Sepp Holzer on road boundaires

He has told several stories now that have a common theme.

A lot of rural property sits next to a rural road.  And folks have tried a variety of things to have a peaceful haven despite cars/trucks/motorcycles passing on the road.  Trees, fences, shrubs, etc.

Sepp's solution:  a berm.  He has told at least two different stories where property owners had a row of huge trees next to the road - along with a variety of shrubs, and then Sepp comes in, rips it all out, puts up a berm and plants stuff on that.  It sounds like a massive improvement.  Sepp then waxes on at length about how much happier the family is. 

One family even got the local goverment to put the berm up, and afterward, they used the new berm as a dam on a swimming pond.

The berms do cut down on noise from the road, probably deflecting it.  Most vegetation is just a visual screen, and doesn't do anything for sound.  Berms can be quite handy if properly done, and a disaster if they aren't.  A berm that directs rainwater under the house is one of the worst.

Sue

thats a great idea! I would have to balance the visual restriction issue though. I like being to see, that is part of the reason that, although I like being in the woods I need some wide open spaces too or I start feeling a little claustrophobic.

I would think people would get used to the noise though if they have lived there a long time.   I've always lived by a highway with noisy trucks going by often, and it doesn't usually bother me.   If traffic noise is such a problem, I wouldn't think they wouldn't even move to a location that needed that much work to help muffle the noise.   

Though I do like the aspect of creating visual barrier from the road.   but I'm thinking that alot of places, a berm couldn't even be contructed.   Alot of limitations with that.  Maybe a wall that takes less space could be contructed, but would cost alot more I would imagine.  I'm using plants such as fast growing hybrid willows as my visual barrier in the warm months when outside more.

I was thinking about this yesterday as we held class right next to a massive trackhoe digging a pond.

The noise was cut by a factor of ten behind a berm.  And we would be just 15 feet away.