Can buffers be grazed for short periods?

Theoretically, buffers could be grazed for short periods of time.

The plant community of buffer serves as a nutrient storage sink removing and immobilizing NPS pollutants in the plant biomass. If all of the plant material is returned to the soil upon death and decomposition the plant sink will have a finite ability to immobilize NPS pollutants. As a result plant materials should be removed from the buffers from time to time. Trees can be harvested and prairies are burned on a regular cycle. However, careful rotational grazing could also accomplish this removal. However, if not carefully managed cattle can put significant pressure on tree saplings and shrub.

Cattle can also put extreme pressure on stream banks and with poor management can do extensive damage to the buffer area through compaction. Overgrazed pastures have some of the slowest soil infiltration rates and some of the highest stream bank instability problems of any riparian land-use management practices. There is also concern that grazed riparian pastures may be a source of phosphorus pollution stemming from the manure and from the collapse of banks.

The Agroecology and Animal Management Issue Teams of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture are conducting a series of studies in cooperation with the Iowa Cattleman's Association and the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to determine the extent of the impact of riparian grazing on streams and to develop grazing best management practices that will allow careful grazing of riparian zones.