You Need Swales on Your Property | Water Management 101

Swales are an incredible element of water harvesting that can completely transform your land's ability to capture water. Rob shares his water management wisdom and how you can apply it to your property!

Rob Avis is a Personal Engineer. He designs resilient, ecologically engineered, integrated systems for landowners and businesses to sustainably thrive.

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CHAPTERS
______________________________________
0:00 Intro
0:42 Water Management 101
1:00 Swales
3:07 Managing Catchment
4:06 Check Dams
4:45 Check Dam Effectiveness
6:33 Snowmelt Infiltration Issue
7:47 Managing Drainage
8:19 Spillway
10:02 Monk Pipe
10:56 Ponds
11:41 Trees in Water Management
12:27 Managing water on YOUR Property

[firesalamander]

A note too - even when water is not a limiting resource, all of these strategies are key because they slow water down and prevent it from becoming the destructive source that it is. Thus, swales and check dams are valuable to both wet and dry environments!

[threeriversforge]

Good build. The one thing I would recommend is to borrow heavily from the European tradition of hedgerows to help along to the tops of the swales. Everyone talks about planting trees, and that's good, but hedgerows take things to the next level. A bit more work, but also a greater variety of plants that create habitat for the smaller creatures that then eat the "pests" we don't want on our crops. Plus, they provide a quick windbreak while the larger trees are still growing. In the UK, for example, the 'law' states that you can tell how old a hedgerow is by the number of species found in it - generally one species per century. They have hedgerows with more than a dozen species in them!

Another upside is that maintaining the hedgerows provides enough wood to heat the home all winter long.

[ela]

Thank you for posting. I am electronic engineer. My dad is an architect and didn't see blueprints of landscaping in his office. And i find this video very interesting and inspiring. I bought a small 3 acre multi slope land in Southern California. I tried to get rid of rain and snow water eroding my land. Now i will treasure it to plant trees, create shade, fresh air and fertile soil for vegetation. Thanks again.

[danfenske]

Having watched many of the videos on swales, one rock dams and the benefits of harvesting water, your explanation of how to build these structures and how they work, ranks right up there at the top in understanding for myself. Thank you for the excellent way you described things in this video.

[sclark]

Thank you so much for *teaching*! I watch a lot of videos in which people talk about what they did, but without details, as if they assume the audience already understands it. You are not condescending, but you structure information into a lesson in a really helpful way! Thank you!

[nadineraynor]

In the winter while the swales are dry, and you are feeding livestock, I would feed them in the swales to add nutrients to the water infusion from the swale during water collection period. This will encourage the growth of grasses on the exposed subsoil exposed forming the swale berm.

[lordyhgm]

I’d also consider pebbles and stones in the beds of the Swales and spills to further decrease erosions and water evaporation in drier seasons. It also helps encourage life in the area with small shelter for insects with and without water

[watchthe]

we had the swales going across the slope overflowing into the creek at the check dams. They would gradually fill up and the creek would gradually increase its run as they overflowed. They held a LOT of water and we rarely filled up an old irrigation pond once we had the whole system in place, and it was a 1 acre, 6 foot deep on average, pond.

[eddieleong]

Please show us what happens when snow melts, when water is filling up the ditches, etc. Thanks.

[butchgreene]

One of the neatest ways I've seen tree plantings is there are multiple varieties you can use branch shoots and just plug them down into the soil like a stake. If you've got a property that has erosion issues and you're wanting a lot of trees along the edges of water troughs, swales, ditches, creeks...look it up. Dirt cheap planting.

[jacobopstad]

I've used swales in my backyard but I didn't know the name for them. This has inspired me to make a few changes in the layout to hopefully improve things

[kellyemmanuel]

I think this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen!

[MistyMeadowsPermacultureFarm]

Excellent explanation of check dams and swales. Thanks for this video and explaining how they can benefit those of us in cold climates. 👍

[vikinginthejungle]

This was an incredible explanation... just so in depth and well spoken.

Thanks for sharing, enjoyed this a lot.

I have my property in the Dominican Republic and am going to put in my swales later this year.

[guygillmore]

It will be great to see these Swales in snow melt conditions

[trioultimo]

This should be taught in primary schools

[sandraadams]

So smart ! The ancient people knew how to control water, but you are teaching us again! 😊

[SanderHollebrand]

Excellent video. I already watched a lot of material regarding swales and permaculture but this is a real joy to watch. Well spoken, relaxed and in-depth explanatory, really motivating. Now I want to build swales but these would be completely useless as I live in the mudflats of the Netherlands 😂

[Tugedhel]

You are a teacher. Packaging and package size is very important. Your flow builds logically and each of your conceptual packages are well sized and complete. This way they can be stored for good recall. Is this your profession or are you just a good communicator who ranches?

[SimpleEarthSelfReliance]

Utterly amazing information. I am 1/100th of a step there. The cost of machine works for larger earthworks is prohibitive, but invaluable.
Thank you for this video. Learnt a lot... going to be hard to fall asleep.