{"id":5785,"date":"2018-07-17T19:50:11","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T00:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=5785"},"modified":"2018-07-19T14:07:06","modified_gmt":"2018-07-19T19:07:06","slug":"recent-photos-of-buffalo-bayou-slowing-the-flow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.savebuffalobayou.org\/?p=5785","title":{"rendered":"Recent Photos of Buffalo Bayou: Slowing the Flow"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Summer Down on the Bayou<\/h3>\n

July 17, 2018<\/p>\n

In case you missed Jim Olive<\/a>‘s summer shot of that Bend in the River<\/a>, here is the latest addition to our series of photographs taken from the same high bank on the north side of Buffalo Bayou in Memorial Park. The view has changed over the course of four years. In particular, since the high waters of Harvey, the bayou widened to accommodate the massive flow. Banks slid or slumped away<\/a>, as they will do on the bayou when water rises over the banks and onto the natural floodplains. Trees and vegetation slide down too.<\/p>\n

Ideally this woody debris, often still living, should be left in place to collect sediment, reinforce the banks, and facilitate regrowth and rebuilding of the banks. It’s a cycle that has been continuing on rivers for millions of years. Unfortunately, the Harris County Flood Control District hired contractors and paid them by the pound<\/a> to collect as much of the fallen vegetation as possible.<\/p>\n

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Summer sunrise on Buffalo Bayou. That bend in the bayou on July 1, 2018, with flow at about 280 cubic feet per second. Photo by Jim Olive, of course.<\/p><\/div>\n

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Other Recent Photos of Buffalo Bayou<\/h4>\n

Known as Houston’s Mother Bayou, in large part because most other bayous and streams flow into it, Buffalo Bayou is some 18,000 years old, more or less, and one of the few natural waterways in the city that remains largely unchannelized. The beauty of it flowing past Memorial Park is that this forested stretch is one of the last accessible to the public. It’s a historic nature area, ever changing and adapting, filled with ancient high banks and sandstone, beaver, otter, massive turtles and other wildlife.<\/p>\n

Though in the wake of Harvey there are calls to “improve” our bayous, including Buffalo Bayou, by widening and deepening, even straightening, the fact is that meandering streams carry more water — because they are longer. Artificially widening and deepening streams doesn’t last: the banks collapse and the channel fills with sediment.<\/a> Rivers are living, dynamic systems and will adjust to stabilize themselves. The trees and vegetation on the banks help absorb and cleanse stormwaters and prevent flooding by slowing and diffusing the energy of the stream.<\/p>\n

Our political and civic leaders should focus on slowing the flow with green spaces, prairie and wetlands, swales and rain gardens — stopping, spreading, and soaking up stormwater before it floods our natural and built drainage systems.<\/p>\n

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