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writing:rough_mounding [2026/02/18 01:08] – [Resources] JacobCoffinWriteswriting:rough_mounding [2026/04/08 20:40] (current) – external edit 127.0.0.1
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 This short PDF on the method by David Polster, the person who developed the process is very approachable: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:6135d26e-13c8-3bc4-b8c4-daf0f96d8021 This short PDF on the method by David Polster, the person who developed the process is very approachable: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:6135d26e-13c8-3bc4-b8c4-daf0f96d8021
  
-Here's a paper by him https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:f5809c2f-419d-3cb3-a14d-d14e7602f4a3+For a much more thorough write-up by the same author, there's this paper from 2016: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:f5809c2f-419d-3cb3-a14d-d14e7602f4a3
  
-And another from 2012 https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/59367/items/1.0042634+And this one from 2012: https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/59367/items/1.0042634
  
-===Theme with other restoration practices===+An example from right here on slrpnk.net - which is how I first learned about the practice: https://slrpnk.net/post/2293073/2628544
  
-Rough mounding is sort of the opposite of modern landscaping practices which often focus on re-contouring the land to make it more even and regular for aestetic or convenience reasons.+====Thematic overlap with other restoration practices====
  
 +Rough mounding is almost the complete opposite of landscaping practices which often focus on re-contouring the land to make it more even and regular for aesthetic or convenience reasons. People, at least in the places I've seen, have a tendency to try and "tidy up" the land around them. They clear away plants to open the sightlines and they level the ground with bulldozers and excavators. When they can't remove hills and slopes altogether they smooth everything out, flattening any uneven bumps and furrows. They fill in wet areas and ephemeral wetlands, and add drainage to prevent pooling water. These drains and wide open spaces like lawns and parking lots have played a significant role in allowing pollution to sweep unimpeded into lakes and rivers.
  
 +In a way, these practices are a personal-scale variant of the changes our society has been inflicting for hundreds of years. Humans have filled in wetlands and paved them over, straightened rivers, and added berms or levees to flood plains to keep the water from spreading above its lower banks. In more developed areas, they built complex infrastructure to channel rainwater out of the city and into the ocean as quickly as possible. All of this has lead to widespread water shortages and more polluted water bodies. In fact, as we noted in the resource on [[beaver_dam_analogs|beaver dam analogs]], this collective practice has lead to severe droughts - and the very ground of the continent has dried out significantly since European colonization began. 
  
- They clear away plants and level the ground, or at least smooth it out where they can't remove the slopes altogether. They fill in wetlands and straighten rivers, and add berms or levees to flood plains to keep the water from spreading above its lower banks. Especially in more developed areas, they build complex infrastructure to channel rainwater out of the city and into the ocean as quickly as possible, something that has lead to widespread water shortages. In fact, as we noted in the resource on Beaver Dam Analogs, this collective practice has lead to more severe droughts and the very ground of the continent has dried out significantly since European colonization. and on reducing wet areas by channeling any surface water quickly away or even into drains. Ironically this can lead to both erosion //and// worsening drought conditions as less water is retained by the site.+By contrast, rough mounding makes the land a bit less pleasant for humans - the terrain is rough, soft, and challenging to walk on, with many small climbs up and down or past the hummocks and through occasionally-wet pits. As it recovers it fills in with brush and new growth sapling trees. In some ways, it's not as intuitive as a yard or park but these aren't generally intended to be human spaces. They're a tailored fit for the plants and animals that thrived here in the past. 
  
-To some extent this is part of a wider rejection of modern human landscapes and the tendency to "tidy up" the land+To some extent, rough mounding is part of a wider rejection of modern human landscapes. Practices like beaver dam analogs, sponge cities, and rough mounding all focus on restoring preexisting conditions and slowing the movement of water and catching it in place, allowing it to permeate the ground again. This seems to represent an acknowledgement that the continent was teeming with life balanced in complex ecologies before several hundred years of colonization tried to 'civilize' it. An attempt to restore, or at least more closely mimic, the way this land and its habitats were shaped and saturated for millennia. And because these are the habitats most native species evolved to find their niche in, it's no surprise that they often start to recover almost as soon as we nudge things back in this direction.  
 + 
 +====Similarities in Agriculture==== 
 + 
 +For a similar practice applied to agriculture, and restoring degraded soil in drylands, take a look at [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Za%C3%AF|Zaï (aka tassa) from the Sahel region in Africa]]. This is a traditional farming practice which was reintroduced in the 1980s where people dig pits in less permeable soil to catch water and concentrate compost/manure. In examples which include the excavated soil being used to form small dykes on the downhill side of the hole, the similarities are striking.  
 + 
 +{{:writing:zai_pits_niger-fao-3775475773.jpg?direct&300|}} {{:writing:zai-pit-microcatchment-system_lg-803522122.jpg?direct&300|}} {{:writing:zai-pits-echo-1024x577-2318178794.jpg?direct&300|}} 
 + 
 +{{:writing:wef-zai-pits.png?direct&400|}}
  
-Practices like sponge cities, beaver dam analogs, and rough mounding all focus on slowing the movement of water and catching it in place, allowing it to permeate the ground again. In many ways, this represents an attempt to more closely mimic the way this land and it's habitats were shaped and saturated for thousands of years. Because this is the habitat most native species were evolved to find niches in, it's no surprise that they flourish when we nudge things back in this direction.