environmentally-friendly

A couple years back in rural Jackson County, Iowa, a community of people were concerned about the future of their main way of life: the lake their community was built around. 

For years this lake brought them recreation and wildlife, but over time the lake had started to change.  Through the past few decades, silt and dirt began to settle on the lake bottom, causing issues for not only recreation-seekers but also the ecosystem and wildlife of the area, particularly a type of endangered bird that the locals wanted to preserve. 

To help find a solution in 2017, community members contacted our crew at Gravel Grading & Excavating to bring in the dozers and save the birds.

Phase One
The first stage of this project was determining how the silting problem had occurred.  Our crew wanted to make sure that the work we did in 2017 would be the last dirt work the community would need for years to come. We went to the job site to engineer an answer to their problem, and it was determined that the silting could be slowed if earthen dams were constructed in three places.  With our favorite piece of equipment, our John Deere bulldozer, we went in over a series of days to build up and grade the earth in order to slow the speed of the water. Once the dams were complete, phase two could begin.

Phase Two
Later in 2017 and again in 2018, our men returned to the lake to create what would come to be a series of islands to help preserve the endangered osprey birds.  Ospreys were added to the endangered species list after their numbers were decimated in the 1950s and 60s, largely attributed to the toxic affects of the pesticide DDT.  Though their numbers have surged in recent years, the citizens of Leisure Lake still saw that they could take additional steps to preserve the species in their area.  To protect the ospreys from predators, it was decided to construct a series of islands in the lake.  This required our crew to bring in backhoes and excavators to scoop out the silt that had settled along the shoreline and use that sediment to erect the islands. In total, our guys built up nine islands with the dirt that had compounded for nearly 40 years, providing the ospreys safety and preservation for years to come.

We at Gravel Grading & Excavating thank the citizens and community of Leisure Lake for letting us help with their Osprey preservation project. We are happy to move the earth for all of you...and your wildlife!