What are riparian buffers? And how does restoring them on private lands create (literal) downstream benefits?

What are riparian buffers? And how does restoring them on private lands create (literal) downstream benefits?

Imagine a raindrop falling onto a forested slope in B.C., where, pulled by gravity, it enters a network of interconnected ecosystems: trickling through soils, filtering through wetlands, flowing into streams and rivers and eventually reaching estuaries and coastal waters into the open ocean. Salmon spawning creek in Upper PItt River watershed in Katzie territory © Joshua Ostroff / WWF-Canada Known as a watershed, this dynamic transition zone bet…