Stream Channelization 
912s Big ie 
WHAT IS 
STREAM CHANNELIZATION: Take a meandering natural stream with fish 
lingering in pools and spawning in the 
shallows—frogs sheltering under lily-pads, 
turtles sunning on logs, dragonflies posed 
on cat-tails, deer crossing at a ford, ducks 
Uup-ending to feed on bottom vegetation, 
red-wings nesting in reeds, and kingfishers 
watching from overhanging branches . 
Bulldoze it. Gouge it out, straight and wide 
and deep. Rip out the trees. Toss out the 
rocks. Claw the life-giving muck from the 
bottom. Smother the reeds with it. Heap it 
high in steep banks to bleach sterile in the 
sun, to crumble . . . having no root system 
to hold it, to wash away in the quickened 
current. 
That’s stream channelization. 
NATIONAL AUDUBON “We've declared that one of our top na- 
SOCIETY: tional priorities this year is to spotlite and 
resist stream channelization—a destructive 
engineering fad supported by federal funds 
that threaten both the life and beauty of 
scores of natural streams and rivers in the 
ie 
