Before we started

Some photographs of the Eckert Lyon project before we started grading the land and installing the ponds, stream and wetland.

Two very hard working clients enjoying manual labor on their land. They cut and split all the wood in the picture, including the stacked and split material, in a half day! Their wood shed is so full it can no longer hold the splitting maul!

The condition of the land is a bit rough but with so much potential. It's exciting to think we're taking water, a current liability, and turning into a beautiful asset. Groundwater replenishment, zero erosion, dry driveway and walk, habitat for animals, swimming, water catchment and retention to mitigate flooding to also be used for irrigation or even drinking, an ice skating rink in the winter and an irrigated field to be played on in the summer!

This ponding is mostly the result of rough grading and some very complex water issues. The area of collection is small but we have speculated that the below grade drainage basin for the gutters (right next to the septic tank) is dumping water onto earth that is already saturated with water. With no where for the water to go, it seeps to the low spot, here above drive way. The ideal solution is a drain which would have to go under the drive way. After two years of mud, and construction, the clients can finally walk to their front door. The drain would entail ripping out way too much drive way.

The dbBrad solution, though counter intuitive, got the approval of Greenbelt Consulting and Fran Abel Landscape Consulting. We are going to create a depression away from the road to handle the water and use the material we excavate to build up this low spot. If water seeps through and continues to soften the driveway, it will eventually need to be fixed and we put the drain in then.

Josh models the instep of a large dozer, probably 40,000-60,000 lb machine. Even after a year the forest floor shows the compaction, here over 15". It is only in the past few years that the full impact of machines on the land is being understood, leading to use of machines that are smaller, weigh less and have rubber tracks. We also know now that working on wet land causes more damage than working on dry land. Unfortunately, sometimes the project has a life of its own and NW weather is unpredictable leading to the breaking of using machines only on dry ground. With the help of people like Elliott Menashe of Greenbelt Consulting less and less damage is being done to land as he helps all of his clients understand the ramifications.

This area of water travel, coming from the garage area, was eroding the land and we were concerned that it would become an even bigger issue in the future. Because the driveway had flooded multiple times (separate issue from paragraph above), a drain was put in the center of the driveway loop and brought to grade over 100' away (roughly half way between photographer and truck). We developed a swale to handle the water from both the site and from the drain to direct the water to the wetland.

Fran, always looking at home with a shovel and a plant, walks on what will be the inlet side of the pond. This entire area appears to be lower than the surrounding forest floor indicating previous soil removal and heavy equipment staging.

This outflow was a special feature completed after home construction completion. In an emergency flood of water coming down the utility ditch, a French drain was installed (behind wood shed) and run to grade again over 100' away and into this gully. This water will be picked up in the new stream which will be lined and planted to turn this standard water solution into an aesthetic feature.

The Excavator works it's way for the first time delicately across the forest floor. It's moving to the east of the house (where the wood pile was located). to grade that area.