October is Riparian Buffer Month!

Join us as we build awareness, promote events, and fundraise for the sustainable practice of riparian buffers.

Share #bufferbanter on social media posts with tips, facts, and information about riparian buffers. Use #RiparianBufferMonth on social media. Focus on sharing resources, news articles, and information on forested riparian buffers.

Out of stock

Celebrate Buffers T-shirt

$26.00

October is Riparian Buffer Month and you can share your enthusiasm for buffers with this super soft, 100% cotton t-shirt!

Available in unisex sizes small through adult 2X large. Shipping included!

Partner Events

Join a field day, restoration event, stream adoption or summit! Click the images below to learn more about these great events. 

Check out our 2023 Buffer Month Partners!

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Heron at C&O Great Falls 10/9/206
WW logo
Keystone 10 million trees
Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences
Chesapeake Bay Program
alliance for the Chesapeake bay
5e45709e588c6-bpfull
chesapeake horticulture service logo
SWCD logo - Blair Blanchette
chesapeake
Team Ag_Logo - Sarah Xenophon

Take a look at Last Year's Buffer Success Stories!

The Behind the Scenes Recipe to Buffer Success

Guest Blogger Rebecca Lauver October 2nd 2023     As riparian forest buffer plantings become increasingly prevalent, more and more folks are aware of what a successful tree planting looks like in the field. Having a maintenance plan in place, proper native species selection, and appropriate planting techniques are all more commonplace aspects of riparian…

STRENGTHENING & BUILDING “BUFFER” PARTNERSHIPS

November 9, 2022 By Kristen Parsons DC Green Infrastructure Projects Assistant Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay How do you balance multiple organizational missions while collaborating on a project?  What do you do if the community you are trying to help doesn’t understand why you want to remove trees and shrubs in their neighborhood?  How do…

Braford Farm, an Agricultural Buffer Success Story

Location: Natural Bridge Station, VA Partners Involved: Chesapeake Bay Foundation Type of Buffer: Agricultural Submitted by: Sarah Coffey     Landowners/producers Bill and Lea Braford rotationally graze a cow-calf herd on a 250-acre farm in Rockbridge County, Virginia. During a field visit hosted the Upper and Middle James Riparian Consortium in April 2021, Chesapeake Bay…

Trees are the Answer for Clean Water

October 17th,  2022 By Cindy Adams Dunn     At the start of my career, I worked as an environmental educator and leader of Pennsylvania’s emerging efforts to improve the quality of its rivers and streams that flowed to the Chesapeake Bay. Then, just as now, I could be found along waterways in the dirt…

Keystone 10 Million Trees Partnership

Location: Pennsylvania Partners Involved: 238 different partners Type of Buffer: Urban, Costal, and agricultural  Submitted by: Brenda Sieglitz   How does 1 organized group of partners plant 10 million trees? Collaboration. Dedication. Transparency. Commitment. GUTS.   With 236 partners and more signing on every day, it’s been a monumental challenge to figure out how to count all…

Alger Park Stream Restoration

  Location: Alger Park, Washington D.C  Partners Involved: DC Department of Energy and Environment, Department of Parks and Recreation, Department of Transportation, LimnoTech, Biohabitats, Environmental Quality Resources, Hillcrest Community Civic Association. Funders: EPA and NFWF Type of Buffer: Urban Submitted by: Matt Weber     Prior to restoration Alger Park was in a highly degraded state with…

Radzwich Buffer

Location: Centre County, Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Furnace, PA) Partners Involved: ClearWater Conservancy, Radzwich Family, ClearWater volunteers, WHM Group, Bud Snyder Excavating, Native Creations Landscape Services, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, R & R Fencing, PA DEP’s Growing Greener Program, Naionall Fish & Wildlife Foundation Type of Buffer: Agricultural Submitted by: Andrea Murrell     In spring…

Cherrytree Farms

Location: Laurel, MD Partners Involved: Howard County Dept. of Public Works; Bureau of Environmental Services Type of Buffer: Suburban Residential Submitted by: Radhika Wijetunge       Stream restoration and riparian buffers are perfect partners.This project is located on a 6.69-acre site and the stream restoration/buffer work took place on a 1.2 acre tract of…

Northeastern School District Riparian Buffer

    Location: Hartman Run, York County PA (Northeastern School District below Shallow Brook Intermediate School) Partners Involved: Penn State Extension, Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, Northeastern School District Type of Buffer: Urban Submitted by: Jodi Sulpizio       We began planting this 20 acre riparian buffer in Oct. 2019. We are planting in…

Beltsville Agricultural Research Center – Paint Branch Riparian Buffer

Location: Beltsville Agricultural Research Center (BARC) – Beltsville, MD Partners Involved: Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Maryland-National Capital Park & Planning Commission, Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Type of Buffer: Agricultural Submitted by: Laura Connelly & Larry Quarrick      Project Description: Located in the mid to lower watershed of the Paint Branch stream corridor these…

Paint Branch Stream Valley Park

  Location: College Park, MD Partners Involved: Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission (PG Co Dept of Parks; & Recreation); PG Co Dept of Environment; US Army Corp of Engineers; University of Maryland Type of Buffer: Urban Submitted by: Laura Connelly & Larry Quarrick        This riparian buffer is located in the…

Sunset Park Buffer

Location: Sunset Park, Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, PA Partners Involved: Greening the Lower Susquehanna, Harrisburg Rugby Football Club, Dauphin County Conservation District Type of Buffer: Community Park Submitted by: Monique Dykman     Sunset Park has a small stream running through the park, and has recently become home to the The Harrisburg Rugby Football Club.…

