Elmore, Wayne

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Riparian Management: Back to Basics

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University of Colorado Law School Colorado Law Scholarly Commons The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10) 1987 6-9-1987 Riparian Management: Back to Basics Wayne Elmore Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/public-lands-during-remainder-planning-law-and-policy-in-federal-land-agencies  Part of the Administrative Law Commons, Animal Law Commons, Animal Studies Commons, Aquaculture and Fisheries Commons, Courts Commons, Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons, Energy and Utilities Law Commons, Energy Policy Commons, Environmental Law Commons, Environmental Policy Commons, Forest Management Commons, Indian and Aboriginal Law Commons, Judges Commons, Jurisdiction Commons, Land Use Law Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Legislation Commons, Litigation Commons, Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Law Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Oil, Gas, and Energy Commons, Oil, Gas, and Mineral Law Commons, Peace and Conflict Studies Commons, Property Law and Real Estate Commons, Recreation, Parks and Tourism Administration Commons, Soil Science Commons, State and Local Government Law Commons, Water Law Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons Citation Information Elmore, Wayne, "Riparian Management: Back to Basics" (1987). The Public Lands During the Remainder of the 20th Century: Planning, Law, and Policy in the Federal Land Agencies (Summer Conference, June 8-10). https://scholar.law.colorado.edu/public-lands-during-remainder-planning-law-and-policy-in-federal-land-agencies/9 Reproduced with permission of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (formerly the Natural Resources Law Center) at the University of Colorado Law School.     Wayne Elmore, Riparian Management: Back to Basics, in THE PUBLIC LANDS DURING THE REMAINDER OF THE 20TH CENTURY: PLANNING, LAW, AND POLICY IN THE FEDERAL LAND AGENCIES (Natural Res. Law Ctr., Univ. of Colo. Sch. of Law 1987).  Reproduced with permission of the Getches-Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment (formerly the Natural Resources Law Center) at the University of Colorado Law School.  Riparian Management: Back to Basics Wayne ElmoreOregon State Riparian SpecialistBureau of Land ManagementPrineville, Oregon 97754Natural Resources Law CenterUniversity of Colorado School of LawJune 8-10, 1987n_-n__-n-•e-^	 1.	 INTRODUCTIONThe condition and management of our riparian zones is the number oneland conservation issue in the United States. Over 80 bills were introducedinto the Oregon Legislature last year relating to riparian areas or water, andthis year will be the same. Public comment letters on riparian management inthe Prineville District, Bureau of Land Management ran ten to one over otherissues in the Brothers Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Managementdecisions affecting long accepted practices in forestry, range management,transportation, and recreation are being challenged based on past andprojected impacts to riparian zones. The public is deeply and emotionallyinvolved in the condition of our riparian zones and the primary focus is thewildlife resource. They ask "If you can't manage two percent of the totalcorrectly, how can we trust you with the other 98 percent?" As a result, theForest Service and BLM land use plans are addressing riparian zone managementas a major resource issue.Early explorers and residents give us a glimpse of what our riparianareas once looked like. Ogden, traveling in the Crooked River Basin inEastern Oregon during 1825, described willows from side to side across thevalley bottom and said "a greater place for beaver does not exist in thisworld". Most of this scene is now gone. The Indian word "Ochoco," for whichour Central Oregon mountains are named, means "streams lined with willows,"yet today willows are uncommon. Senior ranchers in Central Oregon tellstories about the problems with gathering cattle in the "thick willow stands"on Big Summit Prairie. The "thick willow stands" have digressed to scatteredclumps. Historic evidence indicates that riparian zones were in bettercondition then than they are today.II. THE RIPARIAN SYSTEMIn recent years the management of riparian areas has typically been theresponsibility and interest of wildlife biologists. Improvements have beenprimarily judged in relation to habitat for big game, song—birds and fish.But riparian areas are more than just habitat for wildlife, they actually arefunctioning systems that provide physical filtering of water, bank stability,water storage, and the recharge of underground aquifers. Wildlife habitat isa product of those functions, and should not be considered as the onlyemphasis for managing riparian systems. In fact, many times wildlife benefitsare the lowest economic value received from riparian restoration.To fully evaluate the benefits and incorporate riparian management intoour land use plans, we must go back to basic functions.These functions include:1. Physical filtering of water: Riparian vegetation can withstand highvelocities of water and still remain intact. One of its functions is to slowthe flow of water, literally "combing" out sediments and debris. This waterpurification process also helps to build banks; so channels typically becomenarrow and deep where once they were wide and shallow. Vegetation, such asgrasses, sedges and rushes, lays down under high flows, and literally forms ablanket over the banks. This process reduces bank cutting and aids indeposition of sediments. Where deposition has occurred through time,extensive wet meadows or flood plains will develop.32. Bank stability: The diversity of grasses, forbs, sedges, rushes, shrubsand trees produces a variety of fibrous roots and tap roots that bind and holdsettled soils in place. The binding effect of the roots helps maintain thepositive factors of the bank building processes during high flows. Acombination of both woody rooted and fibrous species have a reinforcingeffect. The woody rooted species provide physical protection to the hydraulicforces of eroding water and allow forbs, grasses and sedges to bind the finerparticles. In combination, this diversity of plant species is much moreeffective in promoting bank stability than is any one by itself.3. Water storage and recharge of underground aquifers: The aquifers in manyareas of the west are going dry and one of the processes of riparian systemsis to help recharge a percentage of a given aquifer. For many degradedriparian systems, all the flows are contained in the channel and cannot accessthe banks or floodplains where the water can spread. It is widely acceptedthat we can lower a water table and drain a stored underground aquifer throughchannelization or erosion. It is not readily accepted, however, that we canreverse that process and store water through recovery of riparian