Erosion: Where’s the Bank? (JHARVNC)
Soil erosion can’t be stopped, but it can be controlled. Participants learn types of erosion, how it damages and ways to prevent it.
K - 8
Classroom and outside
Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center, Fort Smith
Education Program Coordinator, 479-452-3993
30 - 45 minutes
Suggested Number of Participants:
25 - 30
Learn the different types of erosion
Learn how erosion damages
Learn different types of erosion prevention
Land slip or calving erosion
Sheet or rill erosion
*See glossary for definations
Mulberry River PowerPoint
– the gradual wearing away of land by water, wind and general weather conditions
Types of Erosion and Examples
- Gully erosion–concentrated flows of water scour the sides of water channels
- Tunnel erosion–excessive water rushes through areas along cracks, root channels, animal burrows and pipe tunnels
- Sheet or rill erosion–rain drops and surface water flows cause shallow stripping of soil (washboard effect)
- Wind erosion–wind has direct access to bare soil and causes soil breakdown and removal
- Fine material can be transported long distances
- Coarse material moves locally by bouncing and rolling
- Land slips or calving–sloping soils become unstable and slide downhill due to gravity and moisture
- Excess moisture in areas
- Stream bank erosion–streams begin cutting deeper water channels due to large volumes of water in small water sheds
- Removal of local vegetation
- Large producer of oxbow lakes
Show Power Point from Stream Team on Mulberry River
- Discuss problems due to man’s influence
- Removal of bank vegetation
- Chemicals and pollutants
- A view isn’t worth the expense
- Discuss ways to fix problem areas
- Discuss the expense
Follow up on Riparian Zone
- What is a riparian zone?
- Why keep a riparian zone?
- Watershed protection
- Animal habitat
- Start in classroom defining different types of erosion and show examples.
- Show power point on Mulberry River.
- Discuss importance of the riparian zone.
- Discuss the AGFC Stream Team program and how to get involved.
- List three causes of erosion.
- Can turbidity lead to poor stream quality? Why?
- Why is a riparian zone so important?
- Are there any streams in your area that would benefit from the Stream Team?
Erosion – the natural process by which the surface of the earth is worn away by the action of water, glaciers, winds, waves, etc.
Gully erosion – Severe erosion produced by running water in which trenches are cut to a depth greater than a foot and deep enough to cross with farm equipment
Land slip or calving erosion – when sloping soils slide downhill due to gravity and moisture or construction
Riparian zone – plant communities that are the interface between land and a stream or other body of water
Sheet or rill erosion – occurs when rain drops and surface water flows cause shallow stripping of soil (washboard effect); in sheet erosion, channels are not formed; in rill erosion, numerous small channels are cut, generally up to 30 centimeters deep
Tunnel erosion – an insidious form of erosion caused by excessive movement of water through a sub-surface soil, causing damage before surface evidence is noted; also called piping erosion
Wind erosion – movement of rock and sediment by the wind; also known as eolian (or Aeolian) erosion