Privet hedge actually played a large role in this process……The watershed area we’re talking about here is shaped like the letter “F” with two hollers feeding into a main bottom where the beaver pond used to be. All of the fingers have been taken over by privet hedge in the past which is pretty common around here now. When that happens though the privet eventually forms a monoculture in the midstory and it, along with some other trash trees completely shades out the understory vegetation…….There’s no vegetation then on the soil surface to slow down the flow of water and hold the topsoil together. Water rushes down the bottoms in a flash flooding type manner with the force of the water carrying loads of silt with it that eventually fall out of suspension once it hits the beaver pond and slows down. Look back in my original pics toward the bottom of page 1 posted on 6/1 at the chocolate color of the water and you’ll see the sediment in suspension. There’s more than just one factor that caused the end result of the silting in process.