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Abstract
Given time and proper management conditions, degraded rangeland streams can often produce by natural means the same results that we expect from streambank stabilization and fisheries enhancement structures. Advantages of using vegetation and natural recovery processes include: 1) costs are likely to be lower and 2) a wide range of benefits can accrue to a recovered stream. Structures tend to lock a stream channel in place whereas vegetation allows incremental changes in channel characteristics as flow and sediment loads vary. Healthy riparian vegetation can replace itself in perpetuity, providing a resiliency which keeps banks adjusted to channels — even shifting ones. Improved management of streamside vegetation, not structural additions to channels, offers the most promise for developing valuable and productive riparian systems.
Parent Publication
Citation
Elmore, Wayne; Beschta, Robert L. 1989. The Fallacy of Structures and the Fortitude of Vegetation. In: Abell, Dana L., Technical Coordinator. 1989. Proceedings of the California Riparian Systems Conference: protection, management, and restoration for the 1990s; 1988 September 22-24; Davis, CA. Gen. Tech. Rep. PSW-GTR-110. Berkeley, CA: Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station, Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture; p. 116-119
