Backyard Buffers

Create New Wildlife Habitat
Protect Water Quality & Existing Habitat
Beautify Your Backyard & Community

Landowners

Do you have a stream in your yard, property or community?
How do you maintain that streamside, or riparian strip? 

The Backyard Buffers program is here to help you!

Natural streamside buffers benefit wildlife and stream quality and will beautify your backyard. Mowed lawns can leave little room for life, deteriorate the quality of the water, and cause erosion and flooding. Your stream can become a valuable part of your landscape with minimal effort and care.  

Even small buffers are important to the water quality and local wildlife. The first step to start the transformation of a mowed lawn into a buffer is halt mowing a strip along the water’s edge. Gradually, plants will begin to emerge, from flowers and shrubs to trees. 

To give your buffer a head start and ward off invasive plants, consider planting native wildflowers, shrubs, or trees. Native western Pennsylvania plants are excellent choices because they are well suited to the soils and weather, resist many diseases and insects, and provide food and cover favored by local wildlife.  For an extensive list of native western Pennsylvania plants that grow well along waterways, as well as nurseries, click here.

For more Backyard Buffers tools, visit News online, Events and  Online Resource Center.

Download the Backyard Buffers brochure
(Adobe PDF)

About Backyard Buffers

Backyard Buffers, a project of TRHP, uses corporate and community sites as demonstrations to educate landowners about the importance of streamside buffers.  Beaver Run, at Dominion’s Oakford Station, was the pilot site for Backyard Buffers in April 2002.  In 2004 the partners planted a formal streamside garden at Emmerling Park in Indiana Township and two restoration buffers in Beaver County. 

Demonstration Sites

Site	Location	Year(s) Planted	# Shrubs & Trees	# Wildflowers & Grasses
Dominion's Oakford Station	Delmont, PA	2002, 2003, 2004	350+	450+
Emmerling Community Park	Indianola, PA	2004	50+	800+
Beaver County Parks	Marion & Brighton Townships, PA	2004	700+	400+

The Three Rivers Habitat Partnership launched Backyard Buffers in 2002 in conjunction with the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, USDA Forest Service, and  Dominion to assist landowners in conserving streamside (riparian) buffers. Support also comes from the Western Pennsylvania Watershed Protection Program, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and Pennsylvania DEP's Growing Greener. For more information and upcoming workshops, please contact Colleen Filicky at 412-777-2462.

Download the Backyard Buffers 2003 Year End Report
(Adobe PDF)