It almost seems like a battle with each side making moves and counter moves. In a last ditch effort to gain control, the landowner straightens the stream channel to make the water flow straight, fast and away from his property. As a landowner, you know that for every action there is a reaction. Add fertilizer to a stand of grass and you increase forage production too much fertilizer will burn it up. Dealing with stream problems is similar.
Stream straightening is almost always too much, and can increase farm costs.
Channel straightening increase erosion of valuable farmland, worsens gully erosion in bottomland fields and lowers groundwater levels. Such events can cause water supply problems during droughts, create problems for upstream and downstream neighbors and ruin good fishing spots. The new channel has a steeper slope because water makes the same elevation drop over a shorter distance. After straightening the stream, the stream must adjust to these abrupt elevation changes. Water begins to flow faster causing the banks and bottom to erode.