Over the past number of storms, a bunch of woody debris has gotten jammed in the stream, near the fording. These pieces of wood have created a barrier for free-flow of water, and -- like water is wont to do -- erosion is taking place around the jam, wearing down one of the stream banks. A lot.
Trying to pull the jam apart proved to be next to impossible: too much water had flowed passed, jamming twigs and sediment into the interstices, until it was as strong as a beaver dam. (Have you ever tried pulling one of those things apart? It's next to impossible!) So, I pulled out the hand saw and just cut a channel through the sand and wood, pulling out some surprisingly large-diameter branches during the process. I managed to clear a small channel, which I hope will then help scour out the rest of the jam. (Of course, if more damming materials come in from upstream, this would have been a futile activity.)
This fording will eventually have a bridge over it, and I would imagine that the construction will remove a large chunk of the woody debris as well as the fallen trees nearby. Still, the problems of storm-water scouring remains a problem...
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