Do buffers attract undesirable wildlife species (e.g. coyotes, deer, rodents, insects)?

Yes Buffers attract wildlife.

Buffers provide habitat that wildlife will utilize. Controlling the design of the buffer can have some influence on the kind of wildlife that will inhabit it. Cool-season grass filters provide the least complex habitat so will have relatively few species and these will tend to be smaller in size. Changing the design to a native prairie mixture of warm-season grasses and forbs greatly increases the habitat and the wildlife species.

The most complex buffer in terms of habitat is the riparian forest buffer that includes combinations of trees and shrubs as well as a native prairie plant community. In a recent song bird survey in the Bear Creek Watershed, 9 species were consistently found in the narrow cool-season grass and weed strips typically left along unbuffered streams. In a 10 year old riparian forest buffer 43 species were found. Game species such as pheasants have are present in large numbers making the buffers prime hunting areas. In the same riparian zones another survey showed an increase in small mammals in the 10 year old buffer.

Buffers are narrow corridors and as such will attract primarily edge species. In many landscapes the buffers provide the only consistent habitat around and therefore may concentrate many species, which in some cases, makes them more susceptible to predation. Buffers are being studied as possible refugees for beneficial birds and insects that prey on crop pests. The only way to control specific wildlife species is to simplify the buffer design to a point that habitat for the key species does not exist. Frequently that simplification also brings with it a loss in buffer function for reducing non-point source pollutants.