Old Fashion Screen Wire for Landform

It's really old fashion, but its what I know, so screen wire it is.   I've used plaster over aluminum screen wire for scenery since the 70s for every layout I've ever built.  I've gotten pretty good using a scissors and x-acto knife to cut and a staple gun to attach the screen wire.  The general method is to lay the screen wire over the opening, cut the screen wire with the scissors with about a 1 inch overlap, attach the screen wire with a staple gun  and then trim the excess with the x-acto knife.  Works pretty swift and goes quickly.  Took just a about an hour and a half to complete this first section. While laying out the bridges over the layout, I noticed that the river is not level, buts slopes down right to left.  This will be a problem when I use the Envirotex clear coat for the river as it will all flow to the left before it dries.  I think I will need to lay screen wire over the riverbed and use plaster to level out the riverbed.  Could be interesting.  Stay tuned.