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Identify erosion-prone areas on your land and discuss the economic impact of erosion on your operation.
Discussion #1: Share your experiences with erosion issues and learn from others. Discuss the costs associated with erosion and explore strategies for effective erosion control.
Make a Post:
Describe the erosion issues present on your land.
Estimate the economic impact of erosion on your operation.
Include pictures, videos, or observations.Respond to Others:Engage with fellow landowners, share your expertise, and learn from others.
– Collaborate on strategies for effective erosion control
– Discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing LTPBR on your landBy sharing your insights and experiences, you’ll:
– Help others develop effective solutions for managing erosion.
– Gain new perspectives and approaches to addressing erosion on your own land.
– Develop valuable connections with others who understand the complexities of land management.Responding to others in this online community fosters meaningful discussions, helps build a supportive network of peers, and allows us to learn from each other’s experiences and expertise. By engaging with fellow landowners, you’ll not only gain new insights but also contribute to a collective knowledge base that benefits everyone.
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There may be too many erosion issues on my place to get an estimate of the actual economic impact, unfortunately lol. There is one, though, that I have a clear idea on and that is a bend in the river that is washing away and is in danger of washing out my irrigation ditch. I have a permit to rip rap it and an estimated cost of $20,000. I would prefer to try LTPBR here. I believe the Low-Bank Builder and live stakes could be used here.
I also have some dry land areas that are prone to head cutting. Holly and I build our first Zuni Bowl in a small one and there is a large one that I have not addressed yet but will include photos.
I would like to do some work on the streams on my property to help slow the flow rate and hopefully bring the groundwater closer to the surface, improving the health of the ecosystem which would of course have a huge economic impact as well.
I am very open any thoughts or advice anyone might have…I have attatched some photos.
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Hi, Trudy,
Your Zuni Bowl is impressive! I have a few questions that I hope you don’t. mind answering. When did you build it and have you seen it work? What were your observations? Are there other places for them that you are considering? How long did it take you to build the one in the picture?
Thank you, Judy
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One of our large-scale projects has a desired end-goal of beaver restoration (Trudy and I have a lot of projects). The project areas is about ten acres along Cottonwood Creek on private ground. In general, there is less volume in Cottonwood Creek than in previous decades. Cottonwood Creek is a tributary to the Boulder River that flows into the Jefferson. There are small fish in the creek. Banks are incised within the 10 acres, and there are several areas that might benefit from a BDA. The areas has been logged but the conifers are getting more dense.
The creek bottom is rocky, so poking anything into the bottom will be difficult in most places. There are some willows around, but I think conifer limbs will comprise the bulk of any mitigating structure.
I’ve attached a link to a map that might not be in a format that anyone can open (KML), and a couple photos. The grey dotted line is a logging road. I am hoping some people with more experienced eyes than mine will come and give advice on how best to approach this project.
The economic impact of reduced water volume in river tributaries is difficult to pinpoint.
If anyone else has onX, here is a link. https://webmap.onxmaps.com/backcountry/map/query/45.987878,-111.981714,16.11/overview?link_id=01KEQG10D5Y6WGQHJTNYD0FVVZ&mode=trail
https://webmap.onxmaps.com/backcountry/share/content?share_id=01KEQDC7BRGGHTBNFZS19QHY1F
These are the coordinates of the pin in the screenshot 45.98469, -111.98241
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Beautiful Zuni bowl ladies! I am uncertain you will want to haul as many rocks for the larger dryland area… I am wondering if you perhaps could try just a mix of rock and debris (i.e. felled conifers) to slow down that water movement when present, and capture more moving sediment.
Holly- I am having a similar issue with a rocky bottom. I am unsure I will be able to manually drive any stakes without the use of equipment (which is virtually impossible to mob to my particular location). If there is rock available, I am wondering if you could build the base of your BDA with rocks (more akin to a rock weir) and weave some conifer debris throughout.
I am unsure how to place an exact dollar amount on the economic impact of my incised coulee. However, it does feed into a canal which is used for lower elevation pivot operation so reducing sediment loading into that system might be extrapolated to labor work for having to dredge ditches (and benefit from just keeping more water in the system for longer). Additionally, this area is prime winter habitat for elk, mule deer, and antelope so there is an intrinsic benefit for improving habitat (increase water residency, increase plant production).
Attached are some photos of the large head-cut I would like to fix, and also pictures of some smaller downstream head-cuts that have been mitigated with a rock rundown. Some of the previously built rock rockdowns have been blown out by particularly flashy precip events, which just goes to show that the non- living structures do take more maintenance over time.
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Hello, Everyone!
