Happy Graduation to a Riparian Rangers Buffer

It was recently graduation day in Manheim, and students are eager to embark on the next phase of their lives. Downstream, a different graduation is going on for two and a quarter acres of trees. For years, these young trees and shrubs have been tended to by Brian Koser, a Riparian Ranger volunteer. Brian has been visiting his Ranger site in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania since being involved with the planting in 2019. He heard about the Riparian Rangers program that same year and signed up for the training. In that time he has nurtured those seedings, some just a few inches tall, into tall trees that fully shade us as he shows me around.

“There was a lot less growing in here then. It was mowed down pretty good for the original planting. It wasn’t until the next year that the real work started! There were some dry spells during those years and I’d look down the tubes and think they aren’t going to make it and then I’d check the next time and they’d shoot right up.” – Brian Koser

The Riparian Ranger program connects volunteers to tree planting sites to help tend to the young trees and monitor their progress during the post-planting establishment time frame. This is when growing trees and shrubs are most vulnerable to invasive plants, deer and vole damage, and threats from the environment including floods, drought, frost heaving, and wind storms. Brian is among over 100 volunteers who have been trained as Riparian Rangers to help take care of tree plantings. Last year, it became apparent that most of the tasks that he was undertaking at the site had been completed, and the trees and shrubs were thriving in their new environment. The decision was made to “graduate” the site.

The trees planted in this riparian buffer are poking up out of the tops of their shelters and the shelters pop up above the grasses around us. Elderberry bushes are in full bloom and the serviceberry trees are covered with fruit. Tulip-poplars, sycamores, and black locusts tower above us at 20 plus feet tall. Brian has been witness, facilitator, and advocate for this new wild area since it was first planted, and the transformation is striking. Brian pointed out “when they’re small, some trees seem to double their size in a couple weeks!”

Due to his care, the site is now a location that new Alliance staff are taken to demonstrate the effectiveness of the riparian buffer practice.

Brian remarks about the wildlife that has been attracted to the area. This point is emphasized by an immature bald eagle passing overhead. Birds are singing all over and flitting about from tree to tree, feeding on the ripe, purple-red serviceberries that are abundant on an “edible” section of the planting. “There are a lot of native plants filling in, it’s great to see the wildlife moving back.”

As we work our way through the many species around us I have to know, what is Brian’s favorite tree? He says it wouldn’t have been his pick when he started, as he’s partial to oaks. But in his experience in tending to the site he has come to admire the sycamore for its ability to thrive and dominate in the bottom lands of his riparian site. On this site there is a section with several sycamores reaching 25 plus feet tall in the five years since their planting. The shade of these trees has outcompeted the grasses, creating open spaces where there was once dense herbaceous vegetation.

If I’m asking favorites, then I have to know about the other side of the plant spectrum, Brian’s most disliked invasive plant. He quickly replies it’s the invasive Bradford pear tree (now illegal to sell in Pennsylvania) that pop up on his site. “I would stop along the road and cut down those trees if people would let me!”

His dislike of multiflora rose is also strong, citing its ability to spread and grow in tree shelters. Brian says that the mid summer is the most important time to check for multiflora rose. It pops up in the tubes quickly and he hates to see it get established.

Brian passes along the following perspective for would-be Riparian Rangers. “It warms my heart to know that some of these trees will be here 150 years from now. You have the opportunity to see something grow to maturity.” Brian sees this as a legacy for him and his grandchildren to enjoy. “There’s a lot of work to it at times, make no mistake about it. Every time I come here I’m soaked! I have to change my shoes and my socks. You hear about labor or love, but it is that! If I didn’t like doing this I wouldn’t be doing it. There’s a satisfaction about leaving something better. We aren’t doing it for ourselves. You’re working for something bigger than all of us, and that’s a neat thing!”

Since I started working at the Alliance in Spring of 2022, I have come to know Brian as a steadfast volunteer dedicated to the work of establishing new forests in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. He comes out to tree plantings, reports on the condition of his adopted Riparian Ranger site, gets supplies needed to maintain the shelters, replants trees that don’t make it, and has made his site into a success story. With his site doing so well and graduated from his regular tending, Brian, now a seasoned Riparian Ranger veteran, isn’t ready to hang up his mallet. He has chosen to apply his skills and experience to a new site. His new site is just up the road, a riparian buffer planted by the Greening the Lower Susquehanna program run by PennState Agriculture and Environment Center, a partner organization which operates its own “branch” of Riparian Rangers. The cooperation between many organizations to promote not just tree planting and riparian buffers, but post-planting care, has increased the adoption of this critical conservation practice. It is these partnerships with our dedicated volunteers that has led to the growth of the Riparian Ranger program, volunteer engagement in the conservation field, and hundreds and hundreds of acres of new forest throughout the watershed.

Job well done, Brian! Thank you so much for the work you and other volunteers do. I’m looking forward to seeing you in the field soon!

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