ivangeorgelos
Soil Erosion
This photo was taken at the Swallow Cliff Forest Preserve in Palos Park on March 28th. The preserve is diverse in terms of vegetation and landscape. Lower elevated portions of the preserve are wide open and don’t contain much more than tall grass and small ponds. After further research through the Forest Preserves of Cook County website I found that this area, known as a moraine, was formed around 12,000 years ago by glacial meltwater. However, my photo comes from a more elevated portion of the preserve which is much denser in vegetation. The two trees dominating this landscape are oaks and hickories. Both of which can grow up to 70 feet in height and have branches able to stretch out to widths of 30 feet. While walking along one of the trails in the preserve I noticed a stretch of land indicating soil erosion. This stretch contained several trees with large portions of their roots exposed; as well as two downed trees that appeared to have lost their hold in the ground and collapsed. Because this area was slightly elevated compared to the land around it I assume the erosion was a result of two contributing factors: water runoff and human interaction. I believe human interaction may play a smaller role because the trail doesn’t get close enough to this area to really allow for heavy walking traffic. Water erosion, on the other hand, I believe is the main contributor. Some supporting evidence for this was a lane of what looked like a miniature dried out stream next to the elevated area. Excessive rain water mostly likely erodes the side of this area and then travels down that stream. I believe my solution to the issue would work quite efficiently and come without much difficulty. To prevent further erosion, one of the simplest yet most effective approaches would be to plant more vegetation. Considering that most of the area is covered only with large trees, planting small to medium sized plants would be very effective. And although oaks and hickories are massive in size, the structure of their branches allows for ample sunlight to reach the forest floor and allow smaller types of vegetation to grow. However, because many of these smaller plants aren’t able to survive winter and sprout once the weather becomes more suitable in months like April and May this solution may not work the best. Which is why another precaution on these trails would be to ensure that people aren’t veering off trail and unintentionally eroding the soil. Another alternative to the water erosion would be to put up retaining walls around this elevated area in order to allow water to run-off elsewhere and stop it from degrading this area of soil and stop exposing more tree roots which would result in less fallen trees.
Soil Erosion
This photo was taken at the Swallow Cliff Forest Preserve in Palos Park on March 28th. The preserve is diverse in terms of vegetation and landscape. Lower elevated portions of the preserve are wide open and don’t contain much more than tall grass and small ponds. After further research through the Forest Preserves of Cook County website I found that this area, known as a moraine, was formed around 12,000 years ago by glacial meltwater. However, my photo comes from a more elevated portion of the preserve which is much denser in vegetation. The two trees dominating this landscape are oaks and hickories. Both of which can grow up to 70 feet in height and have branches able to stretch out to widths of 30 feet. While walking along one of the trails in the preserve I noticed a stretch of land indicating soil erosion. This stretch contained several trees with large portions of their roots exposed; as well as two downed trees that appeared to have lost their hold in the ground and collapsed. Because this area was slightly elevated compared to the land around it I assume the erosion was a result of two contributing factors: water runoff and human interaction. I believe human interaction may play a smaller role because the trail doesn’t get close enough to this area to really allow for heavy walking traffic. Water erosion, on the other hand, I believe is the main contributor. Some supporting evidence for this was a lane of what looked like a miniature dried out stream next to the elevated area. Excessive rain water mostly likely erodes the side of this area and then travels down that stream. I believe my solution to the issue would work quite efficiently and come without much difficulty. To prevent further erosion, one of the simplest yet most effective approaches would be to plant more vegetation. Considering that most of the area is covered only with large trees, planting small to medium sized plants would be very effective. And although oaks and hickories are massive in size, the structure of their branches allows for ample sunlight to reach the forest floor and allow smaller types of vegetation to grow. However, because many of these smaller plants aren’t able to survive winter and sprout once the weather becomes more suitable in months like April and May this solution may not work the best. Which is why another precaution on these trails would be to ensure that people aren’t veering off trail and unintentionally eroding the soil. Another alternative to the water erosion would be to put up retaining walls around this elevated area in order to allow water to run-off elsewhere and stop it from degrading this area of soil and stop exposing more tree roots which would result in less fallen trees.