Fencing
Fencing of riparian, wetland, and sensitive habitats can protect areas from overuse by livestock or other human activities.
Explore the problems and solutions associated with livestock management in riparian areas by clicking through the slides using the slide-navigation buttons () below.
The Problem
Well-Managed vs Poorly Managed Riparian Areas
Well-managed Riparian Area
Poorly-managed Riparian Area
Well-managed riparian areas have multiple layers of vegetation—grasses, herbs, shrubs, and trees—of all ages. Stream channels are narrow and deep. Trout and other aquatic organisms thrive because healthy riparian areas create complex aquatic habitats. Wildlife also does well because of the diversity of habitats. Healthy riparian areas are vital because roughly 80% of wildlife use riparian areas for part of their lifecycle requirements.
Overuse of riparian areas by livestock greatly simplifies or eliminates riparian vegetation. Multiple layers become a single layer of shallow-rooted grasses and weeds. Channels become shallower, the water warmer, and trout disappear. When the remaining mature trees die, few younger ones replace them. The site becomes drier and looks more like an upland area. Wildlife have fewer places to live, and forage for livestock declines. Passive restoration would manage livestock to minimize or eliminate these impacts.
Click the slide-navigation button above right () to learn about solutions to the problem of overuse of cattle in riparian areas.
The Solutions
Fencing
Herder
Herding
Depending on topography and vegetation, herding cattle to keep them out of riparian and other sensitive areas can be one of the most effective means of protecting streams.
Off-site Water
Off-site Water Developments
Stock-water developments like these tanks placed at springs can attract cows away from riparian areas and eliminate the need for cattle to visit a stream.
Access to Water
Access to Water in Combination with Fencing
Providing ease of access to water through limited graveled or hardened access points that livestock will prefer to use can protect stream banks and riparian vegetation. It can also prevent cattle from going through fences.
Intensity
Intensity of Grazing
By controlling the intensity of grazing, ranchers can substantially lessen the impacts on riparian areas. Intensity is a function of animal numbers times the duration of the grazing.
Timing
Timing
To everything there is a season. Time grazing so cattle are not in sensitive areas when they are vulnerable, such as in spring when stream banks are saturated with moisture and susceptible to trampling or when seedlings or shrubs or sensitive forbs might be damaged.
Salting
Mineral Blocks and other Attractants
Mineral blocks, salt blocks, oilers, or rubbing posts will draw animals away from riparian areas.
Rotation
Deferred Rotational Grazing
Rotational grazing requires subdividing the range into smaller units and rotating the cattle through them. Deferred rotation involves changing the sequence of rotation from year to year. A given field is never grazed at the same time two years in a row. This provides rest for pastures, avoids season-long grazing, enables ranchers to control the season of use, and generally yields higher produciton.
Rest
Rest
Resting rangeland can enhance plant vigor and improve the stream condition. It alows for bank building and allows tree seelings to grow and reach a more grazing-resistant stage.
The Benefits
Productivity
Increased Forage
Healthy riparian areas are more productive since abundant water, shelter, and forage translate into more fish and wildlife and better production for livestock producers.
For example, the graph at left shows how a well-managed riparian area produced three times the forage of a degraded floodplain. Forage is important, but so is cover and water and all three increase dramatically under good management.
Less Destructive Floods
Less Damage
Meandering streams with healthy riparian areas can reduce flood damage. A well-vegetated floodplain slows flood waters and better enables it to absorb water. This reduces stream power and stream damage during floods. A straightened channel that has been overgrazed is a recipe for serious flood damage.
More Water
More Water When We Need It
We can't change how much rain and snow falls, but we can affect how much stays to water riparian vegetation, livestock, and wildlife, and how much flows in streams for fish.
Flooding is one way streams bank water. When a stream with healthy riparian vegetation overtops its banks, the water saturates the floodplain and raises the water table. Then in late summer, fall, and winter, when stream flows are naturally at their lowest, that groundwater flows back into the stream.
Poorly managed riparian areas can cause runoff to occur over a shorter time period and produce higher peak flows. That means less retention time for water to soak into the floodplain, which means less groundwater flowing back into the stream during late summer, fall, and winter when fish, wildlife, and people need it most.
Fish and Wildlife
Fish and Wildlife
One of the greatest benefits of healthy riparian areas is a diverse and vibrant wildlife community and healthy native fishery. Riparian areas are crucial to fish and wildlife. It is estimated, for example, that approximately 80% of our wildlife species—everything from birds to mammals—depend on riparian areas for all or part of their lifecycle. The more a riparian area is degraded, the fewer resources there are for wildlife (food, cover, nesting and denning places, travel corridors, etc.) and the greater the chance that some species will disappear from an area.
More Stable Channels
More Stable Channels with Natural Shapes and Sizes
Riparian vegetation reduces the horsepower of a stream by slowing water down through friction. A three-inch-deep rootmat resists erosion up to 20,000 times better than bare-soil streambanks. Deep-rooted grasses, forbs, brush, and trees stabilize stream banks and play a major role in defining channel shape and size (lower left).
Well-vegetated streams tend to be narrow and deeper than streams with degraded riparian zones. Without roots to hold things together, the cohesive nature of streambanks breaks down, and the stream becomes wide and shallow (lower right).
