East Bank Wetlands
  Plastic Remediation
  Digging Out

 West Bank Wetlands
  Stream and Ponds
  New Wetland Habitat

 Garrard Creek
 Conservation
 Reserve Program
  Site Plan
  Budget
  Preparation
  Trees & Scrubs
  Planting Season

A small perennial stream drains the farm's western watershed, crossing 500 feet of flat pastureland before it enters a much larger creek.

Low pasture along Garrard Creek before the ponds, Spring 1999.

During the heavy flooding years of the 1990's, the stream channel became choked with sediment and the waters dispersed broadly across the pasture, creating a muddy mess for cows and haying equipment.

During the summer of 1999, a new channel was hand-carved across the pasture, with its curvy, snake-like course earning it the name "Kundalini Stream". It passes through two ponds before it finally enters the creek. The stream has enough flow to keep the ponds full year-round, and the water system has become a magnet for wildlife, including ducks, herons, crayfish and even a sleek pair of river otters. Prior to developing the streambed and ponds, there was no water feature available to wildlife, just a problematic soggy pasture.

Heavy winter storms bring high flows of water with extreme sediment load that can overwhelm our stream and ponds, so a large channel was bulldozed at the mouth of the ravine to divert the storm runoff into the pasture, where the sediment is intercepted by the grass, creating rich topsoil, instead of ending up in the creek where it adversely affects salmon and other aquatic inhabitants.