Grading What to do about dangerous debris ?

[jnjpream]

I have a few acres and the back couple seem like they were used as a dump by the people that owned the farm the land was originally part of. You can walk across the property a couple times and fill a coffee can with broken glass, metal pieces, and barb wire.

My son has yet to injure himself while playing in the field, which we try to avoid, but the dogs have been hurt several times in the past year.

Does anybody have suggestions on how to remove, or at least reduce the danger caused by the glass and metal shrapnel?

Most of it is too small to catch with a rake.. Thought about tilling and planting a native grass over it, but not sure if that would keep the stuff down.

Thanks in advance for any advice you may have.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Thought about tilling and planting a native grass over it, but not sure if that would keep the stuff down.

That will help , but you'll still find occasional pieces that work their way to the surface

A good turf grass will solve most of it though

 

[smstonypoint]

You could try a magnetic sweeper for the metal. They come in different sizes. Here's one that could be tractor mounted.

AMK Manufacturing Roadmag With Wheels 60in. Length | Road Magnets | Northern Tool + Equipment

Steve

 

[Craig Clayton]

It is a shame that there is a mess.If you were to plow it that would find the barb wire and the metal would be turned up and it could be picked. In time the metal will rust away. The glass depending upon your soil could be there for along time, because glass is only melted sand.
Craig Clayton

 

[Treemonkey1000]

The big magnets are going to help. You might consider putting an ad on Craigslist wanting free wood chips or clean soil to cover over that area. Enough wood chips will decompose and help the soil eventually.

 

[k0ua]

Well you may not like the answer, but I will tell you what I did, first off the "dump" I inherited, from the previous owner, was mostly in a depression in the ground with all kinds of debris, metal cans, lots of glass, pieces of iron all mixed with rocks and brush, so I pushed the topsoil around the area into the depression, waited until after a rain, and used diesel fuel and gas to make one heck of a big fire, and I mean a BIG one. when all that burned down, the brush was burned down, the plastic melted, the glass busted, and the paint burned off the cans. Then I moved several tons of creek gravel from the creek and put that over the mess. Then I took a nearby hillside, I did not really want, and scraped the top of of it and moved that on top of the gravel. Then bought about a dozen dump truck loads of black dirt, and thinly covered the top of the area, plus the top of what was the hillside, and planted grass. Wah-Lah. no more crap. Money spent, maybe in those days $1000 for dirt and diesel fuel, Would all be more now, Time spent about 2 years. Result? it looked like a park. Tractor used, 2WD Long 2360, it worked, but I could think of better ones.
James K0UA

 

[flyingcow]

Not a good thing to have to deal with. My first thought was it'll be hard on tires if you do any field work. Hard to say whats underneath the surface. Good Luck

 

[radioman]

My father had an area like that. I use the biggest weed eater we could buy and bushwhacked the area down. Next we pick up every little piece we could see by hand. We used a drag and atv and dragged the area many time to smooth it out, stopping every 5 mins to pick up little peices of glass we see until we physically cant see any more. Waited for rain and went to pick up peices again and then planted grass.

There is no fast easy way to clean up except for exposing the bare dirt. I like the idea of fresh dirt if you have the means.

 

[LostInTheWoods]

I suppose this depends a lot on the lay of the land and exactly what might be buried out there, but could you have a dozer brought in to push most of this up into a much smaller area? Sure, you'd still have all the junk, but at least it could be pressed into a much smaller footprint.

Then, the dozer could move some "fresh" soil over the "junk" soil...either soil from your place, or trucked-in topsoil.

You could use some combination of the magnet and tilling or topsoil over the area that was previously debris strewn to get anything the dozer may have missed.

 

[MossRoad]

Get your son some heavy soled boots, some thick leather gloves, a small shovel, a coffee can and a metal detector. Pay him for finding the debris. :thumbsup:

After our house was resided and re-roofed, I bought a cheap toy metal detector and paid my kid a nickel a nail. I about went broke! :laughing: