Restoring Old Carriage Roads at Skylands
Restoring and maintaining a healthy landscape is a lot of work.
Last week at Skylands, my home in Seal Harbor, Maine, the outdoor grounds crew took to the woodlands to restore some old carriage roads that had not been used in many years. Any moss in the area was transplanted, roads were regraded, and felled trees and branches were removed and chipped.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
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- I always feel badly when trees are cut down, but they do not live forever, and occasionally they need to be removed in order to maintain a healthy ecosystem. Here you can see the rut road and cut down trees and branches that have been neatly piled up on the side of the road.
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- Some of these carriage roads had not been used in more than 40-years, and I decided it was time to regrade them, and clear them, so the roads could be put to use again.
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- All along the one mile of road, piles of felled trees, branches and other debris were prepared to be chipped and returned to the ground as mulch.
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- Chris and Carlos, with heavy duty gloves, goggles and ear protectors, carefully put the wood through the chipper.
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- A wood chipper is a machine used for reducing tree limbs and smaller trunks. Some of the logs were quite large.
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- Many of these trees had died, or were in the process of dying, and it was more prudent to remove the trees, so they didn’t become safety hazards.
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- Once the wood is chipped, the chips come out through a chute and into the back of our dump truck.
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- The truck fills up quickly with the chipped wood.
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- Here is a closer look at the output from our wood chipper – it makes very small wood chip pieces which work great on these roads and in the gardens, where they can block the sun and help keep the soil cool.
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- Here is an inside view of the mouth of the chipper. The chipper is incredibly strong and the teeth inside do a great job.
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- Storms, and old age, all contribute to the ever changing appearance of a woodland. There are many brambles, weeds, vines, and useless seedlings growing in all the woods. These must be cleared from time to time, so there is room to plant and cultivate seedling trees that will be more beneficial.
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- Here are some of the smaller branches going through the chipper.
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- Once the dump truck is full, it is positioned on a section of bare carriage road. Rick and Chris unload some of the chips and spread it across the area.
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- This chore is quite arduous, but the team works very efficiently.
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- Rick and Chris spread the chips with heavy duty rakes to make the layer neat and evenly distributed.
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- After each section of road is covered, the process starts again.
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- More felled trees are fed through the chipper to create wood chips.
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- And then the wood chips are unloaded and spread across each 12-foot wide section of carriage road.
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- Here is a finished section of road. The layer of chips will decompose and add nutrients back to the soil. It is a great way to “give back” to the environment and to preserve the beautiful woods of Skylands.
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