You cannot repair that yourself, in fact under riparian law you'll probably
need permission to touch it, so don't go digging holes to put in plants.
Before doing anything I suggest you contact the appropriate government
agencies; begin by speaking with your town clerk about which agencies you
might contact... begin at the local level and work up from the town to
county to state to federal.

Didn't you notice that river when you purchased your property (how could you
not - all you saw was a pretty lazy river -changing weather conditions and
liability never occured to you), didn't you check into who is responsible
for maintaining the river banks, and whether you're in a flood plain.. you
should have received such info at closing under full disclosure law... you
may need to engage an attorney and sue the realtor/seller, if so do NOT
choose a local attorney. I have no idea what your property is about, like
elevation, acreage, and how much frontage is on that river, but it sure
sounds like you are probably in very deep doodoo. Speak to your neighbors
who also front that river, on a river that size you can't be the only one
with erosion. If this erosion is from an isolated major weather event there
may already be a government relief program underway, if so find out where to
get and submit the forms to put yourself on record as applying for help. I
suggest you move quickly. And start taking lots of photos (hopefully you
have photos of the area prior to the erosion), and keep a daily log of
weather conditions, take pictures every time it rains and/or there's high
water. The one thing you have going for you is with a river of that
magnetude you're not the only one who's affected by the erosion. I went
through all the above but found no help because the town was only
responsible for the 50 feet either side of the road center the stream passes
under via culvert, and I was the only one affected. So rather than waste
time and energy banging my head against the proverbial brick wall of
government I decided to pay for the repair myself... and I wasn't about to
wait for the damage to become worse.

You may find something helpful here, perhaps if you caontact them they can
give guidance: http://www.erosioncontrol.com/

Good luck.


"Dan Listermann" wrote in message
...
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.