Riparian Restoration

The Riparian Zone is the area alongside a river or stream - a healthy riparian zone is well vegetated with trees, shrubs and grass. The riparian zone is home to many different animals, from insects to mammals, and the riparian zone is also important to the aquatic habitat.

Fish love Trees! Trees create shade and results in cool water that carries high levels of dissolved oxygen that fish need. When trees and shrubs are removed, erosion occurs and the banks of a river or stream begin to turn to mud. The mud ends up in the river, suffocating fish eggs and creating difficulty for mature fish, increasing water temperatures and adding suspended solids into the water. Sediments then begin infilling spawning areas and cold water pools.

How does riparian damage occur? Cattle may eat shrubs, forestry practices may cut a little too close to the banks, ice may scour the banks tearing out trees and shrubs or traditional haying in fields may creep a little closer to the banks each year. Even anglers, walking over small trees can cause damage to the riparian zone. Once the trees are gone, grassy banks are very susceptible to ice damage.

How can the riparian zone be repaired? Easily, by planting trees and shrubs along the banks of the river or stream. HRAA has planted over 100,000 trees in the last 10 years - we will continue planting trees and we’d love your help.

The health of a river is directly related to the vegetation along its banks. HRAA Staff recently conducted a fly-over of the Hammond river watershed, and we’re happy to report that the Hammond has good riparian vegetation on most part of the river.

That said, some banks of the Hammond and tributary streams are suffering from erosion. These sites are being catalogued. HRAA staff contact landowners and offer to help with the rehabilitation of eroding banks through tree and shrub planting. Areas where there is large scale erosion, like Crowley’s Pool in Quispamsis and Sherwood’s Pool in Upham will need larger scale projects and serious money to repair. These big projects are always on the radar, and in the meantime, we continue to follow an annual planting and education program around riparian health.

We encourage community groups and individuals to volunteer for tree planting- these events occur throughout the spring- check out the events page for upcoming planting activity.