Environmental Benefits and Costs of a Voluntary Riparian Forest Buffer Program in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed

The PI’s on this project are Drs. Hardie, I., A.H. Baldwin, G.K. Felton, L.L. Lynch, E. Russek-Cohen, R.L. Tjaden. The sponsor is USDA/CSREES Fund for Rural America at a rate of $205,000. The duration is from 1998-2000.

Description: Developed analysis of the type of education and financial incentives necessary to implement the voluntary Chesapeake Bay Program goal of 2010 miles of riparian forest buffer (RFB) by the year 2010. The objectives were 1) establish data base that matches physiographic information about buffer sites with agronomic, land use, and socio-economic characteristics of the land and the owners; 2) determined the types of information that owners found most useful in making RFB decisions; 3) determined the level of financial incentives that owners require to adopt RFB on a voluntary basis; and 4) determined the type and level of environmental benefits that might reasonably be expected from the voluntary incentive based RFB program. RFB were characterized for the coastal plains and the Piedmont physiographic regions of Maryland.

For more information, contact Dr. Ian Hardie

Last updated: 02/6/2008