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  • From: Jay Woods <woodsjay@cox.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Creek remediation
  • Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2007 03:54:50 -0600

It would be fun to have beavers established on the creek. That would get the
pond started without much labor on your part. The question that I would have
is what would be attractive to a beaver? Starting a grove o food trees would
help convince a captured and released beaver to stay. Cottonwoods and alders
are selected for here in Omaha but are not interesting trees.

On Sunday 16 December 2007 05:01:30 pm David wrote:
> Friends,
>
> A small creek (which has a very, very low flow in the summer) runs
> through the northern part of my farm, and as part of the transformation
> of the property from land into a sustainable, organic (insert several
> other terms here) farm, I am considering what to do about this creek.
> (In deference to the list, I should probably say "permaculture" or
> polyculture farm, but frankly I'm too much of a novice, in my view, to
> warrant the use of such terms just yet. I'm working on it.)
>
> The creek is fed from a watershed of a couple of hundred to a thousand
> acres to the west and south. For decades, this land has been under
> conventional ag, with a very large commercial nursery covering most of
> the ground, and 90 acres with a corn, corn, corn rotation between me and
> the nursery. Recently the 90 acres was purchased by a company that will
> be using it as part of an organic dairy (albeit conventional, USDA
> compliant), and in the last four months, they tore out the clay drainage
> pipe which was most of what existed of the creek upstream of me and
> across that property. They are in the process of restoring the swale and
> creek bed, according to a plan they have developed. There will still be
> drainage from the nursery feeding the creek, but before it gets to me it
> will pass across the 90 acres where I hope some natural remediation
> (cleansing) will improve the water quality. (I checked it yesterday and
> it's running pretty clear, not muddy.) The organic dairy has no plans
> that I know of to engage in deliberate remediation for improved water
> quality, and they don't ask me what to do next, so there is no
> particular reason to suppose they would listen to any suggestions I
> might have for what they "should do" on their own land.
>
> The thing I've been wondering about is what I should or might do in the
> new circumstances about cleansing and restoring the life of the creek,
> and folding it into the property plan (11 acres tillable, 7 acres woods,
> 2 acres pasture, more or less). Its got a muddy bottom, and is for the
> most part lifeless, as its history would imply. I am sure that a good
> deal of fertilizer and pesticide runoff has been trapped in the mud over
> the years. The land across which it runs has a slight slope.
>
> First, with regard to remediation, what options are available? I ran
> across some references such as this one
> <http://www.envismadrasuniv.org/pdf/Bioaugmentation.pdf> or this one
> <http://www.bashanfoundation.org/michael/michaelbioremediation.pdf>, as
> well as some others. (I'm just starting my research on this, but if I
> find something really useful, I will mention it on the list.) In spite
> of the potential merits of commercial options, I would prefer to use
> "found" materials and methods. Any suggestions for materials or
> information sources? Relevant experiences?
>
> With regard to life, it seems to me that I have the option of selecting
> plants and also of building a dam to create a pond, but I don't want to
> introduce expansive "non-natives", for example, and I would prefer to
> use plants (or animals for that matter) that meet as many needs as
> possible, increase diversity, etc. Again, suggestions? My part of the
> Willamette Valley appears now to be in USDA Zone 6 (previously in 7),
> with those zones marching northward in recent decades.
>
>
>
> I would also mention that the completebiogas
> <http://www.completebiogas.com> site is now up, and it offers eight of
> the seventy-two chapters and appendices as free downloads. Two (or more)
> may be of interest to members of this list. The two I would suggest are
> Chapter 18, "On Growing Substrates", and Appendix 3, "Agricultural Use
> of Effluent", linked to the table of contents page. Enjoy.
>
>
>
> d.






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