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04 Jan 2020
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Natural Stream Rejuvenation

(soothing inspiring music) – Hello, my name is Jason Vogel and I am with the Biosystems and Agricultural Engineering Department at Oklahoma State University. This is a series of three videos about natural stream restoration. The first video is about healthy streams and what makes them work and what makes them healthy. The second video is about things that can make the stream unhealthy. What can degrade the banks and destroy the habitat. And the final video is about tools and methods that we can utilize to restore the stability of the stream bank while returning the habitat to the stream. (uplifting country music) – [Narrator] This is how most of us experience a stream. We drive over one and probably never give it a second thought. What looks like a peaceful never-changing scene is actually an aquatic habitat teeming with activity. – Well streams and creeks and rivers are really the lifeblood of the community when you think about it.

They’re a place where people go to recreate, to fish, to enjoy nature. They use them for rafting, they use it for fishing. And so the quality of the stream and the creek really improves the overall community quality, the quality of life. – [Narrator] Fish are swimming. Plants are growing. And water is flowing. – Streams are very important because they’re where all the water that runs off the landscape come together and they’re flowing downhill and they’re providing habitat, they’re providing recreational areas and they’re providing important ecosystems for our landscape. But streams are constantly changing. And what we’re trying to do is get that changed to be in balance where the amount of soil, sediment, dirt, other things that are coming into the stream are equal to what’s moving out. – [Narrator] Balance is our goal. And now what happens when that balance changes? A stream might accumulate more sediment.

More solid materials in the water means poor water quality. Sedimentation is the number one water quality issue in the United States. Other areas of the stream could lose more soil, which can lead to loss of land as stream banks begin to break down. – One of the big reasons that people become concerned about the streams and rivers on their properties is that there is erosion occurring on the stream banks, which really impairs the use of their property for recreation, for access to the stream.

– [Narrator] So how does a stream fall out of balance? It happens several ways. In egg areas, grazing cattle can remove all the vegetation from the stream banks. And many times, human influences can affect the balance of a stream. Streams adjust to changes in the land such as urbanization, which occurs when development expands into rural areas. – So also as a result of urbanization, excess soil and sediment within the stream can go downstream and settle out in our downstream reservoirs that are all used for recreation, flood control and drinking water.

So all of those uses are compromised. In addition, we can lose valuable land across the landscape from our roll areas and also from our urban areas and compromise our urban infrastructure. – [Narrator] When streams become degraded, they can be restored to a natural balance. Their functional state can be brought back using natural stream restoration techniques. Stream restoration involves controlling the flow and speed of the water. – So to help understand how water flows in the stream, let’s think about driving down a road. On a straight road, you can go faster because you have no obstacles in your way. – [Narrator] Just like on a straight road, the flow of water in a straight stream is very fast. Again, there’s nothing in its way to slow it down. – But when we’re driving on a curvy road, if we don’t slow down, momentum is gonna take us right off the road and into the ditch. – [Narrator] Water is the same way. The curves or meanders of a stream slow down the flow. What about a bumpy road? You still can’t drive fast.

The uneven surface forces you to drive slower. Now imagine that coarse rough bottom of the stream, what happens? The uneven stream bed causes turbulence in the flow. The water can no longer take a straight path. An artificially smooth stream bed is not healthy for the stream or habitat. There’s nothing to slow down the water, which in turn creates more opportunities for erosion downstream. The slope of a stream is also crucial. – The flow and speed of water are important because water always flows downhill. For example, this hill behind me is very steep. And if I were to drive the truck straight down the hill without riding the brake, I would probably lose control and crash. – [Narrator] Slope is the amount of fall over the length of the run. Because the curves or meanders make the road longer, the slope is lessened. It’s the same idea with a stream.

