Last week, I thought I had finished addressing the issue of riparian corridors and use of vegetative filter strips. Apparently, there is an on-going study in Wisconsin, comparing grazing riparian corridors, buffer strips, and continuous grazing. The focus of that study is the evaluate the impacts of intensive rotational grazing on stream ecology and water quality. In general, the tendency in riparian management where livestock are involved has been to use vegetative filter strips, which take land out of production and require maintenance of fencing and vegetation by the landowner.
Rotational grazing can encourage sod development and help stabilize erosive stream banks.
It may be an attractive compromise between complete exclusion of livestock from riparian areas and unrestricted livestock access to riparian areas. In these studies, the buffer strips are bounded on both sides by cropland. So far, what they have learned is that the watershed condition exerted an overwhelming influence on the fish and invertebrate communities. While stream habitat quality was similar at rotational and grassy buffer strip sites, rotational sites tended to have a less healthy fish community largely due to the condition of the entire watershed. Continuous pastures had generally poor habitat quality and poor fish communities.