• rhythmisaprancer
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    510 months ago

    I don’t know if I like the term beaver dam as it’s a bit exclusionary

    Can you help me pick up what you’re putting down here?

    Thank you both for sharing these videos, really cool stuff, makes me think about this gem from almost ten years ago now.

    • Treevan 🇦🇺
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      410 months ago

      Not every country has beavers. Weir is already the word used in English to define what is happening here.

      Ahh yes, the original swale. Probably caused more small scale earthworks than anything?

      • rhythmisaprancer
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        210 months ago

        Very fair! I had friends working in Australia for some time but never visited, my loss. It really sounded interesting and different.

        Ya, possibly. I would think that earlier people, as observant as they were, were building swales long ago in Persia or North Africa. Or SW USA. Or Australia.

        • Treevan 🇦🇺
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          10 months ago

          Not that I’m an expert or anything, but I don’t know if Aus’ First Nations harnessed water for agriculture like that. What they did do was make amazing fish traps and eel farms. The fact they could place rocks in a river for trapping purposes and have them not wash away, ever, blows my mind.

          A big fallen Euc is all the swale you need. They are still visible in rivers and gullies, even though the forest is long gone around them.