Repairing wet areas caused by trucks cutting donuts?

[rScotty]

I just took a careful look at the pics

Let us examine,
There is a wet area immediately adjacent to a pond.

And the conclusion is the wet area is due to trucks spinning donuts?

NO! Donuts were spun because there is a WET AREA.

Were you never a young man with a truck! Jeesh! What has come of us??????

How did we get to be such an angry society, always looking for someone to blame?
It didn't use to be that way.
rScotty

 

[Kschwennsen]

If it's not the lowest spot on the property, fill with gravel and sand. It will be a mess for a while but it will solid up and let the water drain away. If it's the low spot, you're hosed, just put up a deer stand overlooking it down wind and make it deeper. Happy hunting!

 

[Little Red Tractor]

That's more than a donut problem. See if your local USDA office or your county Soil and Water Conservation Disdtrict, if your state has such a thing, officers any sort of advice on this. Around my part of NY, they're incredibly helful.
That, depending on the area of drainage, may well be state of federally protected wetland, as another member has suggested. USDA or County agents would keep you out of trouble should that be the case. You DON"T want to run afoul the Army Corp, who regulates such things. Some states can be pretty reasonable, other can be rather draconian about their responses.

If you decide to pump and fill, happy pumping; it'll be a while.

 

[LouNY]

Keep it mowed, never let a cat tail show, plant some corn or soy beans even if you end up just mowing them down.

 

[PuffyC]

Not sure I get the whole 'we should be OK with people damaging others property because they're boys and stuff' but whatever. I'd hope the bar for raising kids would be a little higher but that's probably a topic for a different thread.

Anyway, I've been fighting a similar problem for years and I can relate my experience just in case it helps. I tried ripping and tilling, and short term it helped but it was not a success. Where I am the clay goes too deep so as someone else suggested, you'll want to test and see. If it's clay, and by the looks I'm guessing it is, the only hope is to get the water to go somewhere else. My current attempt involves trenching, connecting the low spot to another lower spot where it drains, which in your case would be the pond. Trenching is fast, cheap and easy but it's still too soon to tell if that's going to work or not. So far it's looking good but it's been really dry this year so it's hard to tell. If that doesn't work the next step will be filling, which is probably your best bet, but what turned me off was the amount of material required is about 10 times more than what you think by looking at it. It's amazing how 5 loaded trucks of soil seem to fill nothing. That gets expensive, or super labor intensive if you're scraping from your own property which is why I left that for last. The spouse originally said to just make it a pond and in hindsight that may be the best option so I guess you could always do that. Making your pond bigger so that it encompasses these low spots may be the cheapest option with the plus side of having a bigger pond. Keep us updated, I'd love to hear what finally worked for you.

 

[JasperFrank]

PuffyC wrote... "what turned me off was the amount of material required is about 10 times more than what you think by looking at it. It's amazing how 5 loaded trucks of soil seem to fill nothing."
So very true! To fill a hole/depression, it takes many times more material than I ever imagined. Before I was educated in this, we built a small terrace, and attempted to move soil from an unused part of the property to build up the terrace. After 40 some transfers, and a great deal of wear and tear on the tractor and FEL, that it was clear using local fill material wasn't working. When we planned the much larger, lower terrace, getting fill from the property was out of the question. It was cheaper to buy good dirt and have it delivered.

 

[sunandsand]

Well, we had a problem with kids doing donuts on an active airfield.

A discussion about the penalties for deliberately damaging a federally licensed aviation facility (One way trip to a fully paid Caribbean vacation paradise named Guantanamo) has encouraged most of them to seek their vehicular recreational activities destroying someone else's property.

The rest of them were dealt with by installing concrete barricades and fences, and LOTS of no trespassing signs.

We're putting up fences, gates and cameras because we are becoming darn tired of picking up empty beer cans, broken bottles and other trash, and constantly having to re-grade the easement because they've torn it up with pickup trucks and ATVs. They also steal deer blinds, feeders, and sometimes even game cameras.

"Young man with a truck" is ZERO excuse for destroying, damaging and trashing other people's property. We've been working with local law enforcement as well, frequent patrols have helped.

Another thing that helps is the Florida Recreational Lands Statute. If you chose to "recreate" on my land, whatever happens to you is entirely your problem. Crashed your truck, gee too bad. Stepped on a bear trap, bet that hurt. AND you can be prosecuted for trespassing.

Sorry, got no sympathy at all for this. You wouldn't either if you had to constantly repair what they've damaged and pick up the trash they leave.

Best Regards to all our responsible teenagers (both of them?) in town,

Mike/Florida

 

[GeneV]

I was just having fun with CalG's post, it was funny! Yes, trespassing is officially bad, agreed.

I think the pond idea is not bad. Otherwise, maybe plant a bunch of water loving trees in that spot, like bald cypresses.

 

[sunandsand]

There may be a biological solution to this (other than retroactive birth control).

Three way graft, bald cypress roots to like the water, and a cross between an elephant ear plant and a Venus Flytrap to eat the trespassers.

"Gee ossifer, I had no idea these strange, large, hungry and dangerous plants were here, but since they are in the wetlands they must be a protected species and other than towing off the undigested remains of the ATVs, there's nothing we are allowed to do!"

(Googles "Bioenginering 101 for Fun and Profit" plus the phrase "Don't try this at home.")

Best Regards,

Mike/Florida

 

[Jrasband]

Sounds like a great spot for a pond!