You add some curves, lessen the slope of the stream bed and as a result you slow down the flow of the water. Remember, natural streams are not straight, they have a meandering flow. The curves or meanders slow down the water so velocity is reduced and the force is not there. Another way streams control flow is through their structure. Streams naturally form riffles and pools. The riffle is the part of the stream of the greatest slope and it’s very shallow. At the bottom of the slope is a pool. It’s a large deep area of relatively still water.

This is where fish and plant life thrive within a stream. Further down the stream this pattern of riffles and pools will repeat. The riffles are the areas of the fastest moving water. Water is moving at a high velocity, so the sediment and other particles in the water are on the move. When water reaches the deeper pools, the velocity slows which in turn slows down the sediment. Some of the particles will settle out here. The process of sediment movement within the stream is called sediment transport. – When a stream is healthy that process will be an equilibrium meaning that the amount of sediment that’s coming down the stream and depositing will be equal to the amount that’s being moved downstream.

– [Narrator] The balance that we’re looking for in a stream is in sediment transport. Relatively equal amounts going out and coming in. A stream is a dynamic system. Even one that is in balance will change just slowly. – Generally when we look at healthy natural streams, they move on the order of a few inches every decade. Unhealthy and unstable streams move several feet every year and sometimes the large storm events, they can dramatically shift and change. – [Narrator] A healthy stream has a vigorous stream bank habitat. There should be a mix of plants which stabilize the bank and also provide a home and a food source for life within a stream. The habitat needs slow-moving water to thrive. That means a stream with lots of meanders and pools. – So our meanders are slowing the water down, but to keep that meandering stream stable, we need to utilize structures within the bank that use things such as sticks and logs and rocks and living plants and other natural materials.

And while we’re doing that we’re providing habitat for the organisms within the stream, such as macro-invertebrates like insects and bugs and snails and all the fish community that lives within the stream. – So in general a meandering stream is healthy because it has lots of diversity in bed form. And it has diversity of habitats for different types of animals including fish, including the insects that live in a stream that the fish eat.

Including muscles and other animals that depend on that flow. – [Narrator] Slower water encourages the lifecycle of the animals, insects and plants that live within the bank habitat. Coming up next is When Good Streams Go Bad. We’ll take a closer look at what happens when a stream is no longer in balance. Part Three in this series will show the techniques and steps for natural stream restoration. (uplifting country music).

Read More: 2) What is Sustainable Landscaping

As found on YouTube

04 Jan 2020
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2) What is Sustainable Landscaping

Sustainable landscaping. Can you tell us some concrete steps we can take in do it yourself landscaping, front yard landscaping ideas or backyard landscaping ideas that we would be able to take as home owners? Of course. On one level, landscaping is very complex and another level it’s really not. There’s some basic steps that you can just walk through an end up with a sustainable landscape and the very first of is really a fun one and that we’re doing now – hanging out on your land getting to know it better. Because most people live on the properties for years whether it’s a tract house, or a big place like you have. and they never take the time to get to know where they are, to get to know what the soil type is, where the sun is in the sky. where the water goes during rain – all these elements… In ancient days the Japanese Garden designers who designed for the emperor’s way back in medieval Japan They were told to sit on the property for one year full cycle of seasons – spring summer fall winter – watch the sun come up and go down every day watch, birds fly through the area, listen to the sounds, notice what the trees do.

Only at the end of the year where they able and qualified enough to understand that land well enough to actually make a design. Like a sushi chef in Japan where they clean fish for three years and then they finally get to make sushi or maybe cut a fish. part of their culture is doing everything in the most intricate best possible way and so does a deep understanding of the land is for important. If it’s your own house you can actually do that for a year. Maybe not every day, but you can observe cautiously, carefully and attentively what’s going on in your property throughout at least one cycle of seasona and begin to really understand it better than any landscape designer of the ever come onto the property. The thing I call the “world’s best design tool” in my book. I always ask my audience, “what’s the world’s best design tool when you’re doing a landscape design?” People say a measuring tape, a camera, whenever. No, that’s not it. Its the chair we’re sitting right now. What do you do with that chair is sit down in it.

