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Kailash Cain
Ms. Greeley/Ms. Oshea
English 9
18 January 2017
Caring for our Watershed- Planting Trees
The problem I would like to address in my local watershed, the upper Yuba River
watershed, is the danger and possibility of major erosion and flood. Because of the recent
drought, much of the land near the upper Yuba River is bare, or the vegetation and foliage do not
have deep or strong enough roots to prevent erosion and flooding. The chosen solution would
also help, given the right circumstances, with the drought itself, by helping to regulate the water
flow by adding to it when necessary and slowing it down during heavy rain as well. Trees can
help add to the water by taking water from underground storages and leaving it above ground to
evaporate and later precipitate back into the river sources through a process called “plant
uptake”. The trees also help to regulate water flow by slowing it down when rivers flood by
causing interference with the straight flow of the river with their branches, slowing it down, but
not acting as a dam. This purpose of this essay is to inform those whom it may concern of how
trees will help save the upper Yuba watershed.

Erosion may not seem like a major issue, but it is worse than it looks at first glance. For
the ground to erode at a problematic speed, the land has to have little to no protection such as
leaves, pine needles, fallen branches, or even basic plant life such as grass, shrubbery, and trees.
The various things mentioned above all help defend in some way against landslides and floods
and are all important to the environment. When the ground erodes into lakes and rivers, it
destroys roads and paths and brings pollutants such as trash and mud into the water flow. Even
mud, which may seem fine, as it is part of nature can cause problems, such as making the water
harder for fish to breath in, and adding to the strength of the river flow enough to change the
shape and curves of the river bank, if it doesn't settle into the river bed. Floods are closely related
to quick erosion, as many of the same conditions that harbor erosion can also encourage
flooding. When rivers flood, they tear away at foliage surrounding the river as well as any
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man-made structures built too close to, or above, the raging river. They also aggressively
relocate aquatic life to places further downstream than they should be.

My solution is to plant willow trees along the river bank of the upper Yuba River. I chose
willows because they are native to California, and are easy to plant in bulk. Planting willows are
cheap because one only has to find willows branches to clone them. Once they grow, the roots
would add to the structural integrity of the riverbank, and the leaves would provide shade for the
river. The shade is important because it cools the river, which provides better living conditions
for fish. the trees would also serve as a natural flood barrier between the river and the land
surrounding it.

Another solution I thought of is close to the first one, although instead of planting
willows trees, I would plant mangrove trees. Mangrove trees are not native to California, though
they are not classified as an invasive species, and bring many benefits to the land wherever they
are. Some of these benefits include: containing significant amounts of carbon compared to other
species of tree, they grow outwards instead of upward which adds more efficiency to each tree
per land covered, and they grow inside the water anaerobically which means that they wouldn’t
intrude towards the pre-existing vegetation on the riverbanks, and could also be implemented at
the same time as the willows. A concern for the mangroves would be if they grow too far out and
choke out the native plant life, that is unlikely because they grow on top of their own
decomposing roots; this also makes it so they don’t release any carbon previously consumed into
the atmosphere.

As for the planting, I will plant the trees with help from my family and some friends.
My family owns the land that I plan to plant on, so permission to plant native trees is not a
problem, and the mangroves would soon follow if we can get permission from the city. Even if
the mangroves were vetoed, they are only an extra solution, and the operation of tree planting
would be fine with just using willow trees.

In conclusion, I believe that the possibility of flooding and landslides along the upper
section of the Yuba River could be significantly lowered by planting willow trees, and possibly
mangroves as well. Both types of trees have their own individual advantages, and disadvantages.
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My solution for this proposal also would be very cost efficient, and not particularly difficult to
do.

Citations

New study shows desert mangroves are major source of carbon storage  

Mangrove Morphology & Physiology  

Mangrove Ecology  

Why We Need to Restore Floodplains | American Rivers  

Can trees be used strategically to prevent flooding? - Quora  

BUDGET

TREE TYPE QUANTITY of SEEDS COST

Willows 1 free (if a branch can be

found)

Mangrove 6 $11.95

NOTE* ​The above table has the prices for the minimum amount of seeds I would get, as a ratio
reference.

The following is an image of a mangrove isolated in the water.

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