Redding received over 10″ of much needed rain in January. But all that rain and the saturated soils led to a small slope failure on the Palisades Trail. You may remember the way we treated the “seeping” slopes two years back, with 2″ compost, native grass, mycorrhizae, all reinforced in Enka Mat and then sprayed with Flexterra (known as Green Armor System) Palisades Trail update

Well, we learned a few things at the last couple of Shasta College Summits, including some innovative uses for Compost Socks and how to use and install the Gripple Anchor System.  When Terry Hanson called and said there was a small landslide above the trail.  He informed us he had a CCC crew scheduled, very little budget, and another batch of storms were expects.  Dis we have any ideas, and could we provide a prescription. The College had some products remaining from the Summits we could probably donate, primarily in the form of Filtrexx Compost Siltsoxx and Filtrexx Compost Grosoxx and some Biaxial geogrid.  Terry had some 2010 Enka Mat.  Our prescription was to excavate the heavy failed clay material as feasible and then pack the slide face with Compost Socks.  The sock would be enveloped in Enka Mat and Geogrid and then anchored to the slope.  We decided to use the new Gripple Anchors (altogether we used about 45 anchors) system to anchor the materials to the slope and counter the outward forces.

It was fortunate that we had both green Siltsoxx (more designed for filtration) and the Grosoxx which are designed with more of a growing medium.  Since the slide area is still draining, the green socks may aide drainage while the black growsox may do a better job growing native grasses.  We will get to follow the project through time. 

PHOTOS WILL BE POSTED SOON 

 

The 2-day Classroom and Field Workshop aka Stream Summit held October, 2016 was another success! Several professionals attended our workshop which focused on repairing incised and degraded (urbanized) streams, assessment, and techniques with case studies.  Take a look at some photos from our event.

 Click here to view the entire Stream Summit Workshop gallery with larger photos.


Dear New Zealanders,

We’re coming back!  John has been invited back to New Zealand to provide some Keynote Addresses at the Erosion and Sediment Control Conference in Auckland on Aug 31-Sept 2.  The Conference is held collaboratively by the IECA Australasia and NZHIT (New Zealand Highway Institute of Technology.

Master Class
While in New Zealand John is teaching two full day Masters Courses on Stream Repair and Design – “Repairing Entrenched, Incised, and Degraded (Urbanized) Streams – Techniques and Case Studies”. One class will be held in Auckland and one in Christchurch.  Hope to see you there!
 
 
A RETURN TO LUCAS CREEK…
Lucas Creek, near Auckland/Albany, if you remember, was similarly “restored” back in October 2010.  The term “restored” is used here loosely because, in fact, the stream function was restored to accommodate extensive urbanization – new motorways, shopping mall, rugby stadium etc.


Now, 6 years later, John and Robert Coulson visited the creek.  It is performing beautifully and this has apparently been an extremely wet winter!  
The accompanying photos show that the stream is Functioning Properly, e.g., “passing flood flows and channel sediment without visible signs of erosion.  The vegetation is healthy and the aquatic habitat appears excellent”.  For this design, John used the published report , NCHRP Report 544- Environmentally-Sensitive Channel and Bank Protection Methods.

 

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