Hello all, I have some trails, in my woods, that I cut/built last summer. After all the snow has melted, southwestern New York, I checked on my trails and of course they are kinda wet and muddy. However I have some areas that have standing water and my question is, how to fix/get rid of the wet/standing water areas? Fill dirt, stones, or? I have a tractor, with loader and backhoe, also have a woods box scraper. I have attached pictures of the worst areas. Thanks for the help.
Trails and standing water
- Thread starter mcmopar
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Sberry
Platinum Member
Are they going to dry shortly?
buck12
Veteran Member
We have miles of logging roads on our hunting leases. What we do dig a trench on the low side to let water drain. Standing water and ATV or truck traffic will create a mud pit over time.
WranglerX
Super Member
IF water is in low spots and you can not drain it off, yes you are going have to fill it...... What ever method does the job is acceptable, rock, gravel , compactable soil....
I don't know when or if, I do know they get worse when the rain comes.
Can we assume these are recreational trails, and not something you will use to access a camp or outbuilding on your property? From your pictures it seems like you can get them to drain off. The first two just need a little help getting it to drain off to the left. The last one where the water wants to run across the road really need a culvert or small broad based dip to let the water run across.
John_Mc
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If the terrain allows it, the best approach is to drain the water off the trails: if it's possible to dig out the side of the wet area and let the water drain away, that is the place to start. Just building the trail up might not help if all you are doing is creating a dam for water on the uphill side.
Obviously, some types of terrain will not allow for this.
Obviously, some types of terrain will not allow for this.
Gordon Gould
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All good advise. You can do a lot with ditchesaccros the road and through the edges but sometimes you need fill too. See if you can find a place to ditch and drain/lower the standing water beside the road also. It may be a ways from the road. Another thing is figure out where the water comes from. If it runs down the road and accumulates in the low spot then you can make some water bars/ditches to get the water off the road before it gets into the low spot. If you put a culvert where the is no grade it will probably just fill with mud but an open wooden culvert made from logs or lumber would let you clean it out easily.
gg
gg
jjp8182
Platinum Member
This: https://www.fhwa.dot.gov/construction/pubs/ots15002.pdf and this: A Landowner's Guide to Building Forest Access Roads | Eastern Region State and Private Forestry can be very handy guides to building any sort of dirt or gravel road/trail. There are also some other handy guides out there for building logging trails/roads.
In short only adding material or ditches alone won't be enough; how to handle the drainage for the area is what needs to be done. Which may mean culverts, intentionally shaping the road to permit drainage across it.... and also getting the water to flow in a way that it won't cause significant erosion (which can be reduced by not giving the water too much slope/length to accelerate).
Ideally a road should be at a localized high point, but depending on the nature of the road/path having it be a "wet crossing" can also work if it's been appropriately stabilized with rock or concrete ....though whatever is done the drainage aspects need to be considered as water needs to be able to flow so figuring out how to direct it in a way to accommodate the road/trail is really the challenge. ...otherwise you'll always be waiting for good weather to dry things out - or be continually fixing more erosion damage than may be necessary.
In short only adding material or ditches alone won't be enough; how to handle the drainage for the area is what needs to be done. Which may mean culverts, intentionally shaping the road to permit drainage across it.... and also getting the water to flow in a way that it won't cause significant erosion (which can be reduced by not giving the water too much slope/length to accelerate).
Ideally a road should be at a localized high point, but depending on the nature of the road/path having it be a "wet crossing" can also work if it's been appropriately stabilized with rock or concrete ....though whatever is done the drainage aspects need to be considered as water needs to be able to flow so figuring out how to direct it in a way to accommodate the road/trail is really the challenge. ...otherwise you'll always be waiting for good weather to dry things out - or be continually fixing more erosion damage than may be necessary.
Smokeydog
Elite Member
All good suggestions that depends on terrain. Could possible rerouting road to higher ground help?
Looking at his pictures will give an idea of what he is dealing with. I'm not sure if it's just those two places or not but in his last you can see the water running across the trail, hence my suggestion of helping it along with a culvert or dip. The ultimate goal is to get the water away from the road/trail in the quickest way possible, and all of the ideas mentioned by the various posters are ways to achieve that.
Thank you so much for all the great responses, these are just trails on my property, only used for walking or just getting to the back part of the property via 4wheeler or tractor. The land is basically flat and until last summer we were unable to access this area due to the heavy brush. Hired a skid steer with a heavy duty brush cutter to open things up and then I used a rake and box scraper to clean up the trail. Trail goes to the end of my property in a U shape. I believe the property has a slight slope from left to right as the left hand trail is just wet with very little standing water areas, unlike the right side with the standing water in the areas of the pictures.
If I cut a small ditch on the sides of the right hand trail will that help? Just want to try to keep the trail dry and usable.
If I cut a small ditch on the sides of the right hand trail will that help? Just want to try to keep the trail dry and usable.
Thomas
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For now I would ditch both sides and pull the dirt back upon to road and crown it,find lowest spot trench it.
DieselBound
Elite Member
^^^
Whatever you do, don't go BIG until you become well acquainted with the property. That this is newly cleared it'll take a bit of watching to first understand how it's interacting with the surrounding area.
Whatever you do, don't go BIG until you become well acquainted with the property. That this is newly cleared it'll take a bit of watching to first understand how it's interacting with the surrounding area.
John_Mc
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Hard to tell from the picture, but the idea of the ditch shouldn't be just to hold the water, it should be to take it somewhere away from the trail. If there is any downhill slope away from the trail, ditch to that so the water flows away.
