"Bill" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Dan Listermann" wrote:

Reading the article, temperature could be a problem.

"Bill" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Dan Listermann" wrote:

We bought a camp on a small river in eastern Indiana. The bank
recently
underwent a lot of erosion. Its eight foot walls are literally
vertical
at
the top. Obviously it is too late to do much about this, but I was
thinking
that bamboo might work well to try to mitigate more erosion. We will
be
fishing off the bank so the bamboo should not be too tall. I
understand
that when you cut bamboo, it stops growing. We could let it start and
just
trim anything that got in our way. The bank faces the south and gets
a
lot
of light. The soil is very sandy and appears rich.

Any thoughts?

I have bamboo growing about and would think it not the way to go.

Look at http://erosion-prevention.com/vetiver.html and check with
your county agent about introducing vetiver grass.

That's not about erosion control for waterways that's for dry banks. Once
river/stream banks give way due to excessive water it's too late to plant
anything but rock. I had a similar situation, too much water in my stream
after the ground thawed in spring and I lost much of the banks, in fact huge
chunks washed away. My first thought was plantings (actualkly my first
thought was PaNiC), I considered reeds as I have lots of cattail at my pond.
But reeds don't anchor into vertical ground and won't hold with rushing
water. After much research my only solution was to have the stream totally
reconfigured, dug deeper and wider so it would hold greater volume, and the
surface made with a smooth contour to keep water turbulence to a minimum.
Then the entire stream was lined with a special heavy duty matrix material,
and then ripraped (riprap means lined with stone so as to break up and
equalize the pressure of rushing water). The first attempt failed as the
stones used were too small (many washed away) and since it was done in the
fall there wasn't enough time for plants to take hold between the stones
that would marry it all together. The excavating company came back in early
summer when water flow was very low with larger stones (they can't do this
with rushing water). So far it has held well through last fall's heavy
rains and this winter, the real test will be this spring.

I had to have it repaired before it became worse, erosion does not heal
itself.... and micky mousing around with silly schemes trying to save a few
dollars would have been foolhardy... another heavy rain and the repair would
have cost ten times as much, I know I did the right thing. And I had no
choice as the erosion was mostly at the turn where the pipe from my french
drain entered the stream, the erosion was working towards my house too.

Some of the erosion:
http://i40.tinypic.com/2i75zs7.jpg

Stone being installed:
http://i44.tinypic.com/2yybdht.jpg

French drain rerouted:
http://i42.tinypic.com/wqvk47.jpg

They did a nice job:
http://i39.tinypic.com/xonrcw.jpg

At times water used to rise to the top and even overflowed, now the stream
can contain greater volume:
http://i39.tinypic.com/23j1mxh.jpg

The excavating company did a neat job, they made minimal mess and the next
day hauled in a load of top soil, reseeded, and rolled everything smooth.
Over the summer the grass grew back and a lot of plants started filling the
stream. This spring after the rains I intend to replant the banks as I lost
most everything with the erosion, shouldn't take long to look good again. I
was surprised that they charged only $1,800. I would strongly urge the OP
not fool around with planting bamboo, it won't work and will waste a lot of
valuable time while more erosion is bound to occur. And there is no way
anyone can do this by hand, hire an excavating company and be certain they
come with good credentials... I swear that operater could do brain surgery
with that machine. This is the third big job they did for me, always a
great job at a fair price... and they stand behind their work, not many
would return and do it over. And this was a very small fill in job for
them, they mostly do big commercial jobs, that was their smallest excavator.