Healthy Streams Support Wildlife

Riparian areas, the zones adjacent to rivers and streams, are hotspots of biodiversity due to their unique combination of water availability, nutrient-rich soils, and diverse microhabitats. The constant presence of water supports a wide range of plant species that thrive in these moist environments, from willows and alders to grasses and sedges. This lush vegetation provides essential food, shelter, and breeding grounds for numerous animal species, including amphibians, birds, insects, and mammals. Additionally, riparian zones act as buffers, filtering pollutants and stabilizing stream banks, which helps maintain the ecological health of these areas and supports their rich biodiversity.

There are five common vegetation tiers normally found in multi-layered forests throughout Vermont

Streambanks erode due to a combination of natural and human-induced factors that disrupt the stability of the soil and vegetation along waterways. Natural processes like water flow, storm events, and fluctuating water levels can undermine streambanks by eroding the soil through hydraulic forces and sediment transport. Vegetation, which plays a crucial role in stabilizing streambanks with its root systems, can be compromised by factors such as extreme weather and invasive species. Human activities, such as construction, deforestation, and agricultural runoff, further exacerbate erosion by removing protective vegetation, increasing runoff, and altering natural water flow patterns. As streambanks erode, the loss of soil and vegetation can lead to increased sedimentation in water bodies, impacting water quality and aquatic habitats.

Stream Wise is an initiative created by the Lake Champlain Basin Program, which engages streamside property owners in the Lake Champlain Basin to enhance and protect vegetated stream buffers, increasing flood resiliency and benefiting water quality and natural habitat. Through the initiative, partnering organizations including Franklin County Natural Resources Conservation District provide free on-site consultations to streamside landowners, providing guidance on how to best steward our streams.

After a consulation, landowners receive a report documenting site conditions and outlining best management practices and areas for improved management. In some cases, improvements may include planting trees along a stream or river to increase the width of the buffer. These trees provide numerous services to the stream and streamside ecosystem, including holding soil in place and reducing erosion with their immense root structures, and shading streams which keeps water temperatures cool, benefitting fish and invertebrates. In other cases, recommendations may include guiding gutter downspouts to an area where the water can infiltrate into soils, reducing erosion and slowing down water. 

Stream Wise is an initiative in the Lake Champlain basin, with participants in Vermont, New York, and Quebec

For properties that meet the minimum criteria to be Stream Wise, landowners receive an award sign, which they can showcase on their property.

While conducting a Stream Wise consultation in Richford this past June, Franklin County NRCD staff saw the processes and co-benefits of a healthy buffer zone in action. The buffer of this stream was around 300 feet on both sides, providing the greatest level of protection our natural waterways and habitats need. A diversity of ground cover bordering the stream included cinnamon fern, marsh marigold, and Canada Mayflower followed by shrubs and understory including speckled alder, yellow birch, striped maple and more. These plants and trees hold the soil in place which improves water quality, they shade the stream to keep temperatures cool for fish and invertebrates, and they are a breeding ground for various insects which make up the extremely important base of wildlife food chains. Below is an image of mink tracks we found within this stream. This mink is likely living off a diet of fish, frogs, and crayfish that are supported by this healthy and happy stream ecosystem.

Mucky mink tracks captured in the stream

We also spotted two Northern Dusky Salamanders in the stream. Amphibians like salamanders are thought of as ecosystem indicators, changes in their presence in an area can indicate the health of an ecosystem. They are very sensitive to environmental changes and pollutants partly because they absorb water and oxygen directly through the skin. Northern duskies prefer stream habitats with mossy seeps and mucky soils, and they remain relatively close to stream edges during their forays for terrestrial prey. Seeing these salamanders indicates that this stream is healthy and clean enough to support very sensitive wildlife. 

At least two northern dusky salamanders found in the stream

This landowner was proud to recieve a Stream Wise award and learned a lot of new management strategies that will continue to keep their stream, streamside buffer, and surrounding wildlife thriving. If you have a stream on your property and want to learn more about best management practices to protect land, water and functional wildlife corridors, contact the Franklin County NRCD for a Stream Wise Consultation at info@franklincountynrcd.org.