There's a fair amount of construction going on in Roanoke.
Usually you see silt fences in place. Lots of times I am sure you wonder if they do any good.
Well today, I got to see a really good example of what happens when there isn't a silt fence.
Someone up the channel from us has been aggressively mowing the grasses that grow along their portion of Raymond's Gut which leads to the White Oak River in here in Carteret County.
A "gut" for those of you unfamiliar with the term is defined as, "A narrow passage or channel."
In fact some of the vegetation has been mowed so close to the ground that there is no ground cover left. It is just mud.
Today we had a really heavy rain. As I went to flip my kayak over, I noticed a plume of slit coming down the gut.
It didn't take a whole lot of tracing to figure out where it originated.
I was pleased to see the clear water running off of the grassed areas that are on our place and that of my neighbor. Neither of us have any bare spots.
The clear water moved the plume of silt to the far side of the channel.
In fact the water that runs down our driveway goes through six buried bags of styrofoam pellets before it goes into the gut.
I hope that area get grassed soon. Dredging a channel here on the coast is both expensive and a lot of trouble to arrange.
I suspect that the silt has something to do with the change in fishing from my dock.
That silt should not be headed towards the White Oak, it certainly doesn't help the health of the river.
