Restoring Natural Stream Hydrology | A Permaculture Design Course Handbook

Restoring Natural Stream Hydrology | A Permaculture Design Course Handbook.

New EDU article under the water chapter, this time on restoring natural stream hydrology. Explains the patterns and history of degradation as well as some of the tools possible to bring balance. Fun to play in the streams, remember doing it as a child?

excerpt below:

Background:

Imagine a stream full of fish and amphibians, the stream winding through an ecosystem, meandering naturally.  The winding action creating habitat as it sreams downward, cleansing water and bringing a wide range of ambiance through edge diversity while being full of logs and big stones.  The tangled messes in front of us looks chaotic, yet this diversity is the fulcrum of order actually. Unfortunately this pattern of wild habitat has not been how land managers have been viewing how they should manage their water resources for quite some time now. Instead the straightening, channeling and “cleaning” of streams has had a detrimental affect on local ecosystems and the hydrological cycle.  For far too long our perspective on water has been to shed it rather than harvest it and then pipe in water at a great expense of energy including finances.  Instead we should look and seek inspiration from our zone five areas that are filled with “junk” and seem rather unkempt.