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Not only developers but also private landowners ignore the reported 25-foot stream buffer on the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River in Fayetteville, Arkansas.
Given that the city does not have rules that prevent this kind of mistake, at least we can provide educational material in the hope of getting cooperation from knowledgeable residents and homeowners. Such material is abundant and locally available from Audubon Arkansas, the county extension office, the Beaver Water District, the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, the Arkansas Natural Resources Çommission, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and online. This can't wait for a two-year study or a major grant. The basics are the same worldwide.
IN THE NEWSPAPER
The Northwest Arkansas Times' Marsha L. Melnichak in the Sunday Oct. 14, 2007, edition reported on a
resolution
on water quality to be considered by the Fayetteville City Council at its Tuesday meeting.
The city's committee on environmental concerns has discussed and redrafted the resolution for a year or two and finally offered it to the council.
It isn't asking for anything but more attention to rules and regulations and best-management practices for stream corridors.
Maybe we need a glossary of terms for such stories, because such phrases as
riparian zone
are not used at everyone's dinner table.
The reporter came up with a clear definition — the interface between land and flowing bodies of water such as rivers.
Kent Landrum has been working on the resolution to build a consensus among members of the environmental committee. Now there could be more revision to build consensus among the council members.
The resolution is worded politely and gently. It would encourage enforcement of rules to "to preserve and restore riparian zones." It recommends monitoring riparian zones on development sites.
State and federal regulations mandated such action years ago. But cities and counties and whatever jurisdictions may exist were given far too much time to comply. Naturally, the political forces felt by all governing bodies caused far too many jurisdictions to delay implementation until the last minute or fail completely to comply.
In contrast, some cities have far-reaching regulations that go beyond the state and federal rules. For decades, some cities have had wetland commissions and watershed commissions that enforce the rules quite well. But not in Arkansas.
Now is the time for Fayetteville, already reaching out to become a center of sustainability, not only to make this statement of sound policy a resolution but also to see that current and future staff members have political and administrative support to see that water-quality issues get proper attention.
And a major push to educate individual property owners, developers and all residents on the reasons to protect the riparian zone should begin now.
We can't go back and remove all the structues built in floodplains or bring life back to the vegetation already removed from riparian zones. But we can find ways to alleviate some of the problems and eliminate the possibility of new such problems being created.
The city's 25-foot protected zone along streams is inadequate in most places. No arbitary number can be set. One hundred feet would not be adequate in some areas. An example is the east side of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River through the Aspen Ridge site. The OVERFLOW area was 200 feet wide and more in the area filled for construction there. That was obvious to people who walked the wooded area before it was cleared. The branch has become shallower and narrower because of erosion caused by upstream construction and now flows over the bridge at Eleventh Street when there is much less rain than in the past. Homes are threatened all way down the Town Branch, the West Fork and the main White River by amounts of rain that wouldn't have been significant a few years ago.
It isn't about only drinking-water quality or the added expense of purifying Beaver Lake water for distribution to the wide area the lake serves. It also is about keeping shade on the water to protect life in the streams and in the lake. It is about fishing and swimming and offering clear-water for migrating waterfowl to feed in during the cool months. Any duck hunter who regularly works the raging White River knows the mallards will be far back out of the muddy current feeding the vegetated backwater woods and fields where the water is clearest. And fishermen know that smallmouth bass, rockbass and some other species no longer reproduce in streams that have been silted in.
Protecting the riparian zone by keeping vegetation in place also means providing roosting and nesting sites for the song birds that city folk assume will always be at their feeders. It means leaving the diverse native species on which butterflies and other pollinators feed and on which caterpillars must feed if there are to be subsequent generations of butterflies. It means offering a travel corridor for wildlife that otherwise wander through yards and down streets and cross busy highways. It means storing CO2 underground to reduce the threat of climate change. It means keeping not only the water cooler in summer but also keeping adjacent yards and buildings cooler in summer. It means providing wind breaks in summer and sound barriers year round and privacy for people and wildlife. The list could be endless.
Many conservation organizations have thorough explanations of the value of protecting riparian zones online and offer printed matter galore. The information just doesn't reach all the right people. It needs to reach everyone.
Do a google search for riparian zone.
The search lists 1,630,000 entries. A person shouldn't need more than a half-dozen to learn the basics. No one with an ax, shovel or bulldozer should be within a mile of a stream without that basic understanding. No one who drinks water should open the tap or remove the lid from a bottle to drink without that basic knowledge.
riparian zone
How wide?
Read just a few of the entries and your opinion will be of value if you stand up at the council meeting tonight.
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