Why are vegetated buffers important?
Natural vegetated buffers protect water quality, filter storm water, provide flood control, prevent erosion, and serve as wildlife habitat. Statewide requirements for maintaining buffers have been weakened over time, harming both the natural systems and the property owners and water users downstream of developments that encroach into the buffer. This trend should be reversed, and we should provide more protection for our water resources through the use of vegetated buffers along streams, rivers, ponds, lakes, and wetlands.
