Among spring’s new arrivals this year will be thousands of new trees along Chesapeake shorelines, thanks in part, to the efforts of Chesapeake Bay Foundation volunteers. From the tributaries of the Rappahannock River, to the dairy farms of Lancaster County, Penn., CBF and its partners are working to restore one of the Bay’s most important natural systems—forested buffers.

“The Bay is fed by the land. What happens on the land happens in the Bay,” said Jenn Hicks, habitat restoration trainer for CBF. “The Bay’s ecosystem relies on trees to help filter water, provide habitat, and feed fish.”

The restoration work comes at a vital period for the Bay. Historical forested lands are being lost at staggering rates.

Forested buffers are one of CBF’s nine key indicators of the Bay’s health (along with toxics, resource lands, water clarity, underwater grasses, dissolved oxygen, wetlands, oysters, and migratory fish). In 1998, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s State of the Bay Report and Health Index ranked forested buffers 53 on a scale of 0 to 100. Ever since the last ice age, forests have been the most common land cover along our waterways. The aquatic ecosystem depends on trees and forests. Forested buffers (plants, shrubs, and trees along waterways), in particular, play key roles.

Restoration momentum

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation’s goal is to see riparian forest buffers increase by 1,500 miles by 2005 and the Chesapeake Bay Executive Council has set a goal of 2,010 miles by the Year 2010. Toward that end, CBF leads restoration programs with two significant objectives: improve the Bay’s health, and train and empower others to start restoring forested buffers in their communities.

This is a watershed-wide effort with different challenges in different areas. In Pennsylvania, for example, one of the key issues is protecting streams from agricultural runoff that includes water-clouding sediment, nutrient pollution from fertilizers and manure, and toxics from weed and pest killers. CBF works with private landowners to reforest their stream banks. “Even though this is completely voluntary, there is a waiting list of landowners who want help in planting buffers,” said Jennifer Barto, CBF’s Pennsylvania grassroots coordinator.

Near Washington DC, the Anacostia River and its Northwest Branch faces a different problem. A flood plain, the Anacostia’s banks are nearly void of plant life other than grass. Hundreds of trees planted along the shores by the Army Corps of Engineers four years ago were destroyed by beavers, drought, and other factors. CBF’s Hicks and the BaySavers recently teamed with the Anacostia Watershed Society for the first of six plantings along the river.

“We have to remember that these efforts bring hope for the Bay and the more than 400 rivers, creeks, and streams in its drainage area,” said Hicks. “By taking steps like this, we not only make a difference for local ecosystems, but also build momentum to bring about volunteer lead Bay-saving efforts elsewhere.”

In many of the restoration areas, creating buffers of the proper width is a key issue. While 35-feet is the minimum width at which a buffer will function, buffers of 100-feet are far more effective, says CBF scientists, Ann Jennings lead a group of 17 in a planting along the banks of the Rappahannock last Saturday. Native species suited for the local climate must be used. Typical species include oak, dogwood, persimmon, green ash, river birch, black willow, smooth alder, pin oak, sycamore, green ash, red maple, and swamp white oak.

To keep a ready supply of trees on hand, CBF has created grow-out stations or “micro-nurseries” where volunteers and partners pot seedlings and tend them for two years until they are old enough to be transplanted. BaySavers and Student BaySavers participate in potting projects like the one Jenn Hicks recently ran at CBF’s Clagett Farm.

Everyone can help

With the range of tasks necessary for a planting or potting, there is something for anyone to do.

“You don’t have to be a brute or a botanist to do this,” said Hicks whose volunteers have ranged from toddlers to grandparents. “There are all kinds of tasks to be completed at these plantings from hard labor to finesse work.” Those who’d rather not lift a shovel or push a wheel barrow, can arrange mulch, remove tags, hold trees straight while someone else is planting it, water, or do inventory of the trees. A favorite job for the young kids is to throw dirt on the roots of the newly planted trees.

“Many people come to enjoy the outdoors and a new area,” said Jennings who worked with 17 volunteers planting trees along the Rappahannock at the Tayloe Unit of the Rappahannock River National Wildlife Refuge last Saturday. “It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 60s. We saw bald eagles and red tail hawks.” Like the opportunities, the rewards of these restoration projects are remarkably diverse.

“The benefits of this program reach beyond the water,” Barto added. At-risk youth will help maintain the young trees at a new micro nursery in the Juniata watershed, and others will use the grow-out stations in their work. “There is something about working with trees that keeps them excited and focused,” she added.

“Beyond the clean water, these areas give us so much,” said Hicks. “We’re creating a shady place for people to relax in, and a public area that shows that people care about their communities. When you participate in one of these projects, you have a tremendous sense of stake and ownership in the land and water around your community. It’s yours and you want to protect it.”

Throughout the spring, CBF will be involved in tree-planting and potting projects, though they will only be available in certain parts of the watershed. CBF hopes that this is only the start.

“We hope to be the trainers of the watershed,” said Hicks. “Volunteers can take what they have learned in our projects back to their own communities.” In the coming months, CBF will explain how you can get the support and training you need to plant trees in your community. In many cases, there are numerous resources available for communities who are committed to be part of the effort to restore the Bay.

Planting and potting trees is only a small part of the restoration work being done by adults and students throughout the Bay this spring. From oyster gardens to tubs of underwater grass, volunteers are playing a key role in helping with the Bay’s restoration.

For more information about CBF restoration projects, contact CBF’s grassroots department 888/SAVE BAY.

The national conservation group American Forests documented a dramatic loss of tree cover in the southeast portion of the Chesapeake Bay watershed, including the greater Baltimore-Washington metropolitan area, and found that areas with high vegetation and tree canopy coverage dropped from 55 percent (6.3 million acres) to 38 percent (4.4 million acres) of the total area (11.4 million acres) in 25 years. Along the Bay’s 110,000 miles of shoreline, only 53 percent have forest cover any more earning.

Forests slow the rain and sediment that runs off the land, and filter out sediment, nutrients, and pesticides before they reach the water. The soil in these buffers absorbs water at rates that can be 10 to 15 times higher than grass lawns and 40 times higher than plowed fields. Tree root systems protect stream banks from eroding by locking the soil in place with their root systems. Sediment pollution on the Bay harms grasses, oysters, and fish. Forest buffers help trap particulate pollution before it enters the water. Trees and the organically rich forest soils are able to store vast amounts of nutrients and fertilizers, thereby preventing nutrients from contributing to pollution in the Bay. Clearing an acre of forest can increase nitrogen pollution entering nearby creeks by nearly 400 percent. Tree roots intercept shallow groundwater and absorb nutrients before they enter streams.

Leaves and limbs that fall into the water provide food and habitat for aquatic insects and microbes that form the basis of the aquatic food chain. Trees along the water provide important nesting habitat and traveling corridors for songbirds and other wildlife. Woody debris that falls into streams provides cover for fish as well as creates pools and riffles that increase the diversity of habitat structure for fish. A tree canopy helps to shade water which, in turn, helps maintain dissolved oxygen levels and cool temperatures vital to some species.