Wire baskets filled with rock and placed along embankments to prevent erosion.

Wicker-work baskets or forms, without top or bottom. They were made of any material, (wicker was preferred), and filled with earth and stones. Clumsy, heavy things, they were used for shoring up parapets, filling ditches, and protecting field guns. They were the eighteenth century equivalent of sandbags.

Wire cages filled with rock and placed on the water side of stream banks to protect the area from erosion. They are one of the most commonly overused and misused materials in waterways projects, because they are inexpensive, easy to transport, and provide a quick "structural fix." Almost any gabion project could be replaced with soil bioengineering methods. Improper installation of gabions can lead to their being blown out, and rocks and debris then scattered downstream. Young fish ("fingerlings") can also get caught in the wire netting of the gabions, and die or suffer critical injuries.