Prioritizing Agricultural Lands for Riparian Buffer Placement

in the Raritan Basin: A Geographic Information

System (GIS) Model

Project Partners:North Jersey Resource Conservation &

Development (RC&D)NJ Water Supply Authority (NJWSA)

NJ Institute of Technology - NJITRaritan Watershed Agricultural Committee

(RWAC)USDA - NRCS

North Jersey Resource Conservation & Development 6 county Non-profit

1. Land Conservation - Protects the resource base and 2. Community Development - Improves economic and community development in rural areas.3. Water Management - Helps local people conserve, utilize and improve the quality and quantity of available water.4. Environmental Enhancement - Improves the environment.

Hunterdon, Morris, Somerset, Sussex, Warren, and Union Counties

Check us out on the Web!

http://northjerseyrcd.org

Background 32% of historic

riparian areas within the Raritan Basin have been converted to urban and agricultural uses

Riparian Areas: transitional zones between stream and terrestrial habitats located parallel to the stream corridor.

PurposeThe Raritan Watershed Agricultural Committee (RWAC)

recognized riparian restoration as a much needed best management practice (BMP) and supports the installation of stream corridor management practices on agricultural lands. In response, funding was sought to determine where BMPs could help the most.

Objectives:

1) Develop riparian restoration plan for agricultural lands in the Raritan Basin

2) Prioritization of ag lands for restoration projects

3) Identification and evaluation of available funding sources and institutional needs and methods for implementation of riparian projects

Geographic Information System (GIS) Raritan Basin was divided

into grids at a 10-meter resolution based on the best available Digital Elevation Model (DEM).

Agricultural lands were extracted based on land use data from NJ DEP.

Project partners classified 4 components which best represent need for riparian buffers

All available data was collected and applied to the GIS-grid system of the Raritan Basin

Model Components Soil Erodibility

USDA-NRCS Soil Erodibility Index (EI)

Hydrologic Sensitivity/Runoff Potential Modified Topographic

Index (TI) from USDA-NRCS

Wildlife Habitat NJ-DEP Non-game and

Endangered Species Program’s Landscape Project

Impervious Surface NJ-DEP Land Use/Land

Cover Data

Soil Erodibility A Erodibility index (EI)

score was calculated for each 10 m2 grid

These scores were split into 5 ranks

Ranks 1 – 5 demonstrate the severity of soil erodibility

Higher rank indicates greater erodibility

Hydrologic Sensitivity/Runoff Potential USDA-NRCS Topographic

Index (TI) was modified to incorporate Variable Source Area (VSA) hydrology

A modified TI was calculated for each 10 m2

grid. These scores were split

into 10 ranks Ranks 1 -10 demonstrate

the differing hydrology's Higher rank indicates

greater sensitivity or runoff potential

Wildlife Habitat Ranks 1 – 5 based on NJ DEP Landscape Project categories

Rank 5 = Areas containing one or more occurrences of at least one wildlife species listed as threatened or endangered on the Federal List

Rank 4 = Areas with one or more occurrences of a least one State endangered species.

Rank 3 = Areas containing one or more occurrences of at least one State threatened species.

Rank 2 = Areas containing one or more occurrences of species considered to be species of concern.

Rank 1 = Areas that meet habitat-specific suitability requirements such as minimum size criteria for endangered, threatened, or priority wildlife species, but do not intersect with any confirmed occurrences of such species.

Higher rank indicates a greater need to protect.

Impervious Surface Based on %

Impervious Cover from NJ DEP Land Use/Cover Data Rank 1 = 0% Rank 3 = 5% Rank 5 = 10% Rank 7 = 15% Rank 9 = > 20%

Greater impervious surface indicates a greater need for BMPs

Prioritizing ALL Ag All four components

were summed to establish a FINAL score

Scores ranged from 3 – 27 for all ag land

These were split into Low/Medium/High (approximately equal)

Prioritizing Riparian Ag

All four components were summed to establish a FINAL score

Scores ranged from 3 – 24 for riparian ag

These were split into Low/Medium/High (approximately equal)

Results 9,003 acres of riparian

agriculture are classified as high priority for buffer placement

32,958 acres of all agriculture are classified as high priority for BMPs.

Implementation is dependent on producer cooperation

Suitable funding sources must be available for the greatest impact

LowMedium

High

Funding Opportunities Agriculture Water

Enhancement Program (AWEP) Currently being used

as criteria USDA-NRCS: WHIP,

AWEP Farm Service Agency

(FSA):CREP, CRP US Fish & Wildlife, NJDEP,

US EPA How can we make these

better?

Have Questions? Contact Us:

Kathy Hale New Jersey Water Supply Authority74 East Main Street Somerville NJ 08876908-685-0315 ext. 228khale@raritanbasin.org

Jen HouseNorth Jersey RC&D54 Old Hwy 22 Suite 201Clinton NJ 08809908-735-0733 ext. 107jhouse@northjerseyrcd.org