Swale on very sandy soil, cold, pointless? Harmful?

I’m looking at making a small one. Same situation but cold (New England) and no clay subsoil—-it’s all sandbox all the way down to hell.  (They’ve started offering PDCs in hell now because my land gives so much precipitation and nutrient runoff that they can start growing stuff there even with no sunlight, check out Hades Permaculture—but I digress).  I only have a tiny area that slopes but I have a sense that it’s worth making a 6” height swale.  I can’t see any rainwater puddling even in heavy rain(except when there’s frost underneath in winter, and maybe my swale will also create a subsoil ice swale to enhance that effect a bit as things thaw in spring).  The sandy organic-matter sandy sand topsoil slurps everything down and then the sand sandy sand rocky sandy Tunbridge sand quarry sand slurps the slurp out of the topsoil and it ends up dryer than it was before it rained somehow.  (Tunbridge is the name of the quarry that’s near me, no relation to the soil type).  So I’m skeptical it is even worth it to make a swale at all, but im going to make a test swale if i don’t happen to run across some other info from someone’s direct experience.  

I will keep it small because frost pockets are not something I really want in my area.  Thanks.

And a secondary but related question, what the heck did this?  It’s been a hayfield for as long as anyone knows, but a barn used to sit somewhere around here (I’ve found foundations a hundred feet away or so farther from the road, down the hill in what is now woods).  That barn burned down in a fire caused by the railroad at the very bottom of the hill, and in 1944 the farmer rebuilt the barn on the opposite side of the road.  With asbestos.  Lots and lots of asbestos.  The barn is basically made of pure asbestos. But the old barn wasn’t. So is this a creosote strip? Some oil spill out of an old piece of farm equipment or a car?

It runs about 90 degrees to contour, I’d guess, and has rocks, moss, sand, the piece of mystery metal, and at its bottom blackberries covering it over like a combover where it basically disappears.  

I’m 90% sure it was some kind of spill, but I don’t know what would do this and how long it would last. Any info would be most helpful. Thanks

Backfill your swale (ditch) with organic matter:  branches, leaves, grass clippings, even cardboard if that is all at hand.  Make it into a sponge.  Keep topping off as it settles decomposes into the soil.  Organic content will increase.  Run off will be captured.  Ground will remain more or less level upslope of berm.  

Just remembered, there is one more square of mystery disturbance, nearby, but it doesn’t run downslope at all.  

There is some charcoal under the grass near to that, which the pigs dug up before they escaped to explore the Tunbridge Sand Quarry

Do you have any runoff in heavy rains? If not, then a swale won’t help. If it does run, then the swale will help the nutrient wash down instead of off.

I have seen similar marks from burns, either rubber from vehicles or tar from roof. They were there for years.

Oaks have volunteered pretty well here unassisted. There are even patches of moss. The river is about 500’ away, we get humid dew and even lichen on trees because of it , in spite of the sand.  

Here is a one- or two-year-old oak in a random spot (not even mossy, but near shade and in the root zone of his mommy), and was small enough I didn’t notice it growing this spring but I think was probably there from the previous year.  You may be able to make out a hand-sized bit of large moss to the left of it in the picture.  And some behind. But this isn’t a spot that I’d expect to catch water, it would spill down pretty quickly downslope toward the camera.

R Scott wrote:Do you have any runoff in heavy rains? If not, then a swale won’t help. If it does run, then the swale will help the nutrient wash down instead of off.

I have seen similar marks from burns, either rubber from vehicles or tar from roof. They were there for years.

Thanks.  I think we may have some runoff when it’s pouring so hard I don’t want to go out in it. It would wind up in the woods and there you see a little evidence of erosion here and there, but I would only want to slow the water in advance of that.  What you wrote makes sense, is that from direct experience? Can you post a link? Thanks

My father in law lives on very sandy ground and I’ve helped him deal with erosion. If you look at the YouTube channels of David the good and greendreams they both talk about dealing with sandy soil in their most recent videos. I have never personally had to “live” with sand. I am usually trying to figure out how to get more sand.

I also live atop a Sandhill,  until this winter I was thinking to skip the scale and do a chip filled trench instead... but this winter reminded me that the undulations in the landscape are valuable for snow and organic matter capture, and the snow retains moisture against hillsides for a while longer into spring, extending the snowmelt season. Also a modicum of shade on parts of the swale

I only ever see runoff on a section of road that is steep and downgrade from a steel shop that likely increases volume a lot. Otherwise a downpour goes right down into the sand.

My plan for now, which will likely be implemented in 2-4 years time is to create broad swales for at least half of my scale lines and run a trencher down the bottom of them, filling the trench with woodchips, bony compost from our "gut pile" and biochar up to the bottom of the scale.

If there is ever an unforseen amount of moisture that's large enough to float material out of the trench I'm happy to refill it,

The other half, if I don't scale every one, will JUST be the trench solution, this opens up the soil forninfiltration, gives plenty of organic matter for water to be stored in, creates beneficial environment for establishing trees and most importantly,  does NOT open up our brittle soils to sun and wind like a more traditional scale might, maybe its an option that would work for you:)