Executive Summary
Riparian and wetland areas are essential to the rangeland and forest ecosystems. PLF strongly supports BLM's "Riparian-Wetland Initiative for the 1990s" and its plans for restoring riparian and wetland areas on the public lands. The Foundation urges BLM to monitor management practices and uses in individual watersheds to cooperate with public and private interests on management practices and projects that will restore and maintain healthy riparian and wetland areas, and to not tolerate uses and practices on public lands that degrade the long term quality and condition of riparian and wetland areas.
Definition
Riparian areas are the areas where land and water meet along stream and lake margins. Wetlands are areas such as swamps or marshes that remain saturated most of the year.
Importance
Riparian and wetland areas make up a small percentage of total land area but are essential for maintaining water quality and quantity, for ground water recharge, and for dissipating stream energy. Although riparian-wetland areas comprise only about one percent of the Public Lands, excluding Alaska, they are ecologically valuable far beyond their size in both rangeland and forest ecosystems. When healthy, that is in proper functioning condition (PFC.), riparian/wetland areas provide high watershed values and great biodiversity. Riparian vegetation improves water quality, rebuilds floodplains that help store water to lessen impacts of floods, stabilizes stream banks, reduces erosion, and improves water storage for groundwater recharge and subsequent increases in base flow for downstream users. Healthy riparian/wetland areas are of critical importance to fish, birds, and most other wildlife species as well as insects, mollusks and crustaceans that are key species in the food chain. Riparian/wetland areas provide tremendous community benefits in the form of wildlife, grazing, recreation, fisheries, and other beneficial uses. Riparian areas, and their associated streams and wetlands, are also indicators of watershed health, as they are among the first landscape features to reflect damage from improper management or natural events within the watershed.
BLM Initiatives
The Bureau of Land Management has intensified its efforts to implement riparian-wetland management over the years since the passage of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act in 1976. In the mid 1980s policy was developed and guidance documents issued. BLM National Riparian Area Management Policy was promulgated in 1987. Technical reference documents were produced in the late 1980's and state level riparian strategy plans were prepared. In September 1991 BLM issued the "Riparian-Wetland Initiative for the 1990's" with a principal goal of restoring and maintaining Public Land riparian and wetland areas so that at least 75 percent would be in proper functioning condition by 1997.
In addition to the first goal of restoring and maintaining riparian wetland areas and working to get riparian zones into an advanced or desired ecological state, the BLM initiative has three other goals: To protect riparian-wetland areas and associated uplands through proper land management and by avoiding or mitigating negative impacts. The objective is to protect, acquire, and expand key areas to ensure their efficient management and to bring about their maximum public benefit. To carry out a riparian-wetland information and outreach program that includes training and research. To work to form new and maintain existing partnerships since riparian wetland ecosystems neither begin nor end at land ownership boundaries and require cooperative management.
In March of 1996 BLM joined the U.S. Forest Service in partnership with the Natural Resources Conservation Service in a National Cooperative Riparian Restoration Program. The goal of this effort is to achieve riparian restoration through collaboration among Federal agencies, state and local governments, volunteer and non-profit organizations and most particularly private landowners. BLM and the Forest Service have defined two program elements for this effort. The first element includes the National Riparian Service Team (NRST) and state training cadres for each of the eleven western states. The second element is an extended riparian coordination network that includes representatives from government, university, industry, conservation, and community organizations, and individuals, working together to restore and maintain properly functioning riparian-wetland areas.
BLM is also involved in three programs to help restore wild populations of salmon and steelhead in the Pacific Northwest that require watershed analyses and plans, riparian area restoration, and ecosystem management. In addition, the implementation of rangeland reform will emphasize biodiversity and ecosystem management in Standards and Guidelines established for livestock grazing in rangeland ecosystems. BLM has stated that Proper Functioning Condition for riparian and wetland areas would be the minimum acceptable standard to achieve rangeland health and sustainability. This is significant and important because it ties the restoration and maintenance of riparian and wetland areas directly to the national goal for the proper management of the public rangelands.
Public Land Riparian and Wetland Status
BLM's goal of restoring 75 percent of the riparian and wetland areas of the Public Lands to Proper Functioning Condition by 1997 was laudatory, ambitious and overoptimistic. In the first place BLM underestimated the amount and size of riparian and wetland areas. Consequently the inventory and analysis of these areas turned out to be a much bigger job than had been thought. For example the number of flowing water riparian miles on Public Land, excluding Alaska, was estimated to be about 25,000 but, during the inventory process, that estimate has risen to nearly 40,000 miles. Secondly, the inventory and assessment effort necessarily used much of the money and manpower that would otherwise have been available for maintenance and restoration activities on the ground. And finally, intermingled land ownership within watersheds, including both private and multi agency public lands, require the development of a cooperative and collaborative approach if lasting restoration and management efforts are to succeed.
