Re: Snow Fence


Well, Amy and other folks.. snow fences are simple temporary fences made of
rough sawn lumber about 2" wide by about 4ft long and about 3/8" thick
which are wired together with bout 2" between the pieces.  The wire has a 
twist in it between the stakes to hold the lumber so that it doesn't slide to
one side or another.  There are three rows of wires in those I've seen, known, and have grown to see as ominous signs of winter.

These snow fences are placed along the roads in the city, and also in the country, where the wind comes swooping across a plain, either a huge plain or a
smaller one called an open field, or even a large playing field or large
park or large golf course.

The wind comes along the ground, rises when it meets the snowfence (like the
dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly, rise to the sky) the leaves and/or
snow is deposited along the windward side of the fence and is not deposited
in the road for snowplows or cars to deal with.

Here in the city, right now, as we speak during this very windy day, tuns and
tuns of leaves are piling up along the roadway around huge Delaware Park
and are not accumulating in the front yards of the houses that line the
streets on the other side.  It must be some sort of art to determine how
far from the roadway the fence must be placed so that the aerodynamics works
just right, but I suspect the guys just put them up.  I also suspect that
residents have a great deal to say about whether the snowfence goes up in
the city to keep those nasty leaves and awful snow off of their lawns and
sidewalks.  

The fence around Delaware Park is brand new! and not at all weathered so it
looks just awful and demands our attention to the coming of the next season.

Now, I know someone is going to correct me on the side of the fence on which
the snow/leaves is/are deposited.  Is it windward or leaward?? 

Sometimes there is so much snow deposited at the snowfences that they completely
disappear under it. The leaves just rot away and mulch the soil around the f
fences.

Any more questions??  Anyone who has lived or traveled where there are large
open spaces will know them when they see them.

The guys take them down in the spring, a sure sign that summer will arrive and
all will be well with the world once again.

Carolyn Schaffner in windy, cold, grey, bitter Buffalo, NY
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