Don’t have your friends over and don’t bring your iPod. Do what we don’t do in our culture too much. Relax and let it all happen. If you’ve ever done this you know it as absolutely amazing what happens because you start to notice things you never noticed before. Maybe on the property for 10 years 20 years 30 years and realize the tree in the distance that’s really beuatiful or there is noise coming from the next property and want to do something about that – all sorts of things will start to flow in and then you begin to get a better feeling for both where you are, like the land needs, the space needs and what you need which is very important, because you must remember that we’re doing this for ourselves first and foremost and so you’ll begin while you are sitting, or even better, after sitting (you should just be quiet..) Then get a clipboard and a piece of paper and start writing things down.

What you see? What are the problems on your land? What are the issues? What do want from it? What do you expect to get? Remember that’s the key question here. In fact, this is so important let me just take a minute to say this… most as landscapes are designed only for how they look their purely decorative – gingerbread around the house. Some people say it is “the art of hiding ugly houses with ugly plants”. The point is this the point is as if you’re not asking what that landscape does, just what it look slike, you’re not asking the right questions you start with what ir does – we’ll get to where looks like later. Sustainable landscaping is at least as beuatiful as convention landscaping. Sustainable landscaping is not cactus and gravel. I mean we’re here now… (I mention this is one of the most beautiful home garden I have seen) We’re sitting under a triee called Mountain Mahogany.

It is a California native plant, native to right here. I planted this from al 1 gallon container in 1981 It’s been pruned about five times in the last 30 years and it requires zero water and zero care other than just a little bit of pruning to take dead wood out. It is a fantastic example of a plant that not only looks good but it does something, and does it alvery low cost. That’s really the heart of sustainable landscaping’s function. Minimal impacts, minimal inputs of water and fertilizer -zero in this case – and minimal or zero outputs of green waste and pollution and spraying drifting off – all that stuff. So, with a landscape made up of things like this, elements like this, whether is is hardscape which is the built part of the environment, the plantings, the irrigation system – they all perform a function. Remember, we’re talking about an ecosystem here that actually does something. If we ask that core question, “What is the landscape going to do?” What’s it going to do for me, what’s it going to do internally for itself, what’s it going to do for the environment? what’s it going to do for the community, the birds, what does it do for wildlife? When we answer all those questions, I can pretty much guarantee you that the landscape automatically will also look beautiful.

That doesn’t mean you automatically know how to design a beautiful landscape, but once you get function down, ask the right questions, then, because you’re selecting things that are appropriate for where you are. so these are the core things that should begin with – a deep understanding of where you are and what is needed to be done here and how does it function – that’s where you begin.

When you move beyond that and you get to the next step (actually designing a landscape) is a little more complicated. But we’ve got our core information but now we have to turn it into something, that’s were most people really get bogged down. They think, “I’m not a designer. I don’t know how to do this”. In some cases that’s probably true – you may not be capable of tackling the entire project I think one of the important things is to know when to call a professional or know when to get a good book on the subject such as my book, “Sustainable Landscaping for Dummies” which has been acclaimed as one of the best books on the subject. In my book, I don’t go into deep amounts of detail on design, but it’s a good start.

There are lots of other design book sold in more detail and they are easy to find most anywhere. There are a lot of principles to design, both aesthetically and functionally, how to do things. Yes, that can get very complicated. It would be a good idea, once you know where you’re coming from on this, and what you need, then call in a landscape professionals, a landscape architect, a landscape designer, or a landscape contractor who’s job it is to create landscape out of a baseline of ideas like this and then you cano work with their ideas and maybe fill in on your own and work together as a collaborative process.

Owen, I know a lot of landscape contractors… I have a hard time believing there are a lot of sustainable landscpers out there. They would rather have you on a schedule for $125 to spray, another $100 to fertilize You have shown that is $250 that is totally wasted Where do we find somebody that can actually help me? That’s a good question. We’re in a transition right now between the era of conventional landscaping – that high conflict advesarial horticulture – and a brand new world of sustainable landscaping.

