Last month we talked about how riparian buffers can work (sometimes) at filtering pesticides out of waterways.  That’s only one of the many, many different jobs that strips of streamside vegetation can do.

Buffers don’t even have to be riparian: for example, think of windbreaks planted between upland fields.  The potential combinations of plant types and functions quickly start multiplying to the point that it’s hard to keep track of which kinds of vegetation can do what when planted where.

Thankfully, there’s a comprehensive guide available for designing vegetative buffers to play multiple specific roles in the ecosystem.  Better still, it’s free!

Multifunctional Buffers: Design Guidelines for Buffers, Corridors, and Greenways revises a publication originally put out back in 2008.  This new revision, developed by the Savanna Institute and the USDA Forest Service, incorporates new information that has emerged since then – and there’s been a lot of it!  The guide condenses the findings of nearly two thousand scientific studies into under 200 richly illustrated pages.

The guide is organized by the general resource areas that buffer strips can address: water quality, biodiversity, soils, crops and livestock, quality of life, and recreation. It outlines a planning process that begins with identifying one or more of these as broad objectives, and focusing in on which buffer functions can best achieve them. At the end of the process, a plan is created that can be evaluated and fine-tuned.

The guide also references NRCS resource concerns, making it straightforward for producers participating in programs like EQIP and CRP to know which of their conservation practices fit in where.

Multifunctional Buffers: Design Guidelines for Buffers, Corridors, and Greenways is available free online in electronic format.