Ep62: Rerouting a creek without using heavy equipment

In this video, we document a multi-month process of trying to redirect a creek on our property and not use heavy equipment. There are times we don't want to spend the money or fuel on making minor changes to the lay of the land. In this instance, the heavy equipment would have caused a great deal of earth to be disturbed heading into the winter.
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[@kevinblevins2612]

Hard to believe this video was 6 years ago How time flies- seems like yesterday I watched it Funny how KZbin feeds stuff back to my feed

[@Aschoeneck21]

I really like how you did this video! I know it was a lot of saving of film and editing for you guys but it gave us some instant satisfaction having the time lapses put into the video. Well done and thx for the share.

[@RedToolHouse]

Thanks for the feed back, we are trying to do more videos like this.

[@lawrencecarr4973]

@@RedToolHouse i new to your channel I just subscribed good video

[@cassityart7001]

Great solution! You can continue to add rocks at the dam area you created. Even plant a few willows on a backside of the dam and add deep wood chips and leaves. That will soak up the water making a rich area for tree grow. Any stray stream will just be a plus.

[@woodsbound7932]

I vote for more videos like this one!! Anything that has to do with playing in the woods! 😀

[@marvinsauer8493]

A healthy creek, even a healthy intermittent creek should have many meanders. A few properly constructed BDAs (beaver dam analogs) would help slow the water, retain it on property longer and if done correctly may turn that seasonal creek into a full time creek.

[@livingonthetyne]

Great video, glad you followed up when the creek had a lot of flowing water in it, was nice to see the results.

[@rockwelldaniels5826]

I like the time lapse. Enjoyable.

[@PudgyPastures]

Love it! Thanks for all the great information you have provided. My wife and I are now beginning our search for our perfect homestead as well. Time to leave the city and get back to a simpler life.

[@RedToolHouse]

Glad you are moving in that direction. I pray you have every success.

[@robertsteinbrecher5269]

Nice work! Looks like it is getting the job done.

[@consideringorthodoxy5495]

I loved the video. I am curious if you would be able to do an update on the project now that its been a few years. Would be interesting to see how it developed over time.

[@mustlovedogs272]

Excellent. I do the same thing! Complete with the iron fence posts. I have found that building a second wall about 2 ft behind the first wall helps in high flow situations. I'll sometimes put 3"-4" rock in between the two walls piled up almost to the height of the walls.

[@riverfallscory]

I think while the water is running to take a pick axe right down the middle to promote done more erosion.

[@brentschange5264]

That is Being Smart !!

[@jodysappington7008]

enjoyed the video...thank you for sharing......

[@stephaniegraves1914]

Thank you for this video

[@RalphLaurant]

Excellent idea ... !

[@billykowalski4305]

Can't wait for more updates on this one

[@RedToolHouse]

Not terribly exciting but the creek is now staying in that new channel. We will have to do an update video soon.

[@abdullahalrasheed394]

I find it to be ironic that you said you got a couple of inches of rain that day, the place where I live we are lucky if we get a couple of inches in the entire year! Thanks for the video though.

[@eamonnmckeown6770]

You now effectively have an ox-bow lake. Guess I learned something in high school. lol.

[@davidprocter3578]

Firstly I would like to point out that the boulder in the stream bed is probably responsible for the initial redirection of the stream and the under cutting of your meadow. A couple of straps and a come along should shift it to the other side, dig a slot for it to sit in on it's edge and stand it up on it's longest edge. This will do more to redirect the stream in a permanent way. If you don't much like the idea of shoveling the old bed out by hand into the new unwanted bed get yourself a really heavy duty rake, industrial stores sell them for laying tarmac and a pair of commercial fishermans wellies. Then next time the stream flows get into the bed you want to cut down and rake away the center, start at the bottom end and work your way to the top The water will clear the debris for you. My suggestions are all standard practice in most parts of the world.

[@alexwoods2836]

In my personal opinion, this is a temporary solution to the problem. The high flow rate will continue to erode the bottom of the stream. To reduce the speed, it is necessary to place dams 1-2 feet high in 20-30 feet. This, in addition to reducing the speed of water, will delay sedimentary rocks.

[@davidprocter3578]

@@alexwoods2836 Alex what you are suggesting will certainly build up the stream bed as well as slowing the water. It is a well tried system that works, in fact I started using it myself on a small ephemeral stream close to me to provide habitat for fish fry about fifteen years ago, even on this very small stream I was able to build up the bed remarkably quickly whilst at the same time creating pools that would survive our drought periods.It did have an unexpected consequence a pair of King fishers moved into the area that then ate all the fish fry. To do this I placed a low rock dam across a shallow and then placed more rocks chess board style up stream of the dam leaving gaps between all stones of approx one stone, surprisingly it only took about three months for the bed to rise to the top of the stones ,I then repeated a further twice, and at other points along the stream a process that really only took a few minutes of my time. not only did it provide habitat the shallows provided growing beds for water weeds and the pools became deep enough for the dogs to cool off in and drinking points for general wild life. But I think stream in video spates hard and often and is already running fast by the time it hits this blokes property, whatever you did you would need to be careful not to make matters worse.

[@alexwoods2836]

@@davidprocter3578 You have great experience! Nature does not need to be fought, just a little help is enough. How is it in English.... "leaking dam" 3-4 feet or a cascade of several will stop any flow. The logs are available, you can conduct an experiment and get a result. Best regards!

