Suddenly, everyone's being drawn to reinforced vegetation

Here's an interesting ad sent to us by Chum follower known as BrownTroutSniffer.  For those interested in the battle of vegetation reinforced slope and stream restoration vs. rip rap or compacted soil treatments, take a peek into what's happening here.  

Comments

[FedRiverDude]

Awright--jumping on the soapbox here...

Looks nicer from our perspective, but the problems remain below the surface.

Riprapped banks are bad for rivers and salmonids. Would you rather see an undercut bank or continuous, well-graded (same-sized) rock?? Erosion will be shifted from the grassy armored bank to the next spot downstream. Habitat is homogenized and favors larger-bodied fish--juveniles find less interstitial space.

Riprap is hydraulically efficient--but nowhere near as good at controlling energy as a good mix of habitat--self-formed bed and banks, grasses-shrubs-and woody material on the bank, sorted channel substrates, etc. The difference is in the mix. Ever caught decent fish in habitat associated with woody debris recruited by a river able to erode its banks? Riprap does much much more bad stuff...

This might be a better way **where you've got no other options than hard armor**, but band-aids always wash off in the long run. There are a number of different techniques available that do better by the river.

Fight the Riprap, Man.

Alright, I'm off the soapbox. Moldy Chum is my first click of the day, and I guess I woke up with a burr in my boxers.

Keep up the good work.

[roughfisher]

FedRiverDude couldn't have said it any better. Nothing will replace the effectiveness of in stream structure and woody debris, alongside a healthy longitudinal profile.

There are better techniques out there to restore stream banks utilizing vegetative bioengineering and geo-bioengineering principles. The only place riprap belongs is in a type A stream channel, and to a limited extent type B.

[BTS]

You guys need to stop eating power bait. The point of the ad/product is sediment control when reconstructing engineered slopes along stream banks and areas of high runoff. Plants and root hold soil much better than bare rock. As we all know, trout like clear water, and how many of us actually know off the top of our heads what a type-A or B stream bank is and who really cares. Riprap isnt exactly bad as it provides a place for bait dunkers to sit, relaxe, hide their beer in the shade and a place for their trash and birds nest they cut from their reel. Plus it give something for their kids to throw in the water.BrownTroudSniffer