We have a salmon-bearing creek that runs through our lower property. Years ago we dug a farm pond for the kids to play in and to enhance the area. We are plagued with beavers, who have totally flooded out our road to the back woods. Our local conservation agency has funding specific to our creek. I was hoping they could help us address the beaver problem, but the main dam and lodge are downstream from us so anything we did would not really solve the underlying flooding. They have, however, approved a re-vegetation plan, which would mean we must dedicate 15' on either side of the creek bank for native plants. We have no plans to run livestock or build anything down there. We have tentatively agreed to this, and the next step will be to review the planting plan. I will also want to review whatever the dedication constraints are. Per the nice young man who we are working with - they will plant native willows, ninebark, dogwood, spirea, and others. Sounds good to me, although I'm not a big fan of the blue protective sleeves they tend to use - but it is my understanding those eventually decompose. The conservation folk would come out annually for maintenance until the plants are mature enough to be on their own. I'm slightly ambivalent about 'inviting in' any sort of government agency... thoughts? Here's a couple photos of the area taken from our back deck:
2011 - The tractor is going over the main creek culvert, the culvert from the creek to pond is to the left of the tractor behind the raft
2016 - The road is now the creek and it is almost impassable even with the tractor, the brown grass behind and at the pond edge is invasive non-native reed canary grass. I don't mind it, but the conservation people would like to discourage it (by cutting it back and nurturing native shrubs that would eventually shade-out the invasive grass)
