![]() ![]() This is supported by detailed process descriptions for conducting field surveys, including a number of site worksheets provided as appendices. The first couple of chapters look at the dynamics of healthy rivers and their relationship with floodplains, with a chapter dedicated to classifying streams, based on the Rosgen Stream Classification System. Let the Water Do the Work contains detailed descriptions and diagrams for structures, and while practical folk may be tempted to hasten straight to that chapter, the real strength of this book is its emphasis on reading and classifying the health of a landscape in order to plan and implement appropriate structures. ![]() It’s part of the strength of their work that Zeedyk and Clothier are careful to provide expansive context on the appropriate situations and applications for Induced Meandering. Through making relatively modest, strategic interventions, observant land managers can ‘let the water do the work’, in reshaping a river towards a state of ‘dynamic equilibrium’. While erosion or human intervention typically shifts rivers towards straight, incised channels that briskly transport water and accompanying sediment out of a landscape, ‘Induced Meandering’ refers to restoration of river function by re-establishing the twisting form of natural waterways. We were excited then to come across Let the Water Do the Work (Chelsea Green, 2009), Zeedyk and Clothier’s comprehensive manual on the Induced Meandering approach to river restoration. We’ve expressed our admiration for Craig Sponholtz and Brad Lancaster at every opportunity (check out our resources page for links to their work), and we’ve referred to Bill Zeedyk’s practical introductions to erosion control and induced meandering in planning strategies for our property. In his foreword to Zeedyk and Clothier’s book Let the Water Do the Work, Courtney White articulates the characteristics of this approach: it is evidence-based, its affordability and relative simplicity make it accessible, it is based in ‘soft engineering’, challenging “the dominant paradigms of river and creek restoration”, it requires “humility, attentiveness and patience”, operating at the pace of the ecosystem, and finally, it’s at a human scale, flourishing with the participation of community, that offers “joy in companionship, in learning together, and sharing knowledge.” Rather than advising that landowners simply save up and pay an expert, their work seeks to empower communities to manage, monitor and maintain water in their landscapes through accessible, practical and locally-adaptable erosion control and water harvesting responses. While they don’t flinch from the importance of technical understanding, they cultivate strategies that are based in the thoughful observation of those who are connected to a landscape, that utilise locally available materials, and that draw on community power to create modest interventions that can be tweaked over time. ![]() In their work, these thinkers and practitioners of water management and restoration, offer a radically different approach to watershed restoration. Thankfully, we came across the work of the likes of Craig Sponholtz, Brad Lancaster, Bill Zeedyk and Van Clothier, and in Australia, Cam Wilson and Peter Bennett. This disturbed us, because it seems to suggest that land restoration is the domain of those with cash to splash, and that those people or places without the necessary resources may just have to resign themselves to the continued collapse of their landscapes. As we’ve explored the best strategies for managing and restoring these sections of the property, the advice we’ve received has often tended towards paying someone to think about it and do the work for us, purchasing expensive, industrially produced tools and materials, and utilising heavy machinery, all of which bring with them a substantial price tag. In a fit of masochistic optimism, we were excited by the prospect of working to restore a degraded landscape to a level of ecological function, of seeing gully walls stabilised with plants and creeklines resounding with a froggy chorus. Weirdly, one of the elements we found appealing about our property was the erosion. ![]()
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