Arkansas Highway Department scrapes soil out of swale and hauls it to a dump

Please click on start button to view video of AHTD machine scraping topsoil, grass and wildflower from vegetated swale and loading it all into a truck to haul away and dump.


The district highway engineer in Fort Smith office says practice of scraping out "ditches" pleases landowners. He believes it also helps protect base of roadway, even though it actually speeds runoff and encourages erosion.
I wonder what the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission's stream team would advise if consulted?
Sometimes it seems that information about how best to manage streams and the ditches that replace streams in so many places is everywhere.
But the people with the big tonka toys never seem to get it. The water that enters this ditch flows to the Cato Springs Branch of the Town Branch of the West Fork of the White River before entering Beaver Lake, the region's primary source of drinking water. It enters Fayetteville through the Fayette Junction neighborhood and joins the west arm of the Town Branch at Levi Park.