Another creek quandary.

[Fuddy1952]

Along the creek there is a large bend that doesn't make sense to me. The creek flows along nice and fairly straight, then at one point there's a bow. In middle of bow is like blue/gray clay with water running out (another spring?)
So it's woods steep down to creek (walkable barely), then creek, other side a nice pasture. The bow from creek up to pasture is about 7ft., bow is "eating away" that part of pasture.
I'm thinking I had hand dig (no way to really get equipment there) and make creek run straight...but why the bow? And how would I fix it afterwards. It would take Lord knows how much fill dirt (guessing 20 tandem loads).
Again thanks any ideas.

 

[Motorboatin]

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Good luck. I have a small creek that makes one 90 degree right turn, then a hard left. I have dug these areas out multiple times with my mini ex, and one month later, right back to the way it was. This creek will not flow straight... So, I'll let it have it's way. :confused3:

 

[Fuddy1952]

Thanks! That's informative.

 

[Steppenwolfe]

Thanks! That's informative.

Hey... I have better things to do anyway.

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks! That's informative.

 

[3Ts]

...but why the bow?

This creek will not flow straight...

The only time it will flow straight is if you have identical friction across the entire stream bed for the length you want it to run. A small difference will cause the stream to want to turn which will cause erosion on one side and build up on the other which causes it to feed on itself. Or, use something that can't be eroded to line the stream bed - like concrete.

 

[DrRod]

I was taught that this is the meander principle. Unless held by rock, a stream will not flow in a straight line for more than four times its width. Even without a disturbance [as per the video] the simple harmonic motion of the flow will carve a slight bit of the bank at some point and then will bed increasingly eroded as per the video.

 

[mapper]

Mankind has been trying to bend streams and rivers to our will for a long long time. The civil engineers have succeeded to some extent, but a rip rapped channel is not a thing of beauty and is very unkind to wildlife living in and around the stream. And rip rap only works well when there are miles of it, the stream will tend to try and make an end run around it when given the opportunity.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

This proves than man cannot affect what nature wants to do and has been doing for eons.