PA Environment Digest Blog: Penn State Extension: New Research & Education Buffer Planting In Dauphin County

Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Penn State Extension: New Research & Education Buffer Planting In Dauphin County

By Dr. Tyler A. Groh, Penn State Extension

A Science-to-Practice grant is being utilized to establish and start monitoring a research and education riparian buffer along Spring Creek in Dauphin County.

Spring is often considered a time for renewal. At the end of winter, people have the urge to charge outside, role up their sleeves, and plant their gardens. This same spring fever often grips and mobilizes professional and volunteer riparian buffer planting groups.

When you drive past streams in Pennsylvania in spring, it is not an uncommon site to see groups of people with shovels, potted trees and shrubs, wooden stakes, and green plastic tree tubes.

These people are planting a riparian buffer that will eventually grow into a mature forested buffer zone to help protect the stream from nutrient and erosion runoff, as well as provide streambank stabilization, wildlife habitat, flood mitigation, and carbon sequestration.

Recently, a group from Penn State University including Jennifer Fetter (Penn State University Extension Educator out of Dauphin County), Tyler Groh (Penn State University Assistant Research Professor), and Jason Kaye (Penn State University Distinguished Professor) teamed up to establish a long-term research and education buffer.

Jennifer, Tyler, and Jason received a Science-to-Practice grant for Fiscal Year 2021 to establish and start monitoring a research and education riparian buffer along Spring Creek in Dauphin County.

This Science-to-Practice grant was funded through Penn State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences with Hatch and Smith-Lever funds.

The proposal for the money obtained is to establish an approximately 2-acre buffer that has four zones:

-- Riparian forest buffer

-- Multifunctional buffer (a multifunctional buffer is any buffer that has added benefits beyond water quality, in this case the goal is to have vegetation that could be harvested for non-timber products - such as fruit and nuts)

-- Meadow buffer

-- A control (no buffer)

Each of these four zones are 330 feet long and 66 feet wide, approximately one-half acre.

The riparian forest and multifunctional buffer sections were planted on April 29th.

This planting was a joint effort between the Ecosystem Science and Management Department at Penn State University, Penn State Extension, the Penn State Agriculture and Environment Center, Penn State Master Watershed Steward volunteers, local volunteers organized by the Doc Fritchey Chapter of Trout Unlimited, and representatives from the private landowner.

Together they planted 372 native woody shrubs and trees in both sections.

The riparian forest buffer is composed of red maple, smooth alder, river birch, buttonbush, tulip poplar, sweetbay magnolia, and sycamore, while the multifunctional buffer was planted with river birch, buttonbush, pawpaw, red chokeberry, persimmon, serviceberry, hazelnut, silky dogwood, witch hazel, winter berry, and pussy willow.

Tree tubes and stakes were also fitted around each plant to protect them from wildlife (e.g. deer and voles).

Both the riparian forest and multifunctional buffer sections will be actively maintained in the coming years by mowing and invasive species removal to help promote a healthy, native riparian forest establishment.

The next step for this research and education buffer establishment will be to prepare the meadow portion of the riparian zone for native pollinator species planting in 2022.

Penn State University members, along with Penn State’s Agriculture and Environment Center will work on removing invasive species in this section of riparian zone during 2021 while planting a cover crop (e.g. annual ryegrass and spring oats) to help control additional weeds while protecting the soil from erosion.

The main goal of this active management during 2021 is to reduce the invasive seed pool within the soil so that the native meadow planting in 2022 has a higher chance for success.

The final section of this buffer is the control. This control will be a “business as usual” case where most of the riparian zone will still be actively planted in a corn and soybean row crop rotation, while having a minimal grassy bank cover.

However, to avoid any unnecessary bank erosion, this control section’s bank will be live staked (planted with clippings from woody vegetation to protect streambank soils from eroding into the stream).

Live stake plantings will also cover the stream banks of the other buffer sections mentioned above.

Together, these four sections of riparian buffer will allow Penn State University researchers to assess changes in water quality and soil health properties over time as the buffer vegetation matures.

Tyler Groh’s previous research on riparian buffers indicated a potential for increased nitrate removal with riparian buffer age. It was thought that this could be linked to vegetative maturity as well as enhanced soil health.

This new research and education buffer location will serve as a site to actively assess these water quality and soil health interactions, while sparking creative, hands-on education for life-long learners of all ages.

The goal is to have the research feed into the education, while also providing the learners a chance to collect ancillary data that will assist in research findings.

Combining research and education for this buffer fits well into Penn State University Extension’s mission, and Extension will actively promote the research findings from this site as we enhance our knowledge of riparian buffer systems.

For more information on how to plant riparian buffers:

-- Growing Great Buffers

For more information on live stakes:

-- Live Staking for Stream Restoration

-- Live Staking - A How-to Guide

For more general information on benefits of riparian buffers:

-- Riparian Buffers: Pennsylvania's Best Solution for Protecting Its Waters

-- Riparian Buffers: Using the Power of Plants to Help Clean Our Waterways

For more information on multifunctional buffers:

-- Multifunctional Riparian Forest Buffers – More than Just Trees

-- To Harvest or Not to Harvest: Recent Insight on Riparian Buffers

[For more information about programs supporting riparian buffers, visit DCNR’s Riparian Buffers webpage.