Comments | e_moon60: 80 Acres: After More Rain, Water Quality Checks

e_moon60

80 Acres: After More Rain, Water Quality Checks

Apr 19, 2016 00:00

The sooner you get into the field after a large rain event the better, especially here. This involves rubber boots (mine leaked today...I bought women's boots last time. Just sayin'.) What you want to see is how the water's moving on the land, if any checkdams or gabions have been damaged, where erosion is active (you hope for nowhere, but ( Read more... )

wildlife, water quality, 80 acres, wildflowers, soup

Comments 10

ann_mcn April 19 2016, 09:42:28 UTC

So good to see the land recovering from drought!

e_moon60 April 19 2016, 13:49:42 UTC

We love it. I'm hoping the creek will flow for months and months.

sheff_dogs April 19 2016, 15:40:55 UTC

All the work you have done slowing the flow of the water must make it easier for the land to recover. I admired you first for your writing, I now admire you for this work too, something else to leave for future generations.

e_moon60 April 19 2016, 16:31:09 UTC

When I was studying applied ecology in grad school, the mantra was "Manage the water and the land will take care of itself." When I had a chance to put that into practice, it worked just as I was taught: if you slow the water, more of it can sink in and replace soil moisture. Slow water can't carry as much sediment, so it erodes less, and drops sediment it arrives with (thus building up soil instead of tearing it away. Better soil moisture allows more vegetative coverage, and that means more plant material breaking the force of hard rains (less compaction) and more roots in the ground holding the soil. The first thing we did was build the first gabions and checkdams; I'll be building more this coming year if my health holds out ( ... )

Thread 7

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anonymous April 19 2016, 14:15:31 UTC

Can you unleak the boots with some kind of epoxy or rubber cement? Or will you just take them back? Must've been squishy.

As I was still reading about Prairie Flax and the near meadow I glanced down and wondered what the last picture could be. The bottom of a creek with bright red and yellow rocks? A pile of debris? Ah, soup. Looks delicious!

filkferengi April 21 2016, 18:06:05 UTC

You are doing wonderful work[s]; thank you for sharing some of them with us!