UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- As part of a multi-state effort to protect water quality, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge has committed to planting 900 miles of "riparian forest" in Pennsylvania by the year 2010. Landowners are willing to create riparian areas on their properties, as long as they have a say in the design, says a researcher in Penn State's School of Forest Resources.

"Many landowners are concerned that -- if they accept government cost-share programs and other incentives to plant buffers -- someone will come onto their land and tell them what to do," says James Finley, associate professor of forest resources. "They feel responsible for taking care of streams, but they want to be able to choose a design that suits their needs."

Riparian forests are strips of forest along streams that serve as natural filters. Among other benefits, they prevent sediments, fertilizers and other pollutants from farms and lawns from washing into streams. The trees also help to shade the water, keeping it cool and oxygenated for trout and other aquatic life.

Finley and doctoral student Dan Dutcher surveyed more than 800 streamside landowners -- including farmers, forest landowners and urban dwellers -- to learn their motivations, interest and issues relating to establishing or maintaining riparian forests.

The landowners were concerned about aesthetics foremost. ("The streamside will look bad if it's not neat and tidy.") They also were concerned that falling branches might damage farm equipment and that wooded areas might attract snakes.

"Some people didn't even realize they had a stream on their property," Finley says. "First-order streams, high in the watershed, often just look like trickles coming out of the ground."

The researchers also learned that many landowners don't understand what stream improvement means and desire some education. Subsequently, graduate student Kari Umphrey held focus groups with landowners in the Standing Stone and Shaver's Creek watersheds in Huntingdon County to learn more about their needs. She then drafted a curriculum that teaches people about riparian forests.

Finley plans to test the curriculum, then offer it through Penn State Cooperative Extension, Conservation Districts and the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry.

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EDITORS: Jim Finley can be reached at 814-863-0401.

Contacts: Kim Dionis KDionis@psu.edu 814-863-2703 814-865-1068 fax