The Problem
Swipe for Next Slide or Use Navigation Bubbles Above
Well-Managed vs Poorly Managed Riparian Areas
Well-managed Riparian Area
Poorly-managed Riparian Area
Well-managed riparian areas have multiple layers of vegetation—grasses, herbs, shrubs, and trees—of all ages. Stream channels are narrow and deep. Trout and other aquatic organisms thrive because healthy riparian areas create complex aquatic habitats. Wildlife also does well because of the diversity of habitats. Healthy riparian areas are vital because roughly 80% of wildlife use riparian areas for part of their lifecycle requirements.
Overuse of riparian areas by livestock greatly simplifies or eliminates riparian vegetation. Multiple layers become a single layer of shallow-rooted grasses and weeds. Channels become shallower, the water warmer, and trout disappear. When the remaining mature trees die, few younger ones replace them. The site becomes drier and looks more like an upland area. Wildlife have fewer places to live, and forage for livestock declines. Passive restoration would manage livestock to minimize or eliminate these impacts.
The Solutions
Swipe for Next Slide or Use Navigation Bubbles Above
Fencing
Fencing
Fencing of riparian, wetland, and sensitive habitats can protect areas from overuse by livestock or other human activities.
Herder
Herding
Depending on topography and vegetation, herding cattle to keep them out of riparian and other sensitive areas can be one of the most effective means of protecting streams.
Off-site Water
Off-site Water Developments
Stock-water developments like these tanks placed at springs can attract cows away from riparian areas and eliminate the need for cattle to visit a stream.
Access to Water
Access to Water in Combination with Fencing
Providing ease of access to water through limited graveled or hardened access points that livestock will prefer to use can protect stream banks and riparian vegetation. It can also prevent cattle from going through fences.
Intensity
Intensity of Grazing
By controlling the intensity of grazing, ranchers can substantially lessen the impacts on riparian areas. Intensity is a function of animal numbers times the duration of the grazing.
Timing
Timing
To everything there is a season. Time grazing so cattle are not in sensitive areas when they are vulnerable, such as in spring when stream banks are saturated with moisture and susceptible to trampling or when seedlings or shrubs or sensitive forbs might be damaged.
Salting
Mineral Blocks and other Attractants
Mineral blocks, salt blocks, oilers, or rubbing posts will draw animals away from riparian areas.
Rotation
Deferred Rotational Grazing
Rotational grazing requires subdividing the range into smaller units and rotating the cattle through them. Deferred rotation involves changing the sequence of rotation from year to year. A given field is never grazed at the same time two years in a row. This provides rest for pastures, avoids season-long grazing, enables ranchers to control the season of use, and generally yields higher produciton.
Rest
Rest
Resting rangeland can enhance plant vigor and improve the stream condition. It alows for bank building and allows tree seelings to grow and reach a more grazing-resistant stage.
The Benefits
Productivity
Increased Forage
Healthy riparian areas are more productive since abundant water, shelter, and forage translate into more fish and wildlife and better production for livestock producers.
For example, the graph at left shows how a well-managed riparian area produced three times the forage of a degraded floodplain. Forage is important, but so is cover and water and all three increase dramatically under good management.
Less Destructive Floods
Less Damage
Meandering streams with healthy riparian areas can reduce flood damage. A well-vegetated floodplain slows flood waters and better enables it to absorb water. This reduces stream power and stream damage during floods. A straightened channel that has been overgrazed is a recipe for serious flood damage.
More Water
More Water When We Need It
We can't change how much rain and snow falls, but we can affect how much stays to water riparian vegetation, livestock, and wildlife, and how much flows in streams for fish.
Flooding is one way streams bank water. When a stream with healthy riparian vegetation overtops its banks, the water saturates the floodplain and raises the water table. Then in late summer, fall, and winter, when stream flows are naturally at their lowest, that groundwater flows back into the stream.
Poorly managed riparian areas can cause runoff to occur over a shorter time period and produce higher peak flows. That means less retention time for water to soak into the floodplain, which means less groundwater flowing back into the stream during late summer, fall, and winter when fish, wildlife, and people need it most.
Fish and Wildlife
Fish and Wildlife
One of the greatest benefits of healthy riparian areas is a diverse and vibrant wildlife community and healthy native fishery. Riparian areas are crucial to fish and wildlife. It is estimated, for example, that approximately 80% of our wildlife species—everything from birds to mammals—depend on riparian areas for all or part of their lifecycle. The more a riparian area is degraded, the fewer resources there are for wildlife (food, cover, nesting and denning places, travel corridors, etc.) and the greater the chance that some species will disappear from an area.
More Stable Channels
More Stable Channels with Natural Shapes and Sizes
Riparian vegetation reduces the horsepower of a stream by slowing water down through friction. A three-inch-deep rootmat resists erosion up to 20,000 times better than bare-soil streambanks. Deep-rooted grasses, forbs, brush, and trees stabilize stream banks and play a major role in defining channel shape and size (lower left).
Well-vegetated streams tend to be narrow and deeper than streams with degraded riparian zones. Without roots to hold things together, the cohesive nature of streambanks breaks down, and the stream becomes wide and shallow (lower right).