Someday not too long for now hopefully it will all be sustainable because frankly we can afford to do this stuff anymore. So what’s happening in the professions is that people, some people, not all people, and you’re right most of both of the professions are still locked in the past and are doing things the old way. There a huge number of people who are retraining themselves. I get messages everyday on sustainable landscaping and can see where this is going. There people in every community in this country, Canada and elsewhere learning these techniques and are becoming adept at the stuff.

It is becoming easier to find someone whi is a trained professional. Organizations like the “Ecological Landscaping Association” which is made up of landscape professionals who are totally committed to doing things in a sustainable way. They arr dead serious about it, they means business and we’re all learning new skills. Tthis is all new so none of us really know everything. I don’t know everything – I don’t know anybody who does – but there are people out there who are very very committed to this process. Ffinding those people can sometimes be challenging. Start with “Ecological Landscaping Association” as an example alone. Interview people and ask core questions about what they plan to do. If they are telling you that they want bare ground and overhead sprinklers and they don’t believe in drip and want water inrensive plan’s and tons of lawn – that’s probably not your sustainable landscaper.

That’s not the guy or woman who’s going to really be able to pull this off. This is a special new set of skills, learned Can you give us a list of references where we can start looking? Absolutely. Organizations, books, videos everything. What we’re doing in this series is to be encyclopedic, to expand people’s awareness and give people the basics of how to make this all happen. This will all unfold as we continue our conversation and will be happy to make everything available to viewers that there is out there, because we need all the information. I think that once you began to actually learn this process and get involved, it is so much fun.

It so much more interesting than the old lawn and turf, which was so boring. Get drawn into this, and you’ll realize, “why am I do this 20 years ago?” Well, it didn’t exist 20 years ago. Here we are in a brand new world of contemporary garden design. There’s nothing mysterious about it. It is basically about doing things right Thank you so much….

Read More: Landscaping To Bring Birds

As found on YouTube

30 Jul 2019
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0 Comments By allnatural2020 Habitat Restoration , , , , , , , , ,

Habitat Restoration for Restoring Earth!

 

The action that we make collectively is ready bringing again hope. It’s about bringing again a purpose in lifestyles neighborhood climate alternate is the largest major obstacle we have on our planet Earth. And that has the effects that we see many problems. But all problems have the same answer: we’re commencing to revive the ecology, the ecosystems. If we use restorative tactics to hold them again to lifestyles Then that’s adequate to reverse local weather alternate. The motive of Ecosystem Restoration Camps is to restore land degraded by using folks We have got to go to the man-worn landscapes who have been as quickly as paradise. Volunteers can come from anywhere, but they’re in a position to even be regional humans, who do volunteer work for five hours a day, serving to to revive the planet. We are Ecosystem Restoration Camps. We don’t watch for distinct persons to do the work.

 

You emerge as a part of a gaggle that is instead searching for to restoration this planet. I stop my reports to help correct here a little of, and provides me to the planet. That is what I wanted to do. This is the strain I want to belong to. It can be an reply that is better than those i will be able to do on my own. That is the place I need to be. That is what I ought to do. We now have acquired to rise up collectively. We’re a company new worldwide of inexperienced brooding about persons. It is a viral inspiration. That is why it can be so potent. It begins with one camp. A variety of men and women go via that camp, they deliver the idea residence. And that begins new camps. To maneuver from a highly damaged ecosystem to a fully wise ecosystem. Everyone opens their eyes and says “Oh is it that handy?” Deserts used to be agricultural land and so those areas can come to be productive again. It’s feasible to alter landscapes of a desolate tract and wholly to be greened so that food, water and biodiversity abound.

