creek foraging

[gary grossman <grossman@zzzzzzzzz>]

Greetings carvers, to address part of Norman's question, alterations
(e.g., removal of materials) of navigable bodies of water are controlled
by state natural resource agencies.  As with most things in life, what
you can do is controlled by the degree to which it will change things.
If you're on private land with the permission of the land owner, in most
states there will be no problem taking a few boulders out of a stream.
If you do the same thing in a state park, you'll probably get in
trouble.  I don't want to get into a big discussion of how geology
affect flow and ultimately the biology of streams, but if anyone took a
few rocks out it probably wouldn't hurt anything.  From an ecological
perspective, the key would be to not disturb the stream bed too much in
one place.  Where gold is common in streams one can get a permit to
dredge, but little is known about its long-term effects on the stream
biota and you're typically moving small materials and then depositing
them back in the stream.  This can really make a mess until there are a
few storms to rearrange things, but it's not really what you're talking
about.  I hope this sheds some light on the "effects" of removing stone
 from streams even if I can't tell you where and when you can do it. atb, g

Gary D. Grossman

G. Grossman Fine Art
http://www.negia.net/~grossman/

Distinguished Research Professor - Animal Ecology
Warnell School of Forest Resources
University of Georgia
Athens, GA, USA 30602

http://www.arches.uga.edu/~grossman/

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