array9

My thesis is that it was smoothed off too well, and therefore it is fairly trivial for water to find its way right down to the bottom, and from then on to increasingly erode channels.  One might accidentally create low spots that form flash ponds.

My idea is that if you randomly created holes, with the spoil banking up downhill you would break-up this pattern , make the ground slightly damper, and possibly increase stabilising plant growth.

The holes could be any size, but for a manual operation one might consider a single shovel full.

This is the same sort of argument as stones in concrete acting to stop cracks, or holes drilled into pelota bats also to stop crack propogation.

This work could be combined with eradication of sapling trees, whereby a sapling is undercut with a spade and the divot placed downhill.

One might have to use additional measures for existing erosion gulleys.

This is like introducing multiple mini-berms randomly over the whole area.

one then hopes that these oases will increase in size and produce a more varied habitat, further reducing erosion.

I suppose it shows that many tidy minds would go for the smooth uniform and end up with a problem patch, whereas the  chaotic mind might end up with a diverse and healthy hill side.

Martin