Riparian Buffer Living Fence Planting At Middle Tennessee State University Learning and Experiential Center.

As part of the Sustainability in Agricultural Ecosystems (ABAS 4500) course at the School of Agribusiness and Agriscience, the students were asked to design and plant a riparian buffer and a living fence. The objective was to reinforce sustainable agriculture concepts discussed in class through problem solving. The students were assigned the task to improve the water quality at the East Fork Stones River that borders the school’s farm using a vegetative approach. The assignment’s objectives were for the riparian buffer to capture soil sediments and increase the evapotranspiration processes to remove soluble chemicals from the vadose zone. The students had to develop an action plan which was followed by a hands-on planting activity. The riparian buffer designs submitted consisted of several (three to four) vegetative zones and a species composition specific for the assignment objectives. The students conducted statistical analysis on the planted species. The following planting activities took place in two thinly vegetative zones was schedule to coincide with Earth.