(Snow) Plowing Fields?

March 28, 2018 1:47 PM

Every year I drive down to Salt Lake City along I-15 in March. Right after crossing from Montana into Idaho, there are a bunch of weird tracks plowed in the snow in the fields next to the road. What the heck are they? Pictures inside the fold...

Pictures: 1 2 3 4

I've seen these for 3 years now (so, every time I've made this trip). The rows appear to be somewhat actively maintained, since the plow banks are never smoothed over with new snow. There are at least 2 or 3 of these things next to the road, and they don't appear to connect. They are not actual roads. The ends of each row appear to be a nice, purposeful turn. They loop back and forