Water Cycle Restoration


Water is a fundamental need for all forms of life. When water is present, life can thrive. There is no exaggeration in the saying that “Water is Life.” 
As ecosystem restoration practicioners, we aim to restore water cycles first. Once we design and install systems that retain water in the land, our plantings and all subsequent efforts at creating habitat are made possible. 

Earth Ecology founder Nick Lake is a Water Cycle Restoration Professional, certified by Zach Weiss of Water Stories & Elemental Ecosystems
We are trained and practiced in the construction of earth dams/ponds, spring tapping, terrace construction, and other broad acre water management strategies for enhancing the local water cycle at the farm scale. 

No effort is too small in service of the waters, and we thrive in the craft of smaller scale water restoration features, such as the installation of urban rain gardens. 

Our restoration work is easily translated to small seasonal and perennial streams, where our beaver dam analogues, check dams, step pools, and one rock dams can help mitigate erosion by reducing the velocity of flood waters, allowing for additional infiltration of water into the ground. 



The video above depicts our beaver dam analogues and one rock dams in a perinneal stream. This series of 3 beaver dam analogues, two “one rock dams,” and bank stabilization structures slows the flow of heavy flood waters, collects sediment thus managing erosion, and drastically enhances water quality and habitat for aquatic critters. 
Our biggest teachers in the work of water cycle restoration are ultimately are the beavers. These images below are true beaver dams, found in the west hills of Portland, Oregon. Their efforts have always enhanced the infiltration, filtration, and general expansion of wet earth. They are the creators of springs, and the managers of flood, drought, and fire.  We aspire to mimic their work, giving more land back to water, and allowing it to do its best magic. 


Below are our beaver dam analogue structures in a seasonal creek. In the following wet season, these structures slowed the flow of the water through this landscape, which had begun to erode more and more each year. Sediment was accumnulated up slope of the structures, further enhancing their function. 


 OR LCB #9872; WA# Earthel843J2
 
© EARTH ECOLOGY, LLC MMXXIV
858.774.7900