not all notations are unequivocally supportive. Funding was provided by a USDA/SARE grant, “Training on Grazing and Monitoring Riparian Corridors in Minnesota and Wisconsin,” to The Land Stewardship Project.
The report is available only via the Internet. The URL is http://mysare.sare.org/mySARE/ProjectReport.aspx?do=viewRept&pn=ENC99-038&y=1999&t=0