These checkdams were installed in early December of last year and I photographed them for the first time on December 19 (see post for that day for a slideshow of their initial appearance). At that time it was only a hope — though a not-implausible one — that the freshly cut willow stakes would sprout and thereby begin their journey into becoming new willow trees. Trees that would become a thicket, a tangled mass of roots, to bind the soil and heal the giant gully-scar down the hillside.
Then, at our Monster Gully workday last weekend (see post for that day), Ranger Pamela mentioned that the willows here had started to sprout. And so today became a day of slogging through the muck, and delightfully so. Because these dams are working!
More to post! Slideshow pending.
