Rhett Kerby shows how to place wattles along contour lines to slow water runoff on slopes. Staked and flagged wattles reduce concentrated flow, spread sheet flow, and let water soak into soil instead of eroding channels.
So this morning we were staking out where these wattles need to go. This is the concentrated flow area or channel where we've staged out wattles to break up the high velocity water. And then here is a. Here's a wattle laid on the contour to prevent the sheet flow coming off this elevated area here as it flows down into that wattle. And then I'm going to spin around and you can see behind me these longer wattles. These are what we were laying on the contour where we were staking out lines, flagging those earlier. So these are the wattles. They're not complete yet, they're not staked down. There's still some backfilling that needs to take place in some of these areas, but you can. If you notice they're not perfectly parallel like this bottom one here. It has some curve to it. They don't run parallel, but they follow what is considered a water line, topography line. It's essentially a contour line that water should hold here as compared to the other end. So it allows for the water as it moves down the hill to spread evenly and be absorbed into the soil.
