Activities Revegetation

The Stream Team Program helps individuals plan and carry out aquatics related projects, including those requiring native re-vegetation of streambanks. Of these projects, erosion control and streambank stabilization issues make up the majority of those addressed by the Stream Team Staff. Paradoxically, vegetation is generally the root (no pun intended) of both the problem and solution of streambank erosion.

Streambanks naturally experience bank erosion and channel migration at varying degrees. Native trees, shrubs, and grasses act to naturally minimize erosion, providing stability to the stream channel and the adjacent land. When this vegetation is removed, streambanks will experience rapid and often extreme erosion that quickly becomes difficult and expensive to fix. Streambank vegetation is removed for many reasons but must often to allow farming up to the streams edge or to allow a better view of the stream from an individual’s residence. Removing streamside vegetation, to allow increased area for cropland, provides only a short term benefit as the amount of cropland eroded into the stream will quickly exceed the small increase in cropland acreage. Individuals building a residence near a stream/river often remove native vegetation along the waterway. As a result they frequently experience erosion issues which can become so severe the structures themselves are threatened. Anyone building or living near a stream/river should consult the Stream Team for advice on avoiding future erosion issues that often become extremely costly.

To halt the erosion process many streambanks will need to be re-sloped and re-vegetated. Native vegetation is the best choice for re-vegetation as these species have developed local adaptations that give them much higher survival rates, provide forage wildlife, and have diverse root systems that effectively stabilize streambanks. Replanting streambanks also requires a mixture of grasses, shrubs, and trees.

Common species used for re-vegetation include: