stream/banking management

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stream/banking management

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gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 08 6:04 pm Post subject: stream/banking management

Those of you with watercourses (streams, rivers, burns etc) running through your land : what management (if any) do you do of these and their bankings ? And how often ?

I generally remove fallen branches or those that have been washed down the glen, after periods of high wind / storms [because the area on either side of the main burn is wooded].

I am intending to cut / trim the lower branches of some of the trees, as they are trapping vegetation washed downstream when the burn rises.
Wondering whether to remove last year's dead grasses from the banks....

At least this year the watergates are in good order, so next door's cattle won't be visiting.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6540
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 08 6:52 pm Post subject:
I'm taking a forest ecology course right now, and we were just discussing the need to let forest litter (like blowdowns, branches, etc...) stay in waterways as they slow down the flow of the water, trapping sediment, etc... what do you reckon?

gil
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 18409

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 08 7:01 pm Post subject:

Why is slowing down the flow a good thing (apart from preventing erosion, presumably)?

If the flow slows as it passes through my land, the burn will overflow and flood, possibly reaching the house. It would seem to be in my interest for water to pass through the property and out the other side as fast as possible. Is this a sensible assumption ? There is far more room for the waters to spread out once the burn reaches open fields.

And apparently, the eddies set up by fallen wood etc can erode the bankings, which are quite high, partly having been artificially raised on the field sides for flood prevention, and partly because there is quite a difference between average depth of the water (12-18"), and depth of the burn when it is in spate (4-5').

This is all probably not very ecologically sound. Where it flows through my land, the burn is changing from being a fast-flowing, steep watercourse off the hills down a glen / gully to where it meets the upland floodplain, whwre it would (left to its own devices) meander about, creating oxbow lakes etc, and fertilising the fields with silt and sediment washed down from the hills.

However, the flat land in the valley (not that much of it) is these days viewed by my neighbours as crucial ground for silage and hay production, and they have over the years done various works to prevent flooding, including raising the bankings, straightening the course of the main river and feeder burns, and dredging/widening.

I know, I know

.
What to do ?

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6540
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Sun Feb 10, 08 7:09 pm Post subject:
I think my professor was thinking more along the lines of a naturally wooded forest, and less about human dwellings...

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