Timing

The unusually cold month of October sent most plants into dormancy a little early this year. In a typical year, November 1st is touted as the beginning of the time when plants power down for the winter. I wait for that dormant period to begin trimming the fruit trees in the garden, to winterize all the gardening tools and equipment, and to begin fall seedling planting in the riparian areas along the river.

NRCS (Natural Resources Conservation Service) describes riparian areas as:

Riparian areas are lands that occur along watercourses and water bodies. Typical examples include flood plains and streambanks. They are distinctly different from surrounding lands because of unique soil and vegetation characteristics that are strongly influenced by the presence of water.

General indicators of riparian areas include:

• Vegetation
  The kinds and amounts of vegetation differ from adjacent upland vegetation because more water is supplied to plants from the associated watercourse or water body.
• Soil
  Soil in natural riparian areas consists of stratified sediments of varying textures that are subject to intermittent flooding or fluctuating water tables that may reach the surface. The duration of soil wetness depends on the water levels of the adjacent water body.
• Water
  Riparian areas are directly influenced by water from a watercourse or water body. They occur along natural watercourses or next to natural lakes and constructed water bodies such as ditches, canals, ponds, and reservoirs.

In the western United States, riparian areas comprise less than 1 percent of the land area, but they are among the most productive and valuable natural resources. There is a significant difference between the water-rich riparian areas and the arid uplands. Riparian areas are the major providers of habitat for endangered and threatened species in the western desert areas. In the humid east, the riparian areas are more similar to the uplands. In many areas, the separation of the riparian zone from the upland is not distinct.

Oregon has been aware of the vulnerability of our natural resources and over the last 90 years has been governing the uses of the forest to ensure our forests with all our diverse resources stay healthy and productive.

…Regulations require landowners to leave forested buffers and other vegetation along streams, wetlands, and lakes to protect water quality and fish and wildlife habitat.

Key elements

• Timber harvesting, road building, and chemical use are restricted near streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands.
• Trees and other vegetation must be left along streams in which fish live. Stream buffers provide the following benefits:
  • Shade, helping keep the water cool
  • Good fish habitat, as logs that fall across or into the stream provide pools of slow water and hiding places for young fish
  • ​Nutrient input in the form of leaf litter fall — important to the food web
• The location, construction, maintenance, and use of roads to assure should ensure that muddy water is not delivered into forest streams from roads or ditches.
• Roads should be built away from streams. However where a new or improved road must cross a stream, it must not block fish passage. Typically, either a bridge or a properly size culvert will be installed.
• Spraying pesticides and herbicides near streams is prohibited where they might kill vegetation along the banks, get into the water, or harm insects and fish. Spraying must always follow stringent state and federal rules concerning careful application.
• Heavy log truck use on forest roads during storms or other extremely wet weather is carefully managed—or curtailed—to ensure that the roads do not create muddy water that enters fish streams.

The Oregon Forest Practices Act, as described by OFRI (Oregon Forest Resource Institute) has definitive guidelines for reforestation, habitat protection, harvest regulations, forest roads, herbicides, landslides and water protection. The water protection segment  covers rivers and streams differently depending on if they are fish bearing, non-fish bearing but always running, seasonal or occasional waterways. the rules are tailored for each type of water resource.