Check out a nice guide from Agriculture & Agri-Food Canada entitled “Shelterbelts – Design Guidelines for Farmyard, Field, Roadside, Livestock, Wildlife and Riparian Buffer Plantings on the Prairies.”
USDA has published a new 136-page corridor manual:
Bentrup, G. 2008. Conservation Buffers: Design Guidelines for Buffers, Corridors, and Greenways. Gen. Tech. Rep. SRS-109. USDA Forest Service, Southern Research Station.
This is the NEW best corridor manual in existence, a planning tool following up Conservation Corridor Planning at the Landscape Level (the “old” best corridor manual reviewed earlier by yours truly). This new manual is designed for use in the field. It is small and spiral bound. It has great diagrams, rules of thumb for the practical landowner, and it describes design guidelines for 7 major objectives – water quality, biodiversity, productive soils, economic opportunities, protection & safety, aesthetics & visual quality, and outdoor recreation. Importantly, it updates the science and includes recommendations for both urban and agricultural landscapes.
At www.bufferguidelines.net, you can also download the bibliography ( 1,400+ references!), case studies and slideshows that complement the guide. Available as a free downloadable pdf or order it as a spiral bound copy.
One caveat: This new manual does not make the “old” best corridor manual – Conservation Corridor Planning at the Landscape Level – obsolete. The old manual is a different type of publication – more like a textbook with more detailed explanations of the theories behind design principles and numerous detailed case studies. For classroom study or for designing comprehensive management plans, the first corridor manual is still “required reading.”
Missouri Extension has published a great guide for installing field borders (herbaceous strips of vegetation replacing crops at field edges) entitled Field borders for agronomic, economic and wildlife benefits. The document illustrates some important principles of corridor design that we focus on in my course, but that are not incorporated (intentionally!) into farm plans nearly enough. The document is b/w, but color versions of the pictures can be viewed on the html version HERE.
Get Windbreaks for Conservation from USDA National Agroforestry Center. It is an excellent guide to design considerations for conservation windbreaks. You may have to supplement regional woody plant species information to select the appropriate trees & shrubs for your region. They have additional windbreak publications including Windbreaks for Wildlife, How Windbreaks Work, & many other more detailed aspects of windbreak design, establishment and management.
