Springs (water) occur when the earth's surface dips below the top of the ambient water table.
In wet areas, springs are commonly found at the base of the cliffs that bound the stream's valley and bubbling up in the back-swamp. Rains charge the aquifier in the uplands above the cliffs and the inward-angle of the intersection of the flood-plain and the cliff is the feature that cuts into the water-table.
My friend
I have a friend who purchased a property with the intention of it providing much of the food he will need as a retired person.
Unfortunately, only half of it is well enough drained to grow most food plants and even that is impaired by shade, Black Walnuts, buildings and driveways.
The other half is saturated for most of the growing season.
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| For scale, the plot measures approximately 250 feet in the east-west direction. |
Here is a topographical map of the wet half. I added a green "springs here" feature and white arrows to illustrate direction of seepage.
I also noted the berm left by the channalizing spoils left behind after the county drain commission "improved" the stream.
To summarize, my friend is first penalized by the topography. He has a massive spring along the west side of his property that floods the north half of it. He is next penalized by the berm left by the drain commission that impairs the free-flow of that water toward the (natural) stream.
The wet-half of his property is dominated by willow, dogwood, buttonbush, silver maple, ash, brambles, jewelweed and other wetland species.
The good news is that the parcel was cheap.
I have been mulling-over my friend's challenges.
Yesterday, a friend sent me this video. It is slightly longer than one minute long.
It quickly occurred to me that my friend could create similar, though more gently sloped, raised beds using the back-blade of a tractor. As long as the bottoms of the canals are continuously sloped, then minnows from the stream can forage on mosquito larvae in the standing water.
The spoils from the canals will raise the area he cultivates. The raised beds in the video look like they are only 18" above the surface of the water, so he doesn't need a lot of elevation. The canals will also breach the berm left behind by the drainage commission.
Issues include the EPA getting pissy about him landscaping "wet-lands" even though those wetlands are (partially) due to the drain commissions handling of the dredging spoils. Another issue is the effect of seasonal flooding eroding the features so he would have a maintenance issue.
The upside is that he would gain almost an acre of prime, well-drained, bottomland garden. Literally, fifty times more than he has now.
Do his plans involve livestock ? Our small pasture has an county irrigation line, but the plowed borders that contain the water flow are damaged by cattle that travel back and forth. Their footpaths wear down the ditches and allow the water to flow out of containment.
ReplyDeleteYour ideas above sound like a possible way to use the land wisely.
To the best of my knowledge his plans include small animals like poultry and rabbits but no hooved animals. He might keep a pig or two but they will be confined.
DeleteYou being such a fan of trees, don't oak fit well in this scenario? Swamp white oak or others?
ReplyDeleteHickory should do well, the people who weren't educated out of it sure ate a lot of acorn flour over the last several thousand years. Several companies now sell acorn flour.
Asking for a friend who wishes he had more water.
I am a fan of those species.
DeleteAnd my friend (really, it is not me) is in his mid-fifties and works in construction. He MIGHT have another five years before he has to hit-the-silk. Construction is rough on the body.
Additionally, he was unlucky. Speaking in generalities, most of us are only one legal entanglement, health crisis or marital cluster-festival from poverty.
He needs a plan that will but large volumes of food in his pantry and (maybe) merchandise in a farmer's market stall in five years. Very few nut trees can do that.
Annual vegetables. Small (bush/vine) fruits. Poultry. Rabbits. Maybe hazelnuts.
Addition,
ReplyDeleteYes I know oaks and hickory are a long term crop.
No better time to plant than now.
You can grow crops between young trees, I now have 10-12 foot mulberry trees and can find their roots 15-20 feet from the trunk where they are utilizing the water meant for beans and squash.
At least in my water deprived area trees use what water they can find, in the above scenario I would think they would help alleviate excess while the raised beds would give you annual harvests
Most slough ground can be made tillable by tiling. But I love the canal idea. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteHydrology is a goofy topic. It is not as intuitive as you might expect.
DeleteFor instance, a tile or canal drains the land that is DOWNSLOPE of the tile or canal. That is, it intercepts and diverts the water that would otherwise saturate the land downslope of the tile or canal.
Granted, there is a minor improvement immediately upslope, but the major gain is downslope.