[@alanvaleandthelazyfarmer1930]

And 3.5 years on, is it time to put in another dam a bit further down in the old bed and get some sedimentation happening?

[@RedToolHouse]

We now have done earth works in the area and the old bed has been filled in. The new bed was so well established that we didn’t have to put any engineered barriers in

[@jackphillips3512]

I wonder if some real beavers created a dam that formed your meadow.

[@RedToolHouse]

There used to be beaver all over this area of our state decades ago. It is quite possible although I think a majority of the clearings in our valley were made by the oil and gas industry. My property had over 15 wells on it at one time.

[@lenchoobama1988]

Hopefully to improve marriage lol you mean by them goig to pound town ?

[@clambert2020]

In Pennsylvania the "natural resource" nazis would be hauling you off to the pokey.

[@RedToolHouse]

What they don't know...

[@georgehays4900]

Smacking your tongue often. It wouldn’t be so bad except your lapel mic is picking it up and it is a sharp smack.

[@RedToolHouse]

This has been corrected on new videos. Thanks!

[@eamonnmckeown6770]

You now effectively have an ox-bow lake. Guess I learned something in high school. lol.

[@danielschneider1504]

I was wondering:what if you built a 'beaver dam at the *bottom* of the oxbow, where it joins with the original channel, and either remove totally or just reduce in height the current dam. The water might then flow into the oxbow, back up and slow down, and drop any dirt/leaves/etc that it's carrying. This would fill iin the undercutting for you, and eventually raise up the ground level so that a new oxbow would be less likely to form once the dam falls apart.

[@RedToolHouse]

I would like to try different things with this area. Just upstream from this we winl be building a bridge and some other structures. Anxious for weather to break.

[@marvinsauer8493]

Excellent suggestion, slow the water below the washed area!

[@aidanhodge7090]

Looking at the Creek moving, it looks to me like slip caused the original stream to divert it course as evidenced by the tilt of the poplar and assoicated trees. Having the stream diverted back and cutting into the toe of the slope might cause it to slip some more. Im also concerned that the water will infiltrate below the poplar and cause the whole section the poplar is sitting on which will eventually get undercut anyway, to scallop and slip into where the undiverted creek was if the roots start rotting away, poplar being a wetland species might resist this awhile, but it'll need oxygen eventually not to rot. I feel you are going to have to backfill the Creek bed to the right of the poplar to prevent more slippage.

[@JackReacheround]

Not sure if you'll see this, but id love an update on the creek and dam.

[@CliffsideStables]

I can use this technique in our pond overflow as it flows out to the river after a heavy rain. Thanks!

[@kurtis7975]

I love doing this in our back woods. I'm 30 and I don't care!

[@Ns1ht50]

simple effective.... mountain method. natural. good job

[@user-io3hy4zb4s]

I'm just curious what laws did you have to deal with? A friend of mine had to fill out a pile of paperwork about a foot thick from agencies he had never heard of to move a river 15 feet over since it was cutting away the hill that his house sits on. He might not have even been approved if the neighbor's farmland (which the river was being directed on to) wasn't being turned into a wildlife sanctuary. And that was 20 years ago. Regulations certainly didn't get easier to deal with since then. I appreciate your thoughts on this.

[@RedToolHouse]

We were dealing with a seasonal stream here in the center of our land. Probably not nearly as critical as redirecting a river. There is also an element of "my land in the middle of nowhere" in our scenario, too. :)

[@jakeshaffer7954]

@@RedToolHouse doesn't matter if its a seasonal stream or not, still technically illegal, but they won't go after a landowner because most cannot afford to pay the astronomical fines.

[@Downeastwaves]

Good job!

[@nancyfahey7518]

That was pretty cool.

[@grdelawter4266]

Detritus, really? What percentage of your subscribers or people that watch this video have ever heard that word or knows what it means? I’ll bet it’s less than 1%. Yet you used it at least 3 times or more. In my experience when speaking to others and using words that they’ve never heard of doesn’t give them a warm fuzzy feeling. Sure I know lots and lots of words that are never used in conversation or speeches because of their unique, specific meanings that are easily covered by more commonly used words. In this case, leaves, organic material, grass, weeds, or duff etc. just a thought. You have great ideas

[@RedToolHouse]

I was always taught if you hear a word you don't know, look it up and add it to your vocabulary.

[@freerx1845]

It is now almost 2 years since this video was shot. How is the creek redirection now?

[@RedToolHouse]

We will do an update on this and other things soon. It is working pretty well but a video will detail it.

[@zachwebb5260]

Is there an update to this? Would love to see how it worked out. Thank you

[@danbellamy1003]

years and years ago 1800's, something similar was done on the Mississippi river, they built jetty like structures out into the river to nudge the current against the far bank, letting the river excavate the far banks soil to achieve the effect/affect they wanted. What was old, is new again!

[@nealsparks4187]

Contact your local NRCS office. They can help you stabilize the stream.

[@vernonvest9927]

Take and put in a cedar tree facing up stream 🌲 where it will catch all the debris.

[@TheZigZiggy]

That channel looks pretty deep. Why not dam it up and create a little pond for your retreat? If it gets big enough, you might even stock it with some fish.

[@RedToolHouse]

There are some other areas were we will make impoundments. This area is in the main watershed and can really have some volume of water at different times of the year. We would have to make a large dam to handle it.

[@dambuilder48]

Very nice dam. 👍

[@RickMartinYouTube]

Love the fiddle music. Good quality presentation. Thanks for taking the time to produce.