 

I believe the camp could educate us the proper method to are living conveniently over again: devour the ingredients that we grow ourselves, sleep beneath the celebrities and however are living without a predicament. Camping out is a simple procedure. People have become toward the earth and to the ecosystems themselves. And it can be easy to realize and it leaves no traces. It is a quality role for scientists to scan.

 

a fine situation to learn grow food; how you can be more self-sufficient. The soil is the basis of life in case you have land that has no lifestyles in it, nothing can increase good. So, by way of restoring the ecosystem, on the grounds that of this that you will reinforce the soil, by way of together with more natural and healthy fabric and existence to the soil, this soil will proceed water vastly higher and likewise will collect additional nutrition and minerals and fertility returns in a moment. After we plant trees, we begin to eliminate carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. We the strategy with which which you could reverse climate exchange. This discipline in Spain, for illustration, is likely one of the most abandoned areas. Degradation of the ecosystem shows the degradation of society. It is no longer just about restoring the land. It’s in most cases about restoring communities and participants. With new people coming in and new capabilities, and fix them with local humans, so that the bakery within the village additionally has better trade. Farmers will see examples of how you are equipped to do things that they are in a position to then replica onto their land. Be an thought for the area, for different farmers who reside there and have a rough time, but moreover for younger humans to return to the country and see that being a farmer is cool again.

 

allow us to deliver once more the surroundings of childhood, from play, however then in tasks, in doing matters together. I believe the camp will make that feasible, play like a little one, however with a cause So, the extra traditional men and ladies such as you and that i are ready to rise up and support it, the more momentum it will get. Many initiatives are actually establishing in all areas the sphere everybody wants to make a camp now. That’s fantastic, and that’s what we favored. We preferred to motivate individuals to take the initiative. If you can come to the camp, I keep in mind that may be a exceptional option for any person who has time and desires to do whatever beneficial.

 

they are going to deliver Permaculture Design publications there. However whilst you cannot come, you could grow to be a member by means of donating 10 per month to Ecosystem Restoration Camps. That might be a quite simple way in which that you simply might make these camps a reality. We desire to restoration the earth. We desire to dwell within the uncommon paradise that is the earth. Come to Ecosystem Restoration Camps and develop to be a part of the reply. Become a member of individuals who suppose the equal method and say “certain, we’re equipped to do it” we are equipped to reverse the largest predicament that has ever existed.

 

return to the ground, get dirty, again to the bottom. With love, pleasure, with compaerismo and camaradera we are in a position to definitely make this plausible.

 

As found on Youtube

30 Jul 2019
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0 Comments By allnatural2020 Weeding , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Invasive Plant Removal in India!

 

Cockroaches or bedbugs or houseflies My identify is Dr. G. Nagendra Prabhu I show within the division of Zoology, Sanatana Dharma tuition. I take competencies of aquatic weeds, which can be in abundance in these backwaters and assess out to search out systems of utilizing them. The external world and scientific local have already acknowledged these backwaters as a world Heritage internet page. And its a 900 rectangular kilometer area. Marshy swamps, lowland areas, paddy fields, garden lands. Birds, there are migratory birds as good as natural birds. Fish, shrimps, mussels, clams – there are specific clams which strengthen on this discipline. For many who come within the morning, say at eleven o’clock, you’re going to see a lot of women doing their every day route. Washing clothes or washing vessels.

 

Fishing or might be you take a bath or some thing like that. What she catches might be for her lunch or for her dinner. After I used to be a small child, we only had country boats, and just a few motorboats and no houseboats. Humans lift their boats, just in entrance of their houses. In your left will be a govt jetty the place guys and females look ahead to govt boats like a bus discontinue. You’re going to see that paddy being harvested and it’s being taken. These are the forms of long-founded use. Now all these boats had been modified to houseboats. Here it’s. The predominant invasive species we now see is Eichhornia crassipes extra normally called water hyacinth in English. These are from South the us and because they’d no opponents, plus the stipulations had been very favorable, vitamins and minerals are freely on hand, these weeds grew to be a chance.

