Photo Galleries
Water Bars Camp Cody 2016
This water bar project was done in partnership with the Green Mountain Conservation Group to reduce erosion at Camp Cody on Lake Ossipee.
This path from lodging and recreation areas at Camp Cody was suffering from substantial erosion. Gullies can be seen forming and washed out material was making its way down to the lake.
One of the two water bars constructed at Camp Cody for the erosion control project. Water bars are made by sandwiching tough but flexible rubber material, such as the re-purposed conveyor belt material used here, between two pieces of lumber such as 2 X 8s.
A trench wide enough to accommodate the water bar with drainage stone back-fill is needed.
These young campers worked hard to ready the trench for the bars!
Water bars are placed on an angle along a path to direct water into vegetation. Here, water flows from behind the campers and will be directed into the vegetated area on the bottom right-hand side of the photo.
Crews of campers work to prepare trenches for water bars at two locations along the eroded pathway to the swim area.
The trench is ready and the first water bar is put in place. It's buried so that about 3" of the flexible conveyor belt material is above ground to capture flow and direct it into the vegetated area.
Three-quarter inch washed drainage stone is typically used for a water bar project. The bars are back-filled with stone to create a path for the water to hit the bar, pool-up a bit, then move along into a vegetated area. A stone apron is built at the end of the bar to protect the vegetation from the force of the water during storm.
A view of the path showing both water bars. The conveyor belt material sticks up just enough to catch flowing water and direct it along the bar into vegetation, but it's short and flexible enough to drive over with bicycles and golf carts. The apron area of the first water bar (foreground) can be seen to the left.
The second water bar is down the path from the first. It will capture whatever makes it past the first water bar plus whatever falls between them.