Virginia Department of Conservation and RecreationAn official website of the Commonwealth of Virginia Here's how you knowAn official websiteHere's how you know
Virginia Department of Conservation and RecreationAn official website of the Commonwealth of Virginia Here's how you knowAn official websiteHere's how you know
Department of Conservation and Recreation
Riparian forest buffers are areas of trees, shrubs, and other vegetation found next to stream channels and other waterways.They are modeled on natural communities such as bottomland hardwood forest, coastal scrub, and upland oak-hickory-pine forests. Conversion of these riparian forests to other land uses has contributed to ecological problems in our waterways and the Chesapeake Bay including sedimentation, nutrient and toxic chemical pollution, and reduction of fish habitat.
Riparian wetlands are characterized by plant species adapted to periodic flooding and/or saturated soils. They support a high diversity of plant and animal species. More energy and materials, born by moving water, enter, are deposited in, and pass through riparian ecosystems than any other wetland ecosystem. Drier upland forests adjacent to waterways also provide many of the same ecosystem values.
These ecological functions combine to make riparian forest buffers critical investments in human and ecological health and well-being today, and for our children tomorrow. Recognizing these values, the Chesapeake Bay Program has set a goal of replanting 2,010 miles of Bay shoreline by the year 2010. Virginia's share of this goal is 610 miles.
Four riparian vegetation zones are identified in this brochure. Zone 1, the emergent vegetation zone, is permanently to semipermanently flooded and often dominated by grasses, sedges, rushes, and herbaceous plants. Zone 2, the riverside thicket, may be seasonally to temporarily flooded and is often characterized by emergent species, shrubs, and a few tree species. Zone 3, the saturated forest, has soils which are saturated to poorly drained. Zone 4, the well-drained forest, is also known as upland forest. Zones 3 and 4 are dominated by trees, but also contain shrub and herb layers in the understory.