 

 

The roots of some species can increase very long, like the hair of a woman. This one has a lot of air bubbles in it, which helps it to float. From a mother plant you see plenty of small, small crops setting up. It is expected that this plant will double in a weeks time. Man has no longer been in a position to eradicate any of the species. We have now tried with mosquitoes, cockroaches, bedbugs or houseflies, or anything. So the inspiration has to change. We ought to appear at these as common assets. Stem can be utilized as a fabric for pulp. They are equipped to be used as a bedding for mushroom cultivation, as i’ve efficiently verified with special forms of mushrooms.

 

As an highly famous saying goes: we have now not inherited the arena from our fathers, however borrowed this place from the next iteration..

 

As found on Youtube

30 Jul 2019
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0 Comments By allnatural2020 All Natural Landscaping Blog , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Landscaping To Bring Birds

 

Wyoming has an abundance of ordinary world that can come to visit us in our landscape. A number of of that wildlife we need to discourage special flora and fauna probably we do wish to motivate, much like birds. And with a view to try this we now have received to furnish a meals provide, a water supply, and some sort of refuge. Crops that endure fruit inside the autumn and keep their fruit good into the wintry weather might be a quite best food deliver for these birds and entice them to return into our landscape. Cotoneaster that now now we have proper here is an effective illustration and crabapple bushes we are competent to furnish refuge for birds in our panorama through using providing dense plantings of timber and shrubs including evergreens and deciduous plants.

 

A dense planting will furnish refuge from the wind, furnish a nesting vicinity, and furnish some shield from predators. We ought to provide a water provide as good and in the wintry climate of direction that water can freeze and so we ought to substitute that water more often than not to maintain that water give readily available. But if we furnish these three matters foods, risk-free haven, and water we will certainly experience our landscape 365 days-round with the aid of attracting birds and experience viewing them in our own backyards. This is Chris Hilgert with the institution of Wyoming Extension and you are looking at From the bottom Up..

 

As found on Youtube

30 Jul 2019
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0 Comments By allnatural2020 All Natural Landscaping Blog , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Native Plants for Landscaping

 

Discovering crops for landscaping in Wyoming can on the whole be a challenge. Fortunately, there are notably a few options in terms of native vegetation that we can use. We will use evergreen shrubs in areas in our panorama the place we want some colour one year-round. We can moreover use deciduous vegetation the place we would like to have some extra open field during the wintry weather. When including native shrubs to your yard its main to suppose regarding the dimension that these vegetation will develop to.

 

For illustration, the sumac subsequent to me would not do very good in a good space. You will moreover have got to think about the color of some of those native shrubs, and if they produce fruit. Generally speakme, native shrubs are nice in view that they’re drought resistant and tailor-made to our regional weather, which means they are in a position to withstand the bloodless temperatures for the period of the wintry climate. Starting these vegetation, however, would require some water to make special that they get a adequate root approach centered. Some satisfactory selections for native shrubs to your panorama probably sumac, probably the most currants or gooseberries now we have received. Very likely its a juniper or a sagebrush. We will be able to moreover go together with one of the most extra colorful vegetation, similar to a Rocky Mountain maple.

If you have questions involving native shrubs, contact your regional Extension place of job, or consult with the tuition of Wyoming Extension website, or the Barnyards & Backyards internet site. From the tuition of Wyoming Extension, Im Brian Sebade, and youre staring at From the bottom Up..

 

As found on Youtube

22 Oct 2015
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0 Comments By allnatural2020 Gardening, General ,

We Won The ‘Best Landscaper Company’ Award

Yesterday we were awarded with the ‘Best Landscaper Of The Country’ award. These award of excellence were awarded for projects we designed and installed. This awards reflect our commitment to creative design, ongoing excellence in engineering, and our ability to produce beautiful and functional outdoor living spaces of which people are proud.

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