As reported in BLM's 1996 report of accomplishments, the agency has fallen somewhat short of its target, but progress has been good. The clearest picture of the situation is shown by looking at the riparian stream miles on the Public Lands in the western states, excluding Alaska. This includes approximately 40,000 miles. BLM has completed assessments of slightly over 75% of these stream miles. Including the projects and management actions in place through 1996, BLM estimates that, of the riparian miles assessed approximately 40% are in Proper Functioning Condition (PFC.). The remaining 60% are assessed as either Functional at Risk of Degradation (45%) or Non Functional (15%). Looked at pessimistically this means that more than half of the riparian stream miles on Public Lands are in trouble and BLM has only achieved a little over half of its goal. However, a much more optimistic view is that the agency is well started on a vitally important effort and needs strong support and encouragement to continue with the job.
Inventory, assessment and planning are important prerequisites to an effective program, and continuous monitoring and reporting are needed. But actual progress is made on the ground. That progress involves a number of key actions including: management decisions which condition the way in which riparian areas are used; physical restoration and improvement projects ranging from bank protection, rock placement and plantings to fencing; instream flow protection; key riparian land acquisitions; special land use designations; and participation in collaborative watershed management projects.
With the creation of the National Cooperative Riparian Restoration Program and the National Riparian Service Team and extended riparian coordination network, BLM and the U.S. Forest service are in a great position to complete the task of restoring and assuring the future of the public riparian areas and wetlands in the western United States.
Collaborative Riparian Restoration and Management
BLM has made excellent progress in its riparian program in the last two decades, primarily because of the initiative and exceptional efforts of dedicated professional employees. These professionals are the first to recognize that getting the job done will require a cooperative effort. It is through their efforts that BLM and the Forest Service with the National Resources Conservation Service initiated a joint National program. The letter announcing that program identified the importance of a cooperative approach:
"(Restoration) will not happen by regulation, changes in the law, more money, or any of the normal bureaucratic approaches. It will only occur through the integration of ecological, economic, and social factors and participation of affected interests."
This understanding led to the national goal of achieving riparian restoration through collaboration. This approach is well summed up in the mission statement of the cooperative riparian restoration program.
"There is growing agreement among people in the western United States as to the value and desirability of healthy streams and lakes and the need to accelerate restoration of degraded areas. Considerable disagreement exists among people however, about the existing conditions of riparian-wetland areas, about the types of uses that are appropriate, and about the treatments and tools that can be successfully employed to restore or maintain healthy riparian-wetland areas. Strongly held values and interests create polarity among user groups and interested people which is a major barrier to achieving healthy streams.
"The ability to accomplish the program of accelerating cooperative riparian and wetland restoration is dependent upon being able to bring communities of people together using a common vocabulary and definitions for evaluating the health and condition of riparian-wetland areas. Management and problem resolution is most effective at the ground level, employing a system that allows people to reach agreement about the specific physical functions of riparian-wetland systems. Resulting management decisions must engage the people most affected by success or failure."
Public Lands Foundation Position
The Public Lands Foundation strongly supports the national cooperative riparian restoration initiative and urges the Administration and Congress to insure that it is fully and properly funded and staffed. In particular we urge the investment in collaborative projects that are professionally designed and where the inclusion of federal funds for cost sharing in cooperative efforts will make significant, long-term improvements in the health of riparian and wetland areas.
The Foundation also strongly supports BLM's Riparian Wetland Initiative for the 90s and the rangeland management goal in the Rangeland Reform '94 initiative for rangeland management.
With the availability of the National Riparian Service Team, and the extended riparian coordination network, as well as highly qualified BLM field personnel, outstanding professional expertise is available for training, education, watershed analysis, and project design at the field level. The Foundation urges BLM leadership at the national, state, and particularly the field manager level to:
1. Aggressively take the lead in bringing together affected
public and private interests on a watershed by watershed basis to
cooperate on management practices and projects that will restore
and maintain healthy riparian and wetland areas.
2. Call on the professional expertise now available for top
quality help in this effort.
3. Continuously monitor management practices and uses in
watersheds to assure that they are contributing to the goal of
riparian health, and work with users to assure that these
positive practices are put into effect.
4. Not tolerate users or practices that are abusive to the health
of riparian or wetland areas including all uses, from motorized
recreational use to livestock grazing, where those uses or
practices are conducted in ways that degrade the long-term
quality and condition of riparian areas.
The Public Lands Foundation particularly urges the Direction
of BLM to take every opportunity to encourage field personnel in
this riparian and wetland restoration and maintenance effort and
to lead the effort to inform and educate the public, public
officials, members of Congress and all interested and affected
parties about the vital importance of healthy watershed for the
productive resources of the Public Lands and for the future
health and welfare of the Nation.