Subject: stream buffering
Date: Sep 23 12:19:09 1994
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


In response to Steve Hallstrom's message:

Most studies of riparian birds have been done when the riparian habitat is
bordered by some sort of forest or woodland, so bird territories can be a
little sloppy in such a situation. If a bird typically has a territory
500x500 ft, will it accept a 200-foot wide riparian strip with nothing
beyond it? Or even a 400-foot wide strip? If there is nothing but clearcut
on either side of a riparian strip, it will certainly be degraded as a
habitat. However, I can't predict the outcome of a study to determine just
which birds will accept these various-sized buffers, and it would be of
great value, *especially* if it were done well.

There may be such studies already, but not that I've seen. There is so much
in the "gray literature" now--government and consultant publications that
aren't seen by most people--that something may exist, but if not, this
would be a very valuable study. And of course there would have to be
"controls" (riparian + intact conifer forest) for any such study.

I hope there's money to pay someone to conduct such a study (like maybe the
amount Weyerhaueser employees spnd on lattes every month). I'm very
concerned that more and more of this sort of work is done by well-meaning
but inexperienced volunteers. Sometimes the money available that goes to
"volunteer coordinators" should be used to pay professionals to do the work
themselves!

Dennis Paulson