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Welcome to the photo gallery of project plantings completed as part of the Hoosier Heartland Resource Conservation and Development Council’s Riparian Area Buffer Tree Planting Project.

Riparian Area Buffer Tree Planting Project

This project seeks to restore/protect water quality by facilitating the establishment of forested buffers. The project is currently operating in an area primarily defined by portions of Marion, Madison, Tipton and Hamilton Counties. Our goal is to plant 50 acres of trees along the White River and its tributaries.

Funding for the project comes from a 319 Non Point Source Pollution grant and the White River Settlement Fund. The program generously reimburses qualifying landowners with cost-share funds of up to 75 percent (up to $1,000 an acre) for planting along streams, ponds, lakes, wetlands and detention ponds.

The riparian buffer project ends this summer; but its benefits will live on for generations to come. Since the first phase was launched in 2002, we have shifted the project area from seven counties (with funding entirely derived from the 319 grant) to those four upper White River watershed counties, with a sizable contribution from the White River Settlement Fund. Fund monies are being used as cost share for private landowners and business to help offset the cost of purchasing and planting trees. The focus has grown to include understory plantings, and sites including retention ponds. Randy Jones has served as our project coordinator throughout the entire project. So far, we’ve planted a total of 85.6 acres.

Through the project, we have also conducted research on two sites: one in Hamilton County at the Washington Woods Elementary School and one in Indianapolis at Holcome Estate. A graduate student from IUPUI (Wendy DeBoard), was hired as an intern and she developed modeling of forested buffers on these two sites using the CityGreen modeling software. These models forecast the various environmental and financial benefits of trees. The results were presented at a field day hosted by the Holcombe Estate Homeowners Association – the site could not have been better suited. The field day was attended by residents and local interested citizens and focused on buffer functions and planting/maintenance tips. Turnout was good and presenters offered excellent remarks. Frankly, our focus has grown beyond its original, intended, purpose – our plantings address climate change, too.

When we first applied for 319 funding through the Department of Environmental Management in 2001, we could not have foreseen the drastically different political scene in which we find ourselves. A mature tree sequesters 250 pounds of carbon each year (more than 50 percent of a large tree is carbon), according to USDA. One hundred mature trees remove 53 tons of CO2 each year, as well as 430 pounds of other air pollutants. Roughly 300 trees are needed to remove the pollution one person generates in a lifetime. Our work will produce results beyond clean water for many years to come!

Plans are underway to plant around 25 acres yet this summer – one planting will be at the newly remodeled Indianapolis Museum of Art which sits long White River, north of downtown.

This project would not have been possible without the help of many volunteers who have served on the steering committee, along with our primary partners, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Purdue Cooperative Extension