Dr. Bern Sweeney - Stream Restoration & Riparian Corridors
My guest for this episode is Dr. Bernard Sweeney. He is the director of the Stroud Water Research Center in Avondale, Pennsylvania. There Dr. Sweeney and his team focus their research on all aspects of freshwater.
Their work is unbiased, peer-reviewed, and readily available to the public without charge. After talking with Dr. Doug Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, I took his suggestion to contact Dr. Sweeney and his team to discuss the proper width of, and species for, riparian corridors along streams and rivers. As someone whose home borders a stream, and a permaculture practitioner who seeks to care for the earth for myself and future generations of all life, I wanted to know the state of the current research for how to best handle protecting this waterway and to share that information with others so they might do the same for their own. Within our conversation you will hear about Dr. Sweeney's background, which speaks specifically to this question, and the work he's done to confirm this. We also discuss his basic rules for establishing a riparian corridor and the importance of maintaining fresh water. The Stroud Water Reseach Center provides numerous free resources for anyone interested in the issues of freshwater. Though they are located in Pennsylvania, they do work all over the world. I recommend you go and read the material available. You find yourself more knowledgeable and able to design a better world.