Stream improvement the low-cost way

By DENNIS APRILL, Outdoors Columnist

Landowners with streams, brooks or ponds on their property can improve fisheries habitat and wildlife potential if they plant stream buffers, and spring is a good time to do so.

That’s the word from Rich Redman, District Conservationist with the U.S. Department Agriculture in Plattsburgh. Redman has worked with local landowners in what is a surprisingly simple procedure. "The low-cost way to start," says Redman, "is with willow and dogwood cuttings. Cuttings are simply three-foot long, finger-thick branches taken from a living tree or shrub."

Once pruned, all that is needed to create an erosion barrier and wildlife cover is to stick these cuttings into the mud or bank sediment. If there is a long transportation time to the site, they can be kept in water in a plastic bag. They will eventually sprout their own roots.

These natural riparian buffers not only reduce erosion, but provide shade to keep the water cool, especially important for trout in summer. In the open areas surrounded by meadows, they provide travel corridors for wildlife.

One such project Redman was working on last fall was along the Salmon River near Mason Street. Landowner Jeff Rendinaro allowed Redman and workers from Trout Unlimited and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to plant trees and construct rock veins using boulders to stop erosion along that section of river. Though this was a longer project that took weeks, not all stream improvement work has to be this elaborate.

As Rich Redman says, "Using cuttings is a mostly low-cost, do-it-yourself approach to get vegetation growing, and that cover will someday benefit fish and wildlife." For more information on riparian buffers, call Rich Redman at 561-4616, ext.3