The county trenched my creek-Cleaning up the aftermath.

[yeagisyeag]

Last fall, the county came through to "open up" a small creek that runs across our property. I'm only there once/week, and a neighbor was nice enough to catch me while I was there and take me down a few properties to show what they were doing.

The next week, they had the machine parked at my place, so I snapped a few before photos:


The next week, they were finished:


While it looks pretty in pictures, what I found was the whole area full of lumps, holes, rocks and roots sticking out of the ground, and brush and trees shoved into the edge of the woods. No way I'm walking that, mowing that, etc. I spent the rest of the fall collecting rocks and making piles of the wood/brush that I could manage by hand. Plus, with the creek now 3 ft wide, there was no way for me to get a tractor to the south side. My friend from work, who hunts the place over the winter, helped me build a quick bridge before the snow came in:



More to come...

 

[stuckmotor]

Do you have any idea why they wanted to clean out the creek? I've had similar problems with the utility company cutting down trees under the lines and leaving a fine mess.

 

[rekees4300]

In Ohio, does a county have the legal right to clean out creeks on private property?

 

[yeagisyeag]

These are good questions. I really didn't have much to complain about at first, since it was filled in pretty good with grass and weeds. It caused some flooding issues in the spring at my place, so I imagine it was flooding elsewhere, too. I had dragged my dirt scoop through there with my B7100 as far as I could before getting stuck, a few years back, trying to make room for the water.

My neighbor had told me that the county guy was going to leave piles of dirt, so that's what I expected to find when I got back out there. I believe he was trying to do me a "favor" in spreading out the dirt, and he did the same thing all along the way through several neighboring properties. Mine was actually the only one that was clear around the creek, to the east and west of me the area was overgrown with bushes, trees, etc. It does look pretty good from 50 ft away.

 

[gilbertmsg]

Looks to me the county has done you a good favor.

Eddie

 

[the old grind]

IMO they 'did you good' for this type of 'update'. (might want to grapple or trim out some castaway brush to open game trails) Counties do have 'eminent domain' or something rights when it comes to creeks & drains, as do power companies on their easements. Tidiness is pretty much up to them. Look for water collecting beyond the raised area. It may justify cutting or piping in to drain. (BTDT) Good access from your land means you can spot spray undesirables etc and otherwise keep them from coming back. :2cents:

 

[creekbend]

I can fully understand your concern with the piles of dirt and debris, but I have a question. I looked at all the pictures, before and after. That "Creek" looked like a drainage ditch that was, perhaps constructed in the past, to help with drainage issues. It didn't appear to be a free flowing Creek, at least in the pictures. Have you considered calling the County? Just my thoughts.

 

[D7E]

Looks a pretty good job to me . Individuals let grass and rushes start backing up ditches someone has to do it

 

[dave1949]

Where I lived in Ohio, near Fremont and Bowling Green, ditch cleaning was a normal and welcome process. It does make a mess, but it beats living in a swamp.

As I recall, a small part of our property taxes went to the township for ditch maintenance and there were assessments for larger drainage maintenance projects based on acres owned.

 

[yeagisyeag]

All good points, I agree.

My main reason for starting this thread was to document my progress during the "cleanup." Over the winter, I scoured the forums here at TBN for ideas on grading and leveling, as well as culverts, as I plan on putting one in later in order to get my big tractor over to the south side.

Last week there was a lot of standing water on either side, so I used the B7100 and a small moldboard plow to cut in some trenches to drain it down. In some areas, the rise to the edge of the creek was too high, and I couldn't cut deep enough to get the water to drain. Well, partly because of the rise, partly from lack of traction once I hit the mud soup.


After a little shovel work, they started draining down right away, and kept going long after I was finished for the day.

I'm hoping that once I get this graded to pitch toward the creek(or ditch) there won't be that much water. Is this where a subsoiler would help, by breaking up the hard pan underneath?

Jim