If your property contains a stream, pond, or any sort of wetland, whether its flow is permanent or intermittent in nature, this article is especially for you! Anyone can directly enhance water quality, and in turn benefit the health of the animal, plant, and human communities that depend upon it, by using native plants to fill the “riparian buffer” adjacent to a water feature. The word “riparian” comes from a Latin word meaning “bank.” A riparian buffer protects the wetland from runoff from developed areas, including turfgrass lawns.
If the riparian buffer already contains natural vegetation, you should first control any invasive plants found there.You should also avoid adding any new species, native or otherwise, that will disturb the existing plant community. You may need a waiver from your County to remove existing vegetation and to plant new plants within 100 feet of a stream, shore, or wetland. Maps of these “Resource Protection Areas” can be found here. If the area is currently landscaped or mowed, you may be able to add native plants without a waiver, but you should still check with your county or municipal government.
To figure out if the plants that are present are native or invasive, you can use a free app such as iNaturalist or a subscription-based app such as PictureThis to help you with the identification. You can also invite a volunteer from the Northern Virginia Bird Alliance Wildlife Sanctuary Program to walk the site with you.
Healthy riparian buffers with native plants are beautiful to see and fun to explore. They support a wide diversity of life and create peaceful and inviting landscapes that draw us in to enjoy and connect with the nature they support.
Riparian buffers are also the natural defenders of stream banks. They help stabilize the soil and control soil erosion. This is due to their capacity to slow down and absorb stormwater runoff that would otherwise erode the banks of streams and rivers and fill the Chesapeake Bay with excessive silt. Due to riparian buffer degradation and excessive runoff across Northern Virginia, a massive quantity of silt from our streams and rivers now reaches the Chesapeake where it clogs the gills of wildlife, smothers eggs, buries aquatic insect habitats, and interferes with the production of oxygen by aquatic plants. Anything we do that successfully holds soil will benefit the Bay. Riparian buffers also act as filters that trap pollutants. This protects aquatic life from harmful contaminants and keeps them out of our water supply. Native trees provide the leaves that feed aquatic insects, and their shade lowers the water temperatures, making the environment more hospitable for life. As the earth warms, planting and protecting native plants on riparian borders will become increasingly urgent.
Ideally a riparian buffer should be at least 100 feet wide, but don’t let that discourage you, as a buffer of any size is helpful. Try to pick combinations of native plants that would naturally occur along waterways in your region. This will increase the odds of creating a balanced healthy habitat that continues to grow and thrive. Please refer to the resources on the Plant NOVA Natives website to help you select your plants.
Riparian buffers formed naturally on undisturbed land, holding soil, cooling water, filtering pollutants, and supporting life. It is humans who have disturbed them. Our work now is to take a moment to pause and wonder at the interdependence of land, water, native plants, and animals. Regardless of the other forces at work to degrade our environment, we still have the power to rebuild essential habitats on the lands we control.
