Hi, All, about a year ago I mentioned I was looking for a TLB to help me around the place- I found one, a 53' ferguson TO-30 with a pippin hoe and a wagner laoder. the hoe has about a 13' reach and 7' dig depth. I want to expand a shallow silted in holding pond on my property by about a factor of 2 to maybe 60x100. It need not be deep, and will ideally be wedge-shaped- one end 5' deep or so, tapering shallower to meet a wet field. I can hire my neighbor to bring his huge excavator in, but I am worried about crush pressure killing trees near the pond site. I would not claim to be skilled with the machine - knock down a garage, pop out some stumps, etc. Know enough to know that I don't know much. Know enough to be chicken. My plan was to divert the water source around the pond with a temporary culvert soon and then let the area dry up through midsummer and then start enlarging in early fall. Folks here said "when you plan to start working on the pond, post back and we'll give you some tips on working around water". Guidance cheerfully accepted- including advice to let the neighbor do the work. thanks, BIll
Talk to somebody at the county if they have regulations about wetlands. I've read about people doing something like what you're up to paying 6 figure fines. Counties buy satellite images from different years and overlay them and see whats changed. Bigger pond would be easy to see. The EPA has final say, and they're not very flexible. Not knowing is not considered much of an excuse.
hire ur neighbor with the big rig and save ur vintage machine for small jobs it will last alot longer... thats alot of work as you well know
Sounds like you've got some good advice. Phil
Hi, thanks for the advice; i checked and this is *not* considered wetlands, why I do not know. Any suggestions re mitigating soil compression damage to trees? the 'obvious' routes in pass by, among other things, an american elm not yet hit by elm disease... thanks for the good advice
Most trees are pretty forgiving, especially in low lying areas where they don't have to work hard for moisture. Elms are one of the toughest in my estimation. I've bulldozed by them shearing off roots and tearing a strip of bark off half way up the tree. I wrapped a 7/8" cable around one by my pond, to pull a D8 out once. It healed up just fine. One saved my life after I rolled back down a hill and hit it with an old IH backhoe, tearing a huge chunk out of it. I've heard many of the new generation of elms are disease resistant and had one almost die and then recover. I can't think of a harder tree to kill, other than maybe a willow. Phil
When Swamp Loggers was on the tube, they used wooden mats to keep the yellow stuff from sinking out of sight. Depending on how soft the ground is and how heavy the machine, you might get along with 3/4" plywood to make a road near the trees. 1 1/8" sturdifloor for the real swamp or heavy mothas. Maybe some gravel down first and then the wood over it. I would hit the local lumberyards and see if they have any damaged plywood, stuff that was dropped, you could get cheap(er), nothing is cheap these days.