Stream and Trail Restoration at Woodend Nature Sanctuary

Location: Chevy Chase, MD Partners Involved: SMC, Empire Landscaping, Capital Flexipave and many more subcontractors Type of Buffer: Urban Submitted by: Bradley Simpson     Woodend Nature Sanctuary consists of forests, meadow, and an ephemeral stream nestled within the urban environment of the capital beltway. Large stormwater events, invasive species and overabundant deer have severely…

Honey Hollow Stream Buffer Project

Location: Bucks County Audubon Society at Honey Hollow (New Hope, PA) Partners Involved: Bucks County Master Watershed Stewards, Lower Delaware Wild and Scenic Council Type of Buffer: Suburban Submitted by: Stacy Carr-Poole     Bucks County Audubon Society at Honey Hollow is the steward of the historic Honey Hollow Watershed, which celebrated its 50th Anniversary…

Swatara Creek Buffers

Location: Londonderry Township, Dauphin County, PA Partners Involved: Penn State Greening the Lower Susquehanna, Dauphin County Conservation District Type of Buffer: FEMA Residential Property Buy Out Submitted by: Monique Dykman       Homes along Swatara Creek Road were once plagued by frequent flooding. Londonderry Township utilized a FEMA grant to buy residents out of…

CH Buffer Planting

    Location: Romney, WV Partners Involved: James River Association & Conservation Services, Inc. Type of Buffer: Agricultural Submitted by: James Remuzzi     This project was a priority for watershed restoration given its location in the watershed and history of agriculture. These landowner received funding from NRCS for streamside fencing and tree planting. They…

Evensong on Indian River

  Location: Chesapeake VA 23325 Partners Involved: Elizabeth RIver Project, Friends of Indian River, Chesapeake Bay Foundation Type of Buffer: Urban Submitted by: Lynn Hancock Gilbert     Riparian buffers are just as important in brackish and salt water environments as in freshwater rivers and streams. Evensong on Indian River in Chesapeake, Virginia provides an…

Riparian Rangers

Location: Multiple counties within south central and south eastern PA Partners Involved: Juniata County Conservation District, York County Conservation District Type of Buffer: Volunteer program working on urban, residential, and agricultural land Summitted by: Rebecca Lauver     Riparian Rangers is an Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay project that provides much-needed maintenance support on newly…

Swallow Hill Farm Riparian Forest Buffer

    Location: Cochranville, Chester County PA (within CB Watershed) Partners Involved: Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Type of Buffer: Agricultural  Submitted by: Ryan Davis    Elizabeth and Douglas Randolph own and operate an organic vegetable farm, Swallow Hill Farm, in Chester County, PA. They already had an existing riparian forest along most of their stream,…

Open Land Turns into Mini Forest

Location: Nelson County, VA Partners Involved: James River Association & Conservation Services, Inc. Type of Buffer: Rural Residential Submitted by: Anne Marie Roberts     Collaborating partners the James River Association, the Virginia Department of Forestry and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation are working across the Upper and Middle James Watershed, through the James River Buffer…

Dauphin County Research and Educational Buffer

Location: Spring Creek in Dauphin County, PA  Partners Involved: Penn State University Type of Buffer: Agricultural     During the summer of 2020, Penn State University Assistant Research Professor, Dr. Tyler Groh, and Penn State Extension Educator, Jennifer Fetter, started collaborating on a riparian buffer proposal. This proposal sought to establish a buffer on former…

Coldstream Waterside Buffer

  Location: Cold Stream lake path, Lake Linganore, New Market MD Partners Involved: Lake Linganore Association, Friends of the Lake, Wright Envirnomental Type of Buffer: Lakeside Buffer Submitted by: Erin Johnson     This was planted as a demonstration garden on a steep slope to educate the community on how to plant native shrubs, grasses,…

VIMS Riparian Buffer Restoration

Location: Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point VA Partners Involved: VIMS Center for Coastal Resources Management, Chesapeake Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, Gloucester Master Gardeners Type of Buffer: Coastal Plain     A sloped lawn area with a concrete bulkhead on the York River was planted with native trees and shrubs in 2000 with…

Happy Hollow Farm PA – Multifunctional Forested Riparian Buffer

  Location: Stewartstown, PA Partners Involved: Project was done through Farm Service Agency by property owners Type of Buffer: Agricultural Submitted by: Ann English     This 4 acre buffer was the first Multi-Functional Riparian Forested Buffer (MFRFB) installed in Pennsylvania (2011). It converted land that had been in corn/soy ag for the past century on…

Northend Greenway

  Location: Northend Greenway, Harrisonburg, VA Partners Involved: Momentum Earthworks and the Northend Greenway Steering Committee Type of Buffer: Urban     A recent riparian buffer project in Harrisonburg is the Northend Greenway and Blacks Run Stream Restoration Project. The property had historically been used as a field for livestock, and the surrounding area is…

Maple Dell Farm Riparian Buffer and Stream Restoration

  Location: Woodbine, Maryland Partners Involved: Patrick Family (Maple Dell Farm Owners), Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, Howard Soil Conservation District Type of Buffer: Agricultural   Aerial Maple Dell Farm before Restoration   Maple Dell Farm, Inc. (“the Farm”) is a 96 acre active dairy and row crop farm, the only…

Urban Buffer, Conestoga Creek Watershed of Lancaster County, PA

“How many Partners does it take to plant a tree?” Buffer Project Highlights:  The Lancaster Clean Water Partners are working in Lancaster County, PA to provide clean and clear local waterways by 2040. This partnership effort has led to an increase in restoration projects across the county and inspired the Buffer Action Team to plant…