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Albright's Living Channel Liner
© 1998 Streamline Publications
Pioneered by Albright Seed
Company, the Living Channel Liner takes a good idea and goes a step beyond, to
create a break-through in erosion control.
Biogeotechnology is becoming
recognized as a newer, better, approach to erosion control in several problem
areas, but notably in channel stabilization.
Biogeotechnology (biological and
geotechnical engineering) is an amazingly gentle, yet most effective,
approach to a hard problem— stabilizing intermittent and continuous flow
water channel banks.
Past solutions to erosion
prevention in drainage channels relied on hard engineering. To cite an extreme
example, the famous Los Angeles River—a 58-mile long, mostly concrete,
conduit winding through its namesake city is a tribute to the brute-force school
of engineering. Today, the concrete river bed and banks make a fine setting
for Hollywood action movies but are short on aesthetics, animal or plant
life. For much of the year the concrete river accomodates a bare trickle of
water amidst graffiti, garbage and the city's castoffs.
A Concrete SolutionIn 1938 a devastating flood marked the
river as the enemy. By this time the Los Angeles Aquaduct was in operation and
the river became a secondary, unreliable, water source. The Army Corps of
Engineers took up the battle with the technology of the day—cement and
stone—and created a giant storm drain where once the river had flowed. When
the Army engineers were finished, most of the river's length was sheathed in
concrete, forever keeping the waters within its boundaries. In a city of
millions that is essentially a desert, unchecked water flow is a menace to
humans and property. Yet, in Los Angeles, there is nostalgia for the river.
Plans are being put forth for a more natural environment and restoration of the
surrounding ecosystem.
Humans are drawn to water. It
refreshes, fascinates, and indeed, is essential to human life.
A Better solutionThe destructive force of water is the
Mister Hyde in this equation. Biogeotechnical engineering combines living
vegetation and the earth's natural properties using scientific principles
to control the loss of soils, the structures they support, and to limit the
enormous cost of clean up after rainfall.
And while the Los Angeles River may
seem an intractable political and ecological problem, on a smaller scale there
is a practical solution.
A number of manufacturers have devised
channel lining geotextiles that, once securely in place, can protect seeds and
soils through the germination period to eventual establishment—if it
doesn't happen to rain in the meantime.
These products are excellent as a
nonbiodegradable environment for plant life that will have to withstand periodic
flood conditions and continuous flow.
But there is a problem of timing their
installation. A fully established riparian plant system is necessary to
withstand the ripping pressures of rapidly flowing drainage waters. Otherwise it
becomes a source of more debris on its way downstream. Most erosion control
projects are pursued during summer tnonths—when waterflow is down and
equipment and men don't have to fight the elements. This is the least hospitable
season for establishing a living, robust community of water grasses, especially
in Mediterranean climates such as California's.
Albright Seed Company has the answer in
our Living Channel Liner. We have taken the MIRAMAT IOOOTM Erosion Control
Mat—a proven product—and have pregrown in it a living complex of
native riparian grasses.
The result is an economical,
ecologically sound, self-maintaining system that physically secures stream banks
or shore lines. Not only does the Living Channel Liner hold the soil, but it
becomes the basis for a full wetland community with attendant benefits such as
water purification and filtration. Micro organisms gain a foothold in this new
environment and act to biodegrade pollutants; sediments are caught and
stabilized and biodiversity is encouraged.
Result: the damaging effects of storm
runoffs are reduced, bank undercutting is prevented.
Living Channel Liner is immediately
effective once in place. The rnature growth eliminates the period of
vulnerability a new planting would face. Install today for tomorrow's storm.
And we haven't even discussed the
beauty inherent in a watercourse that greets the eye with green, supple grass.
No concrete needed.
Call your erosion control consultant at
Albright Seed Company, toll
free, to discuss your needs and to learn rnore about how the Living Channel
Liner can fit into your plans.
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