Erosion Control & Possible Reversal

[Ebenezer]

If the water patterns are deep then you have more costs to recover. On that soil type it is tough. The use of diversions or terraces will move the problem over to a centralized location that can be rocked or lined but you are back to big dollars. Cross fences ought to be on the contour. Best advice might be to forget the cattle if the cost to restore is huge. Trees and shrubs have superior root systems for soil stability versus grasses. The reason kudzu is there is because of what you are facing. It was the low cost method of help and actually a bunch of it was hand planted during WWII because machinery and fuel was allocated to the war.

Even if you get it stable, the cost to stabilize plus the lost of fertility from current and past erosion will limit future production for a long time.

Unless you really hate yourself, skip the bamboo.

 

[dun]

For creek bed serious runoff areas I prefer large rock riprap.

 

[talltimber]

This is what the area looks like, rolling hills, some relatively steep draws in some areas.

This is a wash forming/getting worse that I think an old bale will help.

This is another one that I have put my cut thorns into and smashed down with the tractor bucket. It has helped slow the water down pretty good.

This was caused by an eddy in the creek, eroding out into the pasture. It has been stopped, and is slowly gathering silt from runoff.

This is a section of one of the creeks. This one is not too tough. Low bank and wide flowline. There are much worse areas.

 

[bird dog]

I have a place in Hill County in central Tx where Georgia Cane was planted for erosion control. It actually works real well if it would stay in one place but it has spread all over the county, mostly along gravel roads. You can kill it with plain old glyphosate but it takes about 5 treatments if it is thick. I had some in a wash area and it held the soil in place but it collected everything else that washed through the area. After a big rain I usually have a collection of bottles and other trash mixed in the stalks. It creates a real problem for the county trying to keep it under control.

 

[Limepro]

Gypsum,gypsum,gypsum... Benjamin Franklin first used it over 300 years ago to control erosion. The double positive on the outer valence shell of calcium bind two soil colloids together creating soil structure. The Nrcs is currently looking very hard at cost sharing on gypsum, they have already set up the code for it but have not allowed for any funding yet.

 

[dun]

The places in the hay fileds that are like picture 2 I fill with 2 inch clean rock over old hay netwrap then spread dirt over that. Takes a couple of loads of dirt to fill in the gaps and the net wrap keps it from washing out.

 

[HDRider]

TT - Those pics could have been taken on my place. You asked about working with NRCS. They are fine. Got no complaints.

SJB you asked about creeks. I have a dry creek that runs across my property, and then another that borders my property.

I'll try to get some pics soon.

 

[talltimber]

The places in the hay fileds that are like picture 2 I fill with 2 inch clean rock over old hay netwrap then spread dirt over that. Takes a couple of loads of dirt to fill in the gaps and the net wrap keps it from washing out.

That was good thinking on the old netwrap. It should work just like geo fiber matting.

 

[HDRider]

The places in the hay fileds that are like picture 2 I fill with 2 inch clean rock over old hay netwrap then spread dirt over that. Takes a couple of loads of dirt to fill in the gaps and the net wrap keps it from washing out.

That was good thinking on the old netwrap. It should work just like geo fiber matting.

Yep. I knew coming here would give me some ideas. Never fails. Now a matter of doing..

 

[dun]

In eroding of older creek channels, back before the EPA and all the dam regulations, we used to dump old cars, refrigerators, etc along the banks in place of the rock riprap we have to try to use now.

 

[HDRider]

In eroding of older creek channels, back before the EPA and all the dam regulations, we used to dump old cars, refrigerators, etc along the banks in place of the rock riprap we have to try to use now.

My farm was owned by the biggest little GMC dealer in this area. I got three cars and one old truck in one of my creeks.

 

[talltimber]

We have a wash that's full of everything you can imagine. That was when everyone just dumped crap everywhere. It worked for slowing the water down, but quite an eyesore, if you know where to look. A dump, essentially. We don't do that any more.

 

[talltimber]

A difficult area. It was caused when a road was overused and underprotected/remediated after log trucks hauled out of there ten yrs ago or so. I don't have access to large equipment right now to get this fixed. Too rough for a tractor/bucket. I will slow it down with some hay until I can get in better shape financially to take care of it. It's deeper than it looks in the pic.

This is a crossing, along with another upstream of the same creek, that is a pia to keep serviceable. I'll address this in a more permanent way once I get an excavator up here. Right now all I can do is shove it full enough of dirt to cross to bushhog and wait for the next rain. The tree its washing out under is half dead and snag at the top. Great position to either fall in the creek with a running saw or get hit by a failure of the partially rotten trunk if it gives way. Too stout for the wind to take down, but it's got to go before I turn the cows back north.

 

[Clod Hopper]

I would consider cutting the tree down before it falls and leave the stump and it will leave the soil undisturbed. I did a couple crossings this summer with the NRCS and had really good results. I dug down about 3 feet and lined the trench with geotextile fabric and put rip rap 24 inches then #2s to the flow line. Worked great on my creek.

 

[talltimber]

Good deal. I talked with a local fella here with an excavator. He said he has done several crossings and has it figured out. He said what he does is digs down three or four feet, a trench, that goes perpendicular to the flow, all the way across the creek. He then fills that with rip rap (I'm assuming like 6 to 12"), then tops the trenches and crossing surface, which is same elevation as the bottom of the creek, with rip rap. He said that the trenches on each side of the crossing keeps the water from getting under the crossing and washing it out again.

It made sense to me.

 

[jedstivers]

Talltimber if you want to get that tree down safe set a few bales of hay at it and set it on fire.

 

[talltimber]

Well look at you! That's good thinking there, that never crossed my mind. That dead half will take right off. I am a little nervous about trees that are in a bind, dead, dead limbs on them, tight areas to saw in, etc. I've been preached to my whole life by my Grandpa to watch that. And I'm not a sawyer/feller like he was.

You can see where we blew part of it off with tannerite (sons toys). I thought the tree was all dead. Drilled into a 4" hollow trunk there at the bottom and blew not quite half off. There's a more wood holding it than I initially thought.

 

[HDRider]

The pictures don't really give a proper perspective on the wash.

 

[HDRider]

 

[talltimber]

It's hard to tell the scale of things in the pic, like you mentioned. There are expensive ways that will sure get rid of it. Unfortunately, I don't have the resources to do that here. To address it here, I would leave the trees along the bank and in the flow, put bales or tops or something where it's trying to wash out the pasture edge, and keep an eye on it. If I were to try to change the flow path/drop, I'd make sure to place something to slow the flow while protecting from washing out more pasture, essentially causing what I was trying to avoid.