2024 April 27 Ephemeral Pools and Bioswales

A few years ago, I wrote a poem about an ephemeral pool. I had intentions of writing a poetry book that connected emotions to natural elements. Maybe someday I’ll find it and post it here. Nature is inspirational. Nature is beautiful. When we work with nature, we must make time to just sit in awe of it.

Today I wrote a nine page paper about bioswales. I sifted through the most boring government documents about “storm sewer runoff diversions”. One particular paper ended with two pages of just figures and calculations. I included one dreary picture of a grassed swale from that document in my paper. Inspirational? Not in the least. 

Then I remembered why I chose to write about bioswales in the first place. I had listened to a podcast interview with Bill Mollison, the Australian cofounder of permaculture. He painted the most beautiful picture of a community called Village Homes that built in lush bioswales throughout their village. He remarked about how the children ran to play after a rain in the swales and how there were little bridges built in that went over them. Mollison explained how the stored water created an oasis of a food forest in the California desert. His descriptions inspired me the same way the ephemeral pool inspired me. He could have talked about it in technical engineering terms, but instead he invoked the beauty of nature. That’s what I love about permaculture. Nature is the inspiration. 

I can’t help thinking about that sad grassed swale from the government document. I’ll say it. It was just a man-made ditch. A trench. They didn’t mimic an ephemeral pool, a creek bed, or a lush ravine, they just dug a long hole. 

As I move forward in my new career field, I want to keep

natural inspiration alive. I want to create beautiful, 

inspiring natural spaces where humans and wildlife can 

coexist harmoniously. 

See how Bill Mollison describes the swales in a community in the California desert, 

            “Long hollows running right through the settlement…they fill with water in a heavy rain, about 2 hours later it’s all absorbed into the Earth. They have little bridges over them, and the children love them when they are full, but they're only full for a few hours, and then when the rain stops, the water sucks into the ground and it just hangs there…it’s like a little bubble of water hanging in the desert…the trees boom along here. It could stop raining for 5 or 10 years and those trees would be green…they overproduce food…most trees have a notice on them ‘please pick the fruit’” 

A swale could be a technical bioengineered ditch, or it could be a beautiful, inspirational and highly valued part of a community. I hope we have more of the latter.