So, this creek marks the lower boundary of our farm. There's a small island there in the middle of the bend of the creek, probably 150 feet or so long.
I've often wondered about it...how did this channel of water work its way around this chunk of land? Why does it flow on either side like this?
Over the course of the more than 30 years that we've lived here, we've noticed the island is slowly eroding.
You can see the erosion better in these two photos....how the water has undercut the vegetation and is washing the soil away from below the trees. I expect we could see those trees topple and possibly the whole island wash away in our lifetime. A lot of it has eroded in just the last few years.
Even more curious to me is the new land mass developing in the top photo, to the right. At first glance, it looks like a low creek bank. But it isn't. It used to be, though.
When we first moved to this farm, that growing creek bank, which is now 15 to 20 feet high, was just a gravel bar, lying almost at creek level.
This section is very soft...made up of silt and leaves. In a wet season, such as we've had all year, to walk on it is to sink over your shoe tops. In a dryer season, it feels spongy.
Something has affected the change in this short stretch of creek. Something has changed the water's path just enough to deposit "land" just above the island while carving away at the existing island.
Who cares? Well, possibly nobody but us, but my hubby and I puzzle about it every time we walk down here.
I'm sure there's something to be learned from this, some profound life lesson, if I could just figure it out. 😉
I don't know of any major changes up the creek, which appears to have been running along pretty much as usual for decades. Or has it?
Changes happen verrry slowly over time, changes that we might even miss if we aren't paying attention.
Another example of this: In the little branch (stream, tributary of the creek, whatever) here by the house I've witnessed how a felled tree altered the path of the water and eventually, over the course of about five years, created a small waterfall.
It amazes me that I've observed the birth of a waterfall. Maybe it will be 20 feet tall in a century or two. Or maybe another tree will fall and change the water's course again. Who knows?
Moral of this story?
Lisa needs to hush and go to bed.
Do you have an alternative application?
On the South Fork of Station Camp I can remember when I was a young boy an island in the creek that the stream ran on both sides of. The water wasn't very deep on the left side and you could ford the creek and go across the island and down the creek to get out on the other side. Over the years the creek has quit running on the left side which is now filled in and the island is no longer an island but a part of the mainland on the left side. I can also remember big deep holes to fish in within the past 30 years. Now it is difficult to find a deep hole. I have a theory that ATV, UTV, Razor, dune buggy traffic has caused the creek bed to become disturbed and more and more fill is coming in on shoals etc., and extending in to the deep holes filling them in as well. I do know from experience that you can't float down either South Fork or Station Camp either. Too many trees felled along the creek into the creek(which is illegal but nothing is done about it). which causes a lot of portage and then you are on private land and subject to getting shot. Enough of that. Just my theory.
ReplyDeleteI'd say your theory is a pretty accurate one. There are a lot of trees that have fallen into the creek...I think the beavers did a lot of that too. They were really bad here for a while, but someone must have trapped them. We don't see them like we did.
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