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Building a Retaining
wall to prevent Erosion |
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For my Eagle Service Project, we built a retaining wall in the back of Tule Ponds. The purpose of building a retaining wall is to prevent soil erosion during the rainy season. For this project we needed logs, gravel, and lots of tools like shovels, rakes, wheelbarrows, and a compactor. The first step of the project was to build a barrier around a tree near to the site we were building at. This way the tree wouldn't die because of the gravel we were using. Then we started digging the trench to place the logs in. Using shovels, we made the trench 30 ft long, 18 in wide, and 10 in deep. Then we brought logs around 16 in tall and with a diameter of between 7 and 12 in, from the back of Tule Ponds. Once the trench was built, we added 3 in of gravel, and compacted it. Then we placed the logs in, using the honeycomb method. Then, one of the adults helping us cut off the tops of all the logs to make them level, with a chainsaw. After that, we filled in all the gaps with gravel and compacted all around the logs to make sure they were firmly in place. We also put gravel on the side near to the tree to make the area look nicer, and we compacted that as well. After that we added gravel to the trail-side of the site and made it slope downhill to prevent any gullies from forming. We compacted that, and that was the end of the project.
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| finished product |
Thanks to everyone that showed up to help complete the project, we finished it in a mere 3 workdays. I learned a lot from this project, and the experience was like a roller coaster. Although we made some changes to the plan as we worked on the project, it all worked out in the end, due to the cooperation of all the helpers and all the feedback from Dr. Blueford. I would like to give a huge thanks to the adults that helped: Both the Mr. Jensen's for devoting so much time to get this project done, Mr. Bhandari for using his strength to help us finish, my mom, Mrs. Varma, for getting all the helpers everything they needed, and my dad, Mr. Varma for supporting me throughout the whole project. I would also like to thank all the helpers: Lovish, Saurav, Ananth, Aditya, Ameek, Shray, Raahul, and Abhay. Most importantly, I owe a great thank you to the director of Tule Ponds, Dr. Blueford, for making this project a reality and giving me feedback throughout the whole project. I couldn't have finished the project without the help of all these people and I owe my humble gratitude to all.
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