Erosion Control Plantings

[Nontypcl1]

In the past few year I've been having some erosion problems along my alfalfa field do to the creek that was rerouted many years ago trying to take back its natural course. Last year I lost about 45 feet of bank in one area which is by far the most I've ever lost.

I've heard of planting willows to help and plan on doing so, but I was wondering if anyone else had some planting suggestions. There was quite a few willows along the banks a few years ago but have now all been washed away.

I will try and post some pictures of the site later today. any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[dbltree]

I have some challenging areas also that keep eroding but I don't have any easy answers. Heavy rains and flooding just keep washing more soil away do mostly to cattle tearing up the creek on the neighbors side and I have no control over that.

Willows should be a good option but you may want to talk to your NRCS people about other possibles. I have seen bundles of willows tied together and "planted" in the eroding stream bank, but some how you have to be able to sop the "rushing water" and slow it down first.

Sometimes that requires some bulldozer work first...

 

[letemgrow]

Another option may be to get road rip-rap dropped along the bank. I know that works, or get some big rock to dump and plant willows to boot.

 

[OrionWhitetails]

I suggest planting a variety of perennial grass. Grasses are much better at holding soil together than trees. We plant perennial ryegrass and fescue on our farm lanes where we have farm traffic and erosion problems. Both hold up well to occasional farm traffic but neither has much wildlife value & both can creep outside the planted areas if you don't control them. However, nothing works better for controlling chronic erosion problems.

Mick