Today was the first day I got to go into the field, YAY! I have been so excited to go and see what the folders I had been working on looked like in real life. After outlining someones land, writing about their soil types, writing about their land issues, you begin to actually want to see it in person. So today we went to see one of the smaller acreages that the NRCS will see. It was someones residence and it was about .75 acres. The problem was that it was on a slope the runoff was going into a creek. We walked around the property and assessed the various places where erosion was occuring. I tried to take notice of everything and try to find where the problem was coming from before Rich said it to see if I could get it right. I occasionally did, but I definitely think his 33 years of experience probably knows way more that I could ever see and notice.
It was also very cool to see someone interested in protecting their land and having a stewardship with the land not because they had to, but because they wanted to. This wasn't someone who was living off their ranch and had livestock getting affected by their poor land management. It wasn't causing any damage to their home, but rather someone who wanted to make sure they were doing the best possible thing for their land.
I also learned a lot today about the practices that should be implemented on sloping land. Basically the best thing to do is to spread any runoff so it can go into subsurface system instead of creating huge amounts of runoff. Having riparian plants that enjoy the wet soil are recommended. Also, consider having more downspouts for your gutters so the water isn't only flowing from one downspout. You can also put in subsurface preforated piping to help the water spread. Lastly, if you are in an area where there could be fires, and you have a deck, your best option is to put down gravel underneath to help stop erosion.
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