Released: October 27, 2006

Trees Can Determine Kansas Water Quality

MANHATTAN, Kan. – The quality of a state’s water can start or end in the riparian zone – the area where land interconnects with a stream, river or lake.

This zone has a big impact on both surface and subsurface water supplies, said Deborah Goard, watershed forester with the Kansas Forest Service.

But, humankind has been altering native shores for generations – typically by building cities beside rivers and lakes and by turning “bottomland” into agricultural acreage.

As one result, Kansas now has about half the acreage that was growing trees compared with the mid 1800s, Goard said. And, today’s needed task of restoring or maintaining riparian areas is mostly in the hands of paved municipalities and private landowners.

She’s just completed a series of publications to help such hands with that task.

With the right kinds of plants, a riparian zone acts as Mother Nature’s coffee filter, Goard explained. It keeps rainwater-carried soil, nitrate fertilizers, pesticides, and fecal matter out of the drink.

Without those kinds of plants, the zone becomes a giant version of a children’s slide, using gravity to propel rain’s runoff – plus its pollutants – down into the nearest body of water.

Flooding simply exaggerates and expands either the benefits or the problems, she said.

“Our loss of riparian forests is one reason the flood of ‘93 could be so devastating,” the forester said. “Even during normal weather, without riparian vegetation you can lose stream banks and fill in reservoirs with sediment. At the same time, the water can pick up higher levels of pesticides, nitrates and fecal coliform bacteria.”

Goard sees riparian zone restoration and management as a logical start for reducing soil loss, while improving water quality. So, she has developed a series of seven bulletins on best management practices for riparian “buffers,” as well as a pamphlet that lists not only the benefits of buffers but also six organizations Kansans zone owners can apply to for technical and funding help.

The publications are available through the Kansas Forest Service’s district foresters. Their contact information is on the Web at http://www.kansasforests.org/staff//index.shtml.

Another source is any county/district K-State Research and Extension office or the Web site at http://www.oznet.ksu.edu/ (search for MF-2724 and MF-2746 through MR-2752).

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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.

Story by:
Kathleen Ward
kward@oznet.ksu.edu
K-State Research& Extension News