Swamp Bridge?

[charliepete]

My Uncle has 120 acres in Northern Wisconsin. It's actually 3 40's stacked vertically. The first 30 acres is high and the last 30 acres is high, but the middle is mostly speckled alder swamp and is tough/wet walking. I'm looking for ideas on a good way to make a trail down the middle walkable in an affordable fashion. I've contemplated pallets, but I'm having trouble finding a good supply of them now that there seems to be a market for burning them for heat. Any pointers on where to get cheap pallets or other cost effective materials that could be used to facilitate walking through a swamp would be appreciated. Thanks in advance for your ideas.

[Sunnie]

I know they degrade in a couple of years of use and would not recomend the lightweight pine ones. Maybe the supply would loosen up this spring. They can be a problem when the cross lats break and they sink in and become uneven.Keep your eye out for plywood to connect them and top off the surface. This doesn't mean it isn't still better than toughening it out in the mud.

[so haaad]

You probably want to talk to your local DNR and watershed district offices before you do anything. Water and wetland regulations have become more restrictive in the past few years in a lot of areas.

[charliepete]

You probably want to talk to your local DNR and watershed district offices before you do anything. Water and wetland regulations have become more restrictive in the past few years in a lot of areas.

I'll get right on that....just after I call the IRS to see if they can come over and reassess the value of my house.

[buckhunter21]

Ive heard of guys taking old wooden snow fence and rolling it out over the cat tails or brush growing out of the swamp. Never tried it but it seems like it would work by spreading the weight out enough to where you could walk over it. If there are spots where it would sink you could add a few pallets under it there and keep on going but like mentioned above make sure it is legal first. If you were worried about it getting rotten you could always try and roll it back up in the fall too as long as it didnt get too tangled up.

[Musky Buck]

I palleted once, now I wear hip boots because the nails from the pallets tore holes in 2 pairs of my boots or it was the jagged edges from them deteriorating and walking in the dark etc. made for high risk steppin. Speaking of reassessing, my Ottertail county land used to be classified as timber, since timber prices fell drastically, the county now has a new way to classify the land called vacant land something or other, nice, only went from 71,000 value to 87,000 this year. They got you by the canaries no matter what.

[Musky Buck]

Not to derail the thread but I'm wearing hip boots on this land that was classified as "timber" now vacant land whatever. If the DNR or whoever would be in charge would clean out the culverts and rip a hole in an old beaver dam that's been there for 20 years I wouldn't need hippers again, if I do that I'll probably get a wetland charge against me. I'll call the DNR and have them analyze the situation this spring, I liked leaving it for the ducks/geese, but there are few if any ducks in that swamp water anymore. It's too bad charlie you can't haul in like black dirt or something during the winter so it can sink during the spring/summer giving you and the deer a path, would imagine it would make dragging them out easier to from your back 40.

[charliepete]

Musky...I'm with you on the black dirt front, but I think that's just the sort of thing that would get me a visit from the DNR. Once you change the way the rain water flows (in a way that can be seen from an airplane) you're likely to have a visit from the DNR. I can see the logic in it too. I wouldn't want my neighbor building a real road through his place that flooded mine.

[luckey]

Pallets work on general swamp but if it's boggy you may have to put something like snow fence or chain link fence under the pallets to keep them even. Don't use the light pine ones. There are some really heavy oak pallets that will last 10 years or more. No need to worry about blocking water flow with pallets. It's much easier to place the pallets when the swamp is frozen. They can be hauled out on a trailer rather than carried.

[Musky Buck]

Right on Charlie, I'm in a pickle, the dam that floods my land is on a relatives and I would think he'd be for blowing it out. We sit flooded, the people down stream sit high and dry. 1 of the 2 plugged culverts goes through mine, the one down stream I promise they don't want it cleaned out or the roles will switch where they need hippers and I could wear slippers. It is a named creek, shouldn't it flow to the Ottertail river ? I don't know, luckily I have about 20 acres that are relatively dry in that swamp. Going to investigate my options this spring. Yo Charlie, can't tamper with that wetland, u into ziplining ???? lol You could zip line yourself and your goats across???? If you do I want video footage !

[birdswacker]

I'd check around commercial construction sites some materials come in on good pallets we just let people take them or throw them away.

[rayguy]

Try dog flooring. It is about six inches high, made of fiberglass and locks together. Will cost a few bucks but lasts forever.

[luckey]

Musky Buck,

Is the beaver dam active? If so, you will have to remove the beavers or your efforts will be for not. Have you considered building a "clemson leaveler". Basically this buries a pipe through the dam extending up stream into the pond. The input is surrounded by wire (large circle) to prevent the beavers from detecting the out flow.

[Musky Buck]

No Beaver that I'm aware of, haven't seen fresh cuttings since 1978. It's a dam that also has a fair amount of floating bog in it. Interesting, I'm going to explore my options, I should take a boat up in there this spring when the water is high and analyze what the deal is, my dad claims in the early 60's he used to catch brook trout in that stream.

[fr0sty]

I am going to Mills this weekend and will see if there is any news of the beaver dam and if any coyotes have been eliminated.

Also going to check my trail cam, but my hopes are not too high. Not sure if it's operator error or the cold weather, but the last two times I checked it (firearms and ml) the cam didn't seem to be on...

[PoorWordUsage] wet this last year. More than once I went in over my knee boots...

No Beaver that I'm aware of, haven't seen fresh cuttings since 1978. It's a dam that also has a fair amount of floating bog in it. Interesting, I'm going to explore my options, I should take a boat up in there this spring when the water is high and analyze what the deal is, my dad claims in the early 60's he used to catch brook trout in that stream.

[Musky Buck]

No doubt Frosty, I was waiting for you to chime in, I hope they drilled a bunch of coyotes, not sure snow depth wise etc. how much they got out. Did the deer winter up in there this year ? My trailcam has been out since Nov. 27th, still out and I haven't gone in yet. I am going to check with the DNR this Spring to see if the creek, well if there is anything that could be done, it would be good news for us possibly if that creek could get flowing again, I'll keep u updated on what they tell me. I would imagine the guys know Grandma J's condition.