Do buffers require maintenance?

Yes.

Properly functioning buffers require maintenance during their establishment and also long-term. During the establishment phase weed competition must be controlled. This can be done through mowing and burning of the native prairie plants, mowing between the rows of trees and using herbicides over the tree seedlings. This intensive maintenance is required for the first 3-5 years if a healthy buffer is to be established.

Buffers are designed to reduce the non-point source pollutant load the moves through them. As such there are larger loads of materials flowing into these systems than into other natural systems. A healthy, well established prairie, forest or wetland ecosystem can act as storage sinks for nutrients. However, there is a finite capacity to those sinks unless some of the plant material and the associated chemicals are removed from the site. As a result, buffer management requires periodic harvesting of the above ground biomass to remove the chemicals that are stored in the plants. This may come in the form of a tree harvest or cutting and baling or burning of the grasses.

Trees along streambanks should be monitored and cut if they are about to fall into the stream. The cropfield-buffer edge should be monitored and reworked if a ridge of soil begins to develop which causes lateral concentrated flow along the buffer border. Any concentrated flow areas that develop into the buffer should be treated quickly. This usually requires upslope best management practices such as grass waterways.