retired jerry wrote: ↑March 4th, 2024, 7:35 am
does any of this threaten your house? or anything else you don't want washed away?
There is this downstream of the threatened tree, but not on my property.
The creek is actively excavating the bank at 2,000 cu ft /sec* flows and ultimately could threaten my lot. The adjoining lot will lose a couple acres before that happens. The stream bank erosion you see in this photo was set up when a 30" diameter Oregon Ash was taken out by a 4,500 cu ft/sec flow about 2018. In subsequent years two smaller trees subcumbed, leaving the stream bank you see in the photo unprotected. The alder you can see has been excavated on all sides and probably won't survive the next 2,000 cu ft/ sec flow.
We could get a weather anomaly that produces a much larger stream flow. Something along the lines of what happened on the Cowlitz River about 25 years ago that closed I-5 (bridge held but approaches washed out).
Hanging tree update. Still hanging. Checked the tree today and maybe the cracks are a hair bigger, but not what a photo would show, so didn't 'shoot' it.
Don, when we bought this property we planted a lot of trees on the stream bank in areas we thought vulnerable. That was 18 years ago and some of these trees are now 12" diameter or bigger. But fundamentally the land is alluvial deposit and if you get a big enough flow, everything will wash away.
BurnsideBob
* There is a stream gauge two miles below my property that I monitor for stream flow.
I keep making protein shakes but they always turn out like margaritas.