Module 2 certainly has my head spinning with so many possibilities! The videos are a big help, and I would love to have a field day to visit these areas. Would that be possible, Sam? I also have a question about the vegetation used. With us being in drought conditions, should we use vegetation that requires the least amount of water, cottonwoods vs willows vs alders?
The area that I would like to restore is in the Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest so we will need to get their approval. I visited the area yesterday and took these photos.
Photo #0533 shows one of the dams that was built. I have requested information on the area from a cabin owner on the pond (see photo posted in discussion board #1) who remembers the area as a child. He is pretty excited for our idea of restoring the area. I have also contacted the local museum in Whitehall to see if they have any information. Because they are closed for the season, I am not sure if I will hear from them soon.
Photo 0532 shows the whole area. It’s pretty big with two drainages at the top.
Photo 0534 shows the North Fork of the Little Pipestone Creek and the vegetation around it as it meanders through weakened areas of the dams. It is incised but with little bank erosion. During high snow levels, the area does get marshy.
Photo 0535 shows more of the vegetation such as willows and alders.
Mullin Lake and the creek below it does support fish and macroinvertebrates. Mullin Lake also has muskrats and waterfowl such as mallards and a blue heron. I have not seen fish in the upper portion that I would like to restore.
One thought I have for restoring this area to collect water for a pond is to build a variation of the One Rock Dam where the creek enters a wooded area before entering the pond below which is called Mullin Lake. The dam would have to be higher than the existing dams unless they were destroyed which isn’t feasible. There is a lot of blowdown around the area that could be used instead of rocks. Being in the Boulder Batholith, there are plenty of rocks too.
I look forward to reading your ideas and projects. In the meantime, think snow, pray for snow, but enjoy the nice weather!
Judy
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Hi everyone!
I included pictures of the steep banks along the river. Thanks to the nice weather, I was able to get pictures of these by wading out into the river rather than bothering my neighbor to take some photos from the opposite side (wild!.. but refreshing). One of the photos shows the path that many deer take to get onto our land, which is actively eroding thanks to foot traffic, and I contributed to it some more today.
Aside from the steep banks, topsoil erosion is taking place in many areas around the land due to lack of vegetation, which also means lack of soil microbiota (I will look at the microbiology under a microscope this spring, once everything wakes up, and I will be able to estimate the biomass of each of the functional groups of organisms to give some quantitative data to back up this statement). Soil microbes do an immense amount of work to maintain soil structure! Beneficial soil microbes do more for maintaining soil structure than plant roots, actually. Plants are constantly feeding the soil microbes to fuel their ability to build soil structure, but if the microbes aren’t present, they aren’t doing the work. The soil must have bacteria and fungi to produce the glues that hold the micro and macro aggregates in the soil together.
The economic impact of erosion is difficult to pinpoint. I currently do not make money off of my land. However, if it were revived to the level that I want, I estimate the current economic impact may be around 50-70K per year.
Benefits of LTPBR: I think there will be a lot of benefits. I hope to implement multiple LTPBR techniques. Live gravel bar staking might be a good fit for a small island we have, which is situated downstream from the primary restoration area. I would like to do live palisades in a couple of areas, and brush layers. Post assisted log structures in the river might be a good fit as well because we do get some pretty high flows.
Challenges: Time! Ha. It may be difficult to get the time to do this. Also, I am postponing my plans to do the restoration on our land this year because I want to begin the research process (checking the soil microbiota throughout the year) before the restoration takes place so I have a baseline. We are also going to do some archaeological testing to ensure we do not disturb any archaeological deposits. Other challenges are the high flows. We will have to thoughtfully design our post-assisted log structures so ensure longevity. I discovered that the historic canoe trail will not affect our plans to do restoration.-
Hi Sari,
You add another dimension to restoration, soil. You mentioned areas that are void of vegetation. Do you know the history of your land and know what may have caused this? I try my best not to walk on the decomposers that appear in the spring. So many people think it’s gross until they learn decomposers’ importance. They are just a part of the microbiota community!
I am also intrigued by your cultural awareness and would love to know more about what you have discovered.
Remember everyone, Don’t step on the decomposers! 😉
Judy
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Hi Judy! I’m glad you avoid stepping on our decomposers! They truly are magnificent creatures once we realize how much they do for us and how critical their survival is for our own survival.
I think it is a mix of factors that have resulted in patchy vegetation in certain areas on my land, ranging from 1) over-rest to 2) overgrazing, as well as 3) the use of herbicide. I know that this land was left completely untouched for many years after the owner died in the 80s. I’m not sure if he had cows, but I think he at least had goats and a chicken coop when he was alive.
