bob day

great video, thanks for sharing it.

Is that a plastic pool liner you're using for the cistern?

It's good to hear from your personal experience how well this water management system can work.

It's all about reaching the tipping point and getting enough people practicing this to restore the devastated landscapes.

What sort of cistern do you have? 18k is a great number, by contrast I only have 1k in a cistern, and a bunch more in ponds, but then va is a whole different rainfall.  I would like to put in a higher capacity cistern at some point though just to make sure.

When Bill talks about the sonoran desert, he asks the question what does the word sonoran mean.

It comes from sonorous- full of sound, and the sound was of the many rivers rushing to the sea.  removing trees did in the rivers in the recent past.  He uses examples- the last giant beaver was taken in Tucson(1890 I think), the Pima Indians ate huge cutthroat trout.....

I believe one of the main tree species was the cottonwood, and he points out that the saguaro cactus needs the shade of the forest to regenerate, and without a forest around it it will go away also, so the remnants of that forest are still there..

The point is,  that to undo the damage is possible without worrying about the idiots pumping water faster than it is being returned. and wherever you start will become "headwaters, but ridges with tall tree bands are especially effective in creating the orographic lift mentioned earlier, so such a massive undertaking would get good results starting there.  Planting trees everywhere ("the man who planted trees") is also a good idea, but arroyos at their heads would likely be the easiest place to start. rock walls(gabions) to slow the flood and if you can keep the young trees alive- planted right after the flood-- in a few years, they will become a biological barrier that will start to spread out from there.  It would likely be good to study those water flows and and find the defensible places where trees could be started.

He also points out that at this stage small actions will generate large returns.  walking around in the rain watching water flows, moving a rock to divert water down a gopher hole, or digging a small ditch to move water to natural storage areas are strategies that will give large returns for energy put forward.

One other likely answer may come from Bill's ideas around associations and incorporations. Establish your non profit so you can take tax deductible contributions, get like minds organized.  Buy up distressed land and organize communities around it.  

Bill's course from 1983 (on mp3 files for about 40$) has lots of inspirational directives for organizing at this level. Become a political and economic force that persists after you are gone to secure a project of this magnitude.
remember , his actual trust documents and procedures will need some adjustments according to local laws, but it is never too early to start to organize and figure out a path.  If you are serious about this goal, it is certainly a worthy one, but it will not happen overnight, although if the stars align it may happen faster than you expect.

Just remember the axiom, if you're not having fun you've got the design wrong.

my ryobi uses a piece of felt or a similar absorbent material to transfer the oil to the bar, perhaps it is just something like that which can be adjusted or replaced if it has pulled loose or fallen out. On mine that part is easy to see, when I remove the bar

a gator head with flashing eyes, now that sounds more like it, I wonder if ebay sells them

I do have a couple small garden ponds that could be fenced, but the bigger ones would need  a large amount of energy to even begin trying to keep these varmints out. It also seems like any hole big enough for a catfish would also allow access to a mink. Maybe the solution is to just spread the gold fish to the upper pond and hope they can get established enough to at least keep a presence there. even if it is only smaller fish.

I guess this means I need to design my koi pond to keep out everything. Do you think an armed sentry service is too extreme? :-)

Here's a link to   mystery fish killer   pictures of pond, skeleton and tracks

I did find those pictures, small tracks with 4 splayed finger like imprints with no sign of a  claw at the tip.

I've had herons in the past, but this predation occurred over the winter, herons were long gone--actually last year I didn't even see any in the summer. It would be difficult (at best) for a raccoon in the ponds here, so I would guess otter possibly, but the main reason I focus on mink was the catfish skeleton.

I do have a wild life cam, and will get around to setting it up soon.  I also seem to remember seeing some odd tracks, I may have even photographed them, I'll have to look and see if I still have those pictures. I sort of remember something with round pads on the ends of it's toes.
 

last winter I found a catfish skeleton by the side of my pond.  This spring I have yet to see any catfish come to the surface when I throw out pellets . There also seems a general lack of many other species--frogs etc, and my goldfish pond now has no fish over about 4 inches in length. there were several last fall at 8+inches and a couple at 1'.

I don't think there is much food in the ponds now to keep the mink feeding there (at least that's what I was told the culprit would most likely be)  and to some extent I can appreciate that a Mink family might keep down rodents etc. But I really have a problem  if I try and raise koi or really any kind of fish. The catfish were a successful experiment--at least until this last winter. and some of the goldfish were like family, and I really miss them now after raising them for years.

I don't want to over react, and I also don't want to feed a bunch of mink(or whatever it is) with all the life in my ponds.

If the ponds were already established with plenty of fish frogs turtles  to spare, OK, but totally wiping out a pond before it gets established is  trying my patience. The fish wagon came last week, but I didn't even try and buy fish to restock, and i won't until I have figured out what's going on and how best to deal with it.

Anybody know if this sounds like a mink. what would you do?