Spring Cleaning; Fixing Split Rail Fences

The First Day of Spring was Friday, March 21st.  The next day was our first fence repair work party of 2025.

There was a number of damaged fence sections along the RecPath at Silent Waters.  Some sections were broken from the Fall/Winter storms, some posts and rails were just old and failing.  We had gotten replacement rails and posts last December, but then the frost set in, which made it difficult to replace posts.  Now the frost was out of the ground and now we could fix the fencing.  Ellen & Mark are off-loading the new fence sections.

First the old fence posts and rails that were broken were removed.  Bill and Steve are digging out the broken post stump with digging bars, post hole diggers, and by hand.  It takes a bit of effort, but they got it out.  

Mark was shuttling tools and fencing all morning.  We had split up into multiple groups to repair different sections of fence at the same time.  The RecPath was very busy this morning, but the public was good and pleased with the work to maintain the fence.  It probably was like driving thru a ConnDOT work zone.  All the work was done in a nice safe manner.

The Spring Peepers were going at it in Silent Waters.  The frogs and other amphibians came out last weekend.

Carter, Zane and Larry cleared out sections on the other end of the dam (the RecPath is build on top of the historic dam that used to supply water to downtown Shelton).  The fencing is there to keep people from falling off the dam.  

Mark had to cut some tree trunks that were in the way.  Jeff and Larry are spotting Mark while he's chainsawing.  We had just finished fixing some of this fence last year when the Micro-Burst Storm occurred in August and sent fallen trees smashing down on the trails and fence.  The trails were cleared fairly quickly, but some of the repairs took longer.  The broken tree trunk made a gratifying crash when we rolled it off the top of the dam using crow bars.  

 Zane & Carter did a good job digging out the old rotten fence posts and setting the new posts.

Jeff & Larry would set the new rails in place between the existing and new posts.  We left the new posts loose in the holes until we got the rails set, and then tightened them up with fill.  We gently tweaked the fence posts and rails together using Fine Adjustment Tools (15 lb. and 6 lb. sledgehammers).  We do dainty work.  Gravel and crushed stone was dug out of a nearby ditch and carried by 5 gal. pail to finish filling in the holes.  The posts were tightened when the fill was tamped in place with digging bars, sledgehammers, and a driveway tamper.  

Ellen was cutting back invasive Burning Bush along the RecPath.  The invasive plant spreads out and takes over the woods along the trail.  Cutting it back now helps control it later.  Shelton could use a lot of help from volunteers controlling invasive species.  The Trails Committee tries to do what we can when we're running work parties.

The work party was successful.  We repaired all the damaged fence along the northern section of the dam (the southern section at the bridge will be on another day).  Here's Bill, Jeff, Larry and Steve at the end when the sun finally started to come out.
 

A finished stretch of repaired fencing.  Not a bad job.

The old rotten and broken pieces of fence were brought out to the road for disposal by the City.

Thanks to everyone who came out today; Carter, Zane, Steve, Larry, Jeff, Ellen, Mark, Terry & Bill.  We now have several newly experienced split rail fence installers ready for the southern section, and a lot less invasive plants next to the RecPath.  It was a good days work.

Fixing Fences, Finally

A large group of trail volunteers got to work on Saturday morning to repair a large number of broken fences along the RecPath at Silent Waters.

The fences suffered a lot of damage during December storms and several section had collapsed or were ready to collapse.  The first task was getting all the replacement materials in place.  The second was digging out the old posts.  Here Jeff, Boodie, and Gary  are digging out the old base and trimming stumps so we didn't fall off the old dam.

Did I mention that the RecPath runs along the top of a historic dam that used to supply downtown Shelton with water?  So we were often working several feet above ground and didn't want to trip on some piece of brush sticking up and fall.

This is one of the "before" pictures from late December.  The string of storms was too much for the fence built in 2006.  The post had rotten, falling over and several sections of fence were compromised all at once.  We did wrap the fence with pink tape to let people know not to lean on it and take a selfie, and that seemed to work.

