Good info, but we are talking about a 200 foot wide river and a bank more
than 10 feet tall.

"brooklyn1" wrote in message
...

"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.