Cottonwoods - Love 'em or Curse 'em

During the flood last fall in September and in most of the freshets and moderate floods there are always lots of cottonwoods falling into the rivers and creeks and moving around.  They are a major source of creating stability in the river system when they stop moving and hang up and gravel starts getting deposited around them or other logs.  One of the habits they have which makes them so valuable in addition to the fact that they will grow anywhere there is fresh exposed soil is that a mature tree when laying down and touching the soil, very quickly starts putting out vertical shoots while the underside on the bark starts putting down roots - giving the tree the ability to re-root and starting growing from a stable base quickly.  Grizzly