It took a while to purchase this much fencing, get it delivered (long saga), and schedule the work party.  Here are Zach & Brooklyn digging out the old post.  Luckily today was unseasonably warm for February and there was no frost to break through.  Even so - Removing the bases of the old posts too a lot of digging bar, post hole work and hand work; the posts were stubborn and didn't want to come out of their warm home in the ground. 

But, with some persistent digging we got them out, lined up the posts, inserted the rails, and got them back together.  Once a section of fence was removed and the post loosened it was easier to replace the rails.  Sometimes it was necessary to partially dig out a solid fence post and loosen it to replace a rotten bottom rail.  But that is where the Fine Adjustment Tool (our 15 lb. sledgehammer) came into play.  Many of the trail volunteers had never had the joy of replacing a split rail fence before; but now they can add this to their list of job skills.

Helpful Trail Tip:  Use the weight of the digging bar to work for you.  Raise and drop the bar to break up the soil and posts where you can, rather than driving it down.  You back will thank you the next day.

The Gator was helpful in getting all the parts out to the job and we ferried or carried all the rotten pieces out to the road for later pickup.  Mark had to make several trips to get more posts and fence rails.

Luis was helping hold the post straight while Zach and Zion tamp in the backfill around the new post.  The round end of the digging bar for pounding the loose soil to compact the soil firmly around the post.  Many, many times.

And that new fence is solidly in place.  Great job.  It's gratifying sometimes to see trail work where you go out and at the end it is a dramatic improvement like that.

The old fence posts and rails were hauled out to Constitution Blvd. N. for later pick-up.

Today was a good morning's work.  The RecPath was pretty busy during the work party and all the trail users liked the fence being repaired.  It was really helpful to have a lot of trail volunteers on this job to take turns digging, setting the new fencing, haul all the materials on and off the RecPath, etc.  Thanks to Bodie, John, Zach, Zion, Brooklyn, Val, Annie, Luis, Gary, Jeff, Mark, Bill, and Terry.  

And nobody fell off the dam. 

Val posted more, and better, pictures on the Facebook page.

Thanks to Shelton Parks & Rec Dept

Thanks to the Shelton Parks and Rec guys for replacing the rotting fence rails along the Shelton Lakes Recreation Path at Silent Waters.

The RecPath runs on top of two historic dams, which is good because it allows the City to provide a level, handicapped-accessible Path for the public to enjoy, but bad because of the drop off on the face of the the dams.  There is a split rail fence installed along the vertical face of the dams (there are 2) for Path user safety.  Unfortunately, in 2006 when the fence was installed we allowed the use of non-pressure treated timber rails in order to stretch the limited City funds (Shelton paid for most of this out of local taxes).  Live and Learn; sometimes the cheapest price isn't always the best.  The non-pressure treated pine rails started to rot after 6 years and the volunteers on the Trails Committee have been replacing them in segments where we can in small batches.  There were probably 50-70 rails (pressure-treated this time) replaced previously by volunteers.

This year the need to fix the fences outstripped our ability to replace the fence rails on the RecPath, and still do all the maintenance work required on the other trails in our system.  In November we were able to have the Conservation Commission buy a large number of rails (also pressure treated) and due to the mild winter the Shelton Parks and Recreation Department was able to replace a lot of rails at one shot with the Mayor's support.

Over 100 new rails were replaced this past December by Parks and Rec crews along the Shelton Lakes RecPath.  Thanks a lot guys, this is a huge and well-needed improvement.  There are still some more rails that need to be replaced, but the most critical spots have been fixed, and the public is continuing to enjoy one of the prettiest spots along the Shelton Lakes RecPath.

Helpful Trail Tip: Use pressure treated rails for your fencing.

Maintenance is never glamorous, or pretty, or makes the newspapers, but it is necessary.  Thanks to Ron, Dean, and the Parks guys for fixing the fence railings.