ABSTRACT
It is doubtful if many of the nation’s municipalities could honestly say that they have a good grasp of the “health” of their community ecological infrastructure and/or natural resources. One of the major complaints heard from local land planners is that they are simply overwhelmed by the amount of data, scientific and otherwise, that is available to them. Tremendous amounts of research have been conducted over the past several decades concerning the efficacy of stream buffers as mitigators of storm waterborne pollutants and the physical degradation of stream channels. Much of the data on buffer effectiveness has been derived from studies of buffers applied in an agricultural, silvicultural, or wastewater treatment setting plus studies of forest ecosystems and riparian forest buffers. The research data are not nearly as prolific as those for water quality concerns about the appropriate widths for such buffers, which often vary by species.
