Stream Care Guide:

Management Tips for Streamside Property Owners

Livestock

Livestock with free access to a stream can destroy vegetation, trample streambanks, and reduce water quality.

Control pet and livestock access to streams and riparian corridors. Domestic animals and livestock can easily disrupt the stream environment. If uncontrolled, pets can terrorize wildlife in the riparian corridors, spook fish, and muddy stream waters. Livestock can quickly destroy streambanks, trample streamside vegetation, and contaminate local water supplies.

Prohibiting livestock access to stream zones or even intermittent waterways is a good idea. A buffer zone of managed vegetation between a pasture and the stream will help control sediment and animal waste from entering the stream system. It will also promote increases in nutrients and algae types, among others.

Fencing to create a protected riparian corridor is the best solution for the stream. Constructing the fence five feet or more from the top edge of the streambank provides room for trees and shrubs to grow and reduces the likelihood of losing the fence should any streambank erosion occur. Controlled access for watering and stream crossing can be constructed if necessary. [Be sure to check for local permit requirements.]

How to protect streams having deep water and high banks.

Less comprehensive measures you can take to help the stream include managing grazing by rotation and other means, stabilizing streambanks (see illustrations), and planting individual trees or patches of streamside vegetation which can be protected from grazing.

Soil erosion from corrals and from pastures that receive heavy use may contribute harmful amounts of silt to streams.

How to protect streams having shallow water and low banks.

A wide corridor of undisturbed riparian vegetation can help to filter out some of the sediment before it gets to the stream channel. Undisturbed is emphasized because a thick groundcover of plants and organic debris is necessary to create a good filter. An overhead canopy of trees does not protect the surface soil if livestock are allowed to graze freely on the ground underneath the trees. Preventing soil erosion helps to maintain productivity of your pastures as well as the health of the stream.

To inquire about proper fence installation as well as other questions about protecting water from livestock, or for questions regarding care of farm ponds, please contact the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service.

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