Is Your Riparian Area Healthy?

JANUARY 2019 - Is your property adjacent to a river or stream? If the answer is yes, then you have a riparian area. Riparian areas are transitional areas between water and uplands. These valuable areas provide a filter for runoff, floodwater storage, wildlife habitat, groundwater recharge, forage and timber resources, and recreation to name a few.

Take this self-assessment to determine how your riparian area is doing. Check each box that applies to your property.

• My livestock have unrestricted access to the streambank and water’s edge.
• My livestock have access to the streambank for more than 30 days.
• Streambanks are actively eroding and have steep vertical edges (see photo above).
• .Vegetation (including native shrubs and trees) are removed or replaced with lawn and/or are mowed to the bank edge.
• Rip-rap is present, or I am considering it to stabilize my streambank.
• I spray herbicides/pesticides on my lawn or pasture close to the water’s edge (within the high-water mark).
• I do NOT take regular soil samples (at least every 3 years) of my lawn/pasture near the water prior to fertilization.
• Noxious weeds such as spotted knapweed, leafy spurge, Canada thistle, hoary alyssum or others are present.
• Russian olive is present.​

If you answered yes to any of these questions and would like more information on how to address these resource concerns contributing to the weakening of the health of the watershed, then contact the Stillwater Valley Watershed Council at (406) 780-1249, or the local Natural Resources Conservation Service office in Columbus at (406)322- 5359 x109. 

Technical assistance can be provided with the possibility of funding opportunities to help minimize impacts to the riparian ecosystem.

Article courtesy of Cedar Magone and Garrett Larson, NRCS, Columbus