Our Creeks Flow Again

Autumn is upon us, the temperatures are cooler, and the rains have started to fall again. Along with the almost instantaneous sprouting of mushrooms throughout the woods, this wetter, cooler weather has brought another pleasant surprise – our creeks are starting to flow again.

When we arrived at our site in June, the two creeks on our property were dry at their mouths. Further investigations upstream showed that at least one of the creeks was sustained by a small spring; however, the water from the spring quickly went underground, and only resurfaced again out in the intertidal zone. Although the presence of the spring during the dry part of summer meant that we had a good potential source of water for drinking and irrigation, the lack of a significant flow of water down the creek bed was a little disappointing. We had hoped for a more substantial, continuous flow in order to install a microhydro system for electricity. Seeing good water flows early in September is heartening. Although we will not be able to use microhydro year round, it means that we can potentially have microhydro in the winter and then use solar panels in the summer. Since solar panels are not very effective in winter, this may well turn out to be a good system for us.