After he passed, the land was left to his daughters, who ignored it for a long time. My neighbor says the grass would grow six feet tall in the summer but be completely dead in the center of the plant because of the lack of grazing. After a while, the daughters allowed some locals to graze their horses here in the summer. I think the horses probably did an ok job keeping the grass from getting overgrown, but they probably contributed to some overgrazing and compaction (horses are one of the worst for compaction because of their size, shape of hoof, and the way they eat). Compaction worsens with bare ground because rain will compact it further. We also had 3 horses here for a short while before I rehomed them all. I tried hard to have a rotational grazing system to end the cycle of over-rest and overgrazing, but I was not able to keep up with it with a full-time job.
Lastly, herbicide. My—perhaps unpopular—opinion is that, if you’re involved in restoration and you’re promoting herbicide in any way, you’re going about it all backwards. All of the chemicals that we (as in society) use, such as herbicide, fungicide, pesticide, chemical fertilizer, etc., KILL the soil microbiota and create an ecological gap that can only be filled with early colonizing species, AKA weeds! Fertilizers give your plant a temporary boost, but kill the biota and therefore you have to keep using the chemicals to get the yield you want. The “Big Ag” chemical companies only exist to make you addicted to their product. The interesting thing is that if the soil has more fungi than bacteria (measured by biomass per gram of soil), the weeds cannot grow because they cannot process the type of nitrogen that fungi create (ammonium). Weeds thrive on the nitrogen that bacteria create (nitrate), and every time we apply chemicals or till, the fungi are affected the most because they take the longest to repair, and thus we are always reverting back to a state that promotes weeds.
How do soil microbes prevent disease? Beneficial soil microbes coat the surfaces of the plant roots as well as the above-ground surfaces of a plant, creating a layer that prevents pests and diseases. Disease-causing organisms will not be able to penetrate the coatings from the beneficials, and therefore even the disease causers exist in the environment, the plant will be resilient to their attempts to take hold.
How do microbes promote nutrient cycling? Plants also produce specific compounds and excrete them out of their roots and other surfaces to attract the particular decomposing species that it wants… those soil microbes mine the nutrients from the parent material and convert them to a bioavailable form, giving your plant nutrients and making it healthy. A healthy plant is much, much less susceptible to pests and diseases.
The decomposers (bacteria and fungi) are absolutely an important piece to that puzzle, but they don’t actually give the nutrients directly to the plant (except for nitrogen-fixing species, but they actually take from the plant first before they start making enough to give back). In order for nutrient cycling to take place, the decomposers have to get eaten by predators, such as nematodes, amoebae, and other protozoa. Through this process, the nutrients are excreted directly next to the plant’s roots through the predatory waste (the Soil Food Web school calls this the “poop loop”).
Sorry for the long, drawn out explanation. I get pretty passionate about soil microbiology! My plan is to track and document the soil microbiota and how it changes through the seasons this summer by looking at it with a microscope this summer on my own land. I would be more than happy to do the same for anyone else in this course.
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Hi everyone!
It’s been so interesting reading all your posts and seeing the photos of erosion and the LTPBR techniques you’ve already implemented.
Trudy and Holly, that Zuni bowl is beautiful! Holly Harper, the proposed restoration on Cottonwood Creek looks fascinating. Holly Suchy, I’m sorry to hear that your rockdowns were blown out—I hope you can still incorporate the materials in your rebuild. It’s so hard to predict the force of water.
I just moved to the Polson area from Arlee, MT, and I can definitely relate to digging into rocky soil—even finding places to pound t-posts was frustrating. I can’t imagine trying to install live willow without damaging them.
I don’t currently have a small-scale erosion project to write about, so I’ll have to learn vicariously through you all. On that note, if anyone would like an extra pair of hands to haul rock, install willow, etc., I would love to help and be part of one of your LTPBR projects!
I hope to implement these types of projects as I/we (FWP and CSKT) engage with more landowners on water conservation strategies as the irrigation season gets closer. I’ve also reached out to our restoration program to see if there are smaller-scale projects they’ve identified that I might be able to champion, so maybe by the next post I’ll have a project to share.
One larger-scale project our restoration program is currently working on is the Bison Reach range project, which created a new channel for the Jocko River to greatly reduce erosion caused by the straightening of the channel against an eroding side hill. While this is outside the scope of LTPBR, it’s the most current example I could think of. It mitigates erosion, reconnects the Jocko with its former floodplain, and creates beautiful habitat for a healthier river: https://csktwatercompact.com/bison-range-reach-restoration/
And Judy, I also hope we get snow soon! But that huge dose of sunshine was such a needed break from the grey inversion that has been hovering for months. I’m also curious about the answer regarding the type of tree for restoration in relation to drought. And, unfortunately, I wasn’t able to download your photos for your project.
It’s been so fun to read about all your projects and see the creativity and effort everyone is putting into erosion control.
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