systems anddeposition in formerly degraded channels. Riparian systems slow the flow ofwater and allow it to spread and soak into the banks like a sponge, whichraises water tables. When banks rebuild through filtering of sediments, theyincrease the area for water absorption and improve recharge of aquifers byallowing gravity to work on the stored waters.The upland areas must not be excluded in our discussion because they arean integral part of the riparian system. Overland and subsurface flows alsoinfluence sediment loads, water cycles, and recharge of aquifers. The firstorder watersheds (those with single unbranched streams) are the uppermost areain the system and vary from small areas in our forests to rather large areasin our rangelands. Despite their size, they are critical to total systemrecovery. First order watersheds generally comprise the major portion of anystream system. They are also the only areas within the system with physicalintegrity because all other stream orders are a mixture of upstream reaches.Other processes observed in riparian systems that have shown asubstantial improvement include increases in the base flow (minimum flowperiod), reduction in buildup of ice, and physical filtering of sediments byice. In Central Oregon, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is studying theseprocesses to better understand their role in the total cycle of the ripariansystem. Results will be forthcoming over the next several years.III. THE PRESENTToday, livestock grazing practices are receiving most of the criticismfor the long—term decline in riparian conditions in both our forests andrangelands. Members of the Oregon Cattlemen's Association recognize thepotential of riparian recovery and recently adopted a resolution supporting a"flexible riparian management concept." Ranchers, such as E.J. Kropf of theBonnieview Ranch near Prineville, Oregon, have incorporated management ofriparian areas into their total ranch plans. Kropf said, "A cow has neverawakened in the morning and said, 'I'm going to gain as much weight today as Tpossibly can.' Instead, they will lay along the creeks, eat everything thatis green and stay there and lose weight. Not only can the cattle bedetrimental to the riparian zone, but they can also be detrimental tothemselves, weight gain wise. It is important to stabilize our streams andimprove our flows from a land management standpoint and as an economic benefitto the ranching industry, especially in difficult times such as now."Leaders from the Oregon Cattlemen's Association and the environmentalcommunity recently formed the Oregon Watershed Improvement Coalition with thehelp of the Pacific NW Section, Society for Range Management. The committeeis represented by 5 members from each group plus one advisor from the Bureauof Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and Oregon State University RangeSciences Department. The main thrust of the group is working together toimprove riparian conditions in Eastern Oregon and increase understanding ofriparian systems management through education. Bob Skinner, OregonCattlemen's Association President and Coalition Member, said "The ripariancontroversy will not go away and we must work together to solve the problem.There are too many benefits for all of us."THE FUTUREWe must now face the future and accept what the past has to teach us.Management of riparian systems with an eye to positive improvement will resultin systems that will recharge underground aquifers by rebuilding water tablesthat have been depleted from misuse and erosion. Five miles of Camp Creek (inCentral Oregon) was placed under management in 1966. In the 1800's the areawas a wide wet meadow marsh complex. Overuse caused accelerated erosion andby 1905 it was a 20—foot deep eroded channel, flows were typicallyintermittent In the summer, and the meadow marsh complex was gone. Since 1966the five mile section has filtered out sediments from the stream and raisedthe channel by 6 feet in places. The green zone adjacent to the streamincreased from a few feet to over 200 feet. The most dramatic recovery,however, was observed in 1977 and 1981 during drought periods. The onlyperennial flow in the entire Camp Creek watershed was within the recoveredsection.An example of the thought process we use to evaluate our streams can beseen on Bear Creek in Central Oregon. In 1974 the stream channel pasture waslicensed for 72 Animal Unit Months (AUMs) between April and September. Thechannel was deeply incised, stream gradient less than two percent, sedimentload medium to high, soils principally willowdale loam — very deep and welldrained, gravel layers common, and an elevation of 3,500 feet. The ripariansystem was heavily overgrazed and the stream often intermittent during thesummer. In 1976, the solution to improving this riparian zone was totalexclusion of livestock. In 1982 a proposal to graze the area under a threepasture short duration system in February was proposed. The idea met withsome opposition but was initiated on a trial basis. In 1986 we licensed 280AUMs in the channel pasture, the riparian area continues to improve and therancher has cut his hay bill *10,000. This management worked in thatparticular riparian system because ecosystem functions and processes have beennurtured even though livestock use was four times that which was preventingrecovery in 1974. Livestock numbers were not the problem, it was more amatter of timing and intensity.There are many other examples of riparian recovery co—existing withother land uses, however, we must not forget wildlife habitat as a product ofthe riparian system. Vegetation, the key to a functioning riparian system,7provides habitat for 80 percent or more of the wildlife species in manyareas--species that depend on these systems for all or some part of their lifecycle. These areas are important because all of the factors for habitat arein one place; food, cover and water.Riparian systems are the water collectors. They work like a funnel,with the funnel mouth functioning in the uplands and the small end of thefunnel in the riparian areas. Managers must therefore include the uplands fortotal system recovery. If we look only at the riparian areas in management,we ignore a major portion of the system.One of the first riparian land use philosophies came from the ChineseEmperior Yu in approximately 1600 BC. He said, "To protect the river, protectthe mountains." We must begin to incorporate the basic functions of ourriparian systems into our planning documents. If we continue to ignore thewarning signs in our riparian zones, we will lose their benefits. We mustaccept the fact that many of our present forest and range management practicesare no longer acceptable in the riparian zone. Now is the time to make amendsand work together to devise sound practices based on the processes of eachindividual system. We must then make sure we adhere to those practices."Riparian Management: Full Stream Ahead:"n___Nte...--

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