Riparian Management: Continuation of Uniform Rules or Spatially Explicit Approaches?

What is in the future? Is it the continuation of standardized and uniform rules for forest management and regulation or is it the pursuit of spatially explicit and tailored approaches?  New science and technology will influence the answer. Riparian management can be conducted in a more spatially explicit style because of increasing understanding of the spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability of watershed environments, and the increasing availability of digital models of the earth’s surface, remote sensed data (vegetation, climate, road networks), fast computers with large storage capabilities, and advanced analytical tools that address forest growth, riparian, and aquatic processes. Management strategies can be made more spatially explicit including tailoring riparian protection based on variable riparian processes and environmental settings and on the history and potential future of watershed disturbances, including those triggered by fire and climate change. Spatially explicit management requires information on riparian processes and forest characteristics that is pertinent to all habitats but with a focus on aquatic environments, including processes related to forest structure, in-stream wood recruitment, thermal energy (stream heating), erosion, and in-stream food webs. A spatially explicit approach to riparian management offers an alternative to prescriptive uniform buffers and may be more ecologically effective in the context of forestry, watershed management, and restoration. It also generates competing hypotheses about protection of riparian and aquatic resources and thus encourages critical evaluation of the ecological effectiveness of varying riparian management strategies, including uniform buffers. Spatially explicit riparian management may also encourage creative approaches for restoring streamside forests impacted by past timber harvest and fire and thus for restoring aquatic habitats.  However, the future of riparian management that would include spatially explicit approaches will require that regulatory policies catch up to new science and technology.