LAKELAND - A local man believes he has developed an efficient and more environmentally friendly method of tackling brush piles that are seen dotted across the Lakeland landscape than the traditional burn and bury method.
After land is cleared for agricultural use or other purposes, the debris - rocks, trees and topsoil - is typically piled in windrows, burned, and then buried. Dennis Lupul doesn’t see the point in burying perfectly good topsoil. He’d rather see the non-renewable resource returned to the land from which it was taken and put back into production.
Lupul’s business enterprise, The Soil Sifter, is an apt description of what he says he can do – literally sift the soil out of the debris in a brush pile after it has been burned, while also separating the rocks and left over wood into separate piles.
Using a uniquely designed bucket fitted with rotors mounted on a loader, Lupul said it bounces the logs and rocks up and out while letting the topsoil and finer material fall through.
Originally designed for a pipeline company in 1998, Lupul said he bought one of only two buckets produced, for his landscaping business for sifting soil before he recognized its potential for tackling larger jobs.
“I was working for a farmer who had a bunch of brush piles in his field, and I suggested I could separate the roots and the rock so he could get a cleaner burn, and it would be less to bury.”
Since then, he’s been kept busy.
“The traditional way of doing it is they would hire a hoe and just bury all the topsoil, rock and what was left in that pile,” he explained. “I can screen all the topsoil out and rock and put the wood on another pile, the dirt is spread in the field.” The landowner can then choose to burn what wood is left and then either bury or pick the rock and get the land back into production faster, Lupul said.
“I take a lot of satisfaction in knowing it’s better for the land.”
Asked if The Soil Sifter lives up to its name, Roger Konieczny who farms south of Myrnam has only good things to say about the work Lupul has done on the brush piles on his land.
“Absolutely. The amount he saves us by coming in and cleaning up what’s left after we burn these brush piles would be hard to put a time on,” Konieczny said. “You either have to try to pick it apart either by hand or some piece of equipment or you load up what’s left and bury it.”
He said saving the soil instead of burying it is a plus.
“That’s the beauty of what he’s doing too is all the topsoil remains in the field, and you don’t lose it by burying it with the debris that’s left over.”
Konieczny said this fall would have been the timeframe when he would have to work on the brush piles, get them to reburn or clean them up as best he could. “It would be maybe next summer before I could bury the debris that’s left over and probably disc it and get it ready for planting again.”
Anyone interested in learning more about The Soil Sifter can give Lupul a call at either 780-645-0496 or 780-645-5858.