There is considerable debate as to whether "real-world" restored riparian forest buffers are providing the water quality benefits shown in buffer studies.  These debates generally focus on attributes of experimental vs. real world restorations with the implication that experimental restorations are managed more carefully and thus provide greater water quality benefits.  Most early studies of riparian forest buffers were conducted on real-world systems.  These studies, primarily in the coastal plain, were conducted in watershed settings that allowed for an understanding of the underlying hydrology of the system.  These real-world studies were used to develop the original riparian forest buffer specification and are relevant to an understanding of the water quality functions of restored buffers.  In the original North Carolina and Georgia studies, the riparian forests were relatively young forests that had developed on abandoned agricultural lands.  The average age of the forests in the Georgia studies was about 40 years.  These naturally occurring riparian forest buffers show that given time, coastal plain watersheds will rehabilitate themselves as agriculture near streams is abandoned.  Attempts to "hasten succession" by planting desirable species and controlling undesirable species are likely to have a positive effect on this succession based rehabilitation.  Indications from restoration studies are that significant ecological functions can be regained in time periods of a decade or less.  The early studies of real-world buffers provide confidence that in the medium term (20- 40 years) these areas rehabilitated through natural or directed succession will provide significant benefits for water quality in agricultural watersheds.