Improper livestock grazing of these highly productive areas can be detrimental. Degraded riparian areas have little vegetation to protect and stabilize stream banks. This ultimately lowers water tables and the saturation zone, thus reducing summer stream flows. Wildlife and fish are greatly reduced, as well as the amount and quality of livestock forage. Other activities also affect riparian areas, such as straightening or diverting sections of the stream channel, operating vehicles or heavy equipment in riparian areas, cultivating to the edge of streams or rivers, removing beaver and allowing over populations of big game animals.
Compendium of Trout Stream Habitat Improvement Projects (1953-1998) (10 MB) Managing for Beaver on the Bighorn National Forrest The Response of Prairie Stream Riparian Buffers to Livestock Exclusion Continuous CRP Riparian Buffer, Stream Restoration Program
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