The effectiveness of streambank fencing to improve microbial water quality: a review

All animals require drinking water to live. However, when animals have access to streams they can cause impacts on water quality due to direct deposition of animals faeces into the water. This brings the needs of the animal to drink, into direct conflict with, societies desire to maintain high quality values for stream health and water quality. A literature review was conducted to collate the published data on the effectiveness of fencing stock to reduce faecal indicator bacteria (FIB) concentrations in streams. Only 18 suitable papers were identified. The papers were from four different countries and used a range of different FIB and experimental approaches. The published effectiveness values covered a large range, from zero to 96%, with a median value of 65%. Overall, the different experimental approaches did not appear to bias results. This large range in effectiveness values means that while we are confident that stream fencing will improve microbial water quality in the streams, we have very low confidences on the actual percentage reduction values that could be achieved.