River Revetment

[FLaKK]

Wasn't sure where to post here but i just wanted to let you guys know about one of the past projects that the volunteer section have been upto here at Cuerden Valley Park. There's never been any books on the subject that i know of, but we have had considerable success preventing river erosion by extensive use of Willow for revetment construction. This stuff is amaizing, it re-roots readily from cuttings, Willow logs or cut Willow brash will re-root if it comes into contact with soil.

Here is a pic of our latest revetment completed last year, there is one further along the river which was done several years ago and is now a mass of trees so embedded and rooted into the bank that the erosion in that area has completely stopped !!!.
Everything is Willow, the steaks driven into the river bed and the interwoven Willow whips will all root after backfilling with earth.

 

[John Fenna]

Very nice!
Much better than concrete which is often used ....

 

[jackcbr]

Nice work mate. Should try and find a group down this way to volunteer with and get some new skills. Anybody know of anything Surrey/Sussex way?

 

[Kepis]

Nice work mate. Should try and find a group down this way to volunteer with and get some new skills. Anybody know of anything Surrey/Sussex way?

Try the BTCV Jack

 

[woof]

Very nice!
Much better than concrete which is often used ....

As John says, looks good & does the job.

Rob

 

[sandbender]

Great stuff, thanks for posting.

 

[Zingmo]

Very nice!
Much better than concrete which is often used ....

The trouble with concrete is that it is too hard and inflexible, so it doesn't absorb any energy from the water flow. The river just finds the end of the concrete and washes that area away. These "softer" solutions are IMHO better from an engineering point of view. Oh and way better than concrete in every other way!

Do you have any photos of the mature one?

Z

 

[Dreadhead]

braw job tis nice tae see good sensible practice at work

 

[Toddy]

braw job tis nice tae see good sensible practice at work

I was thinking the same thing , and it's alive, and it encourages a huge variety of life, and it's potentially an incredibly useful resource too

The only down side is that willow can be thirsty, and if the waterflow isn't good then it can have a detrimental effect on the fish. Sensibly done though, it's very sound. Like good well maintained hedges

cheers,
Toddy

 

[FLaKK]

The waterflow is genrally very good. The river is the river Lostock, and the valley is a post glacial feature. The river is running through very loose superficial glacial deposits of sands gravels and clays, and is erroding away in places at an alarming rate. I will try and get a pic sometime of the much older revetment we did a few years ago to show you just how well the Willow grows to stabilize the bank.

Over the years the Environment Agency have done a great deal to help enforce legislation regarding keeping natural waterways clean, and their efforts have now resulted in the appearence of brown trout in the river.

 

[Golb]

I found another example of river revetment using willow, but it's slightly different:
http://www.therrc.co.uk/pdf/manual/MAN_4_2C.pdf

 

[Toddy]

It really does look good FLaKK, I wasn't criticising, just commenting It's amazing how effective well placed and worked willow can be
I have seen it fill a drain with it's roots though

Meant to ask, did you use a basketry willow, or one of the biomass ones, or a specific variety ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[FLaKK]

It really does look good FLaKK, I wasn't criticising, just commenting It's amazing how effective well placed and worked willow can be
I have seen it fill a drain with it's roots though

Meant to ask, did you use a basketry willow, or one of the biomass ones, or a specific variety ?

cheers,
Toddy

We have a variety of Salix species growing around the park in various locations, mostly black willow with some bay willow, and as part of the parks woodland management program we regularly thin alot of it out. Some of the remaining stumps are treated with Glyphosate solution to kill it off completely. Other stumps are left to coppice back for such purposes as river revetment work. As Willow is a poor firewood we keep freshly cut steaks for such purposes as revetments, otherwise it's left stacked ready for chipping. (we don't leave it too long though otherwise it re-roots itself and it's hard work getting up!

 

[FLaKK]

I found another example of river revetment using willow, but it's slightly different:
http://www.therrc.co.uk/pdf/manual/MAN_4_2C.pdf

That's an interesting method golb, kept a copy of that thanks

 

[Toddy]

Black Willow is what I know of as the plant the English call Bay Willow........the one with the very dark, shiny leaves ? Salix Pentandra. What's the black willow you have then ?

cheers,
Toddy

 

[jackcbr]

Try the BTCV Jack

Thanks mate, sadly nothing on the weekend, or that local.

 

[wattsy]

it makes good charcoal as well

 

[John Fenna]

We have a variety of Salix species growing around the park in various locations, mostly black willow with some bay willow, and as part of the parks woodland management program we regularly thin alot of it out. Some of the remaining stumps are treated with Glyphosate solution to kill it off completely. Other stumps are left to coppice back for such purposes as river revetment work. As Willow is a poor firewood we keep freshly cut steaks for such purposes as revetments, otherwise it's left stacked ready for chipping. (we don't leave it too long though otherwise it re-roots itself and it's hard work getting up!

I find Crack Willow a realy good firewood once it is realy well seasoned - just dont store it where it can root!
I grow willow in my garden for basketry, firewood and charcoal - it grows fast and furious so I can always get some to cut

 

[Big T]

That is a really cool idea. Anyone have any pictures of what it looks like after it has 'grown in'?

 

[Paul_B]

Actually willow has been used in civil engineering projects for a long time for banking stabilisation. There are various established ways to use it but one of the simplest is to just stick it horizontally into the bank at regular intervals. It roots and stabilises the bank that way. Your revetment is kind of doing that with vertical stakes. I don't have any examples to show it's use and can't quote my sources. I suspect it could have been in an ICE journal I read when I was a kid. Well I think when I was REAL bored I used to take a look at my Dad's copies and got it from there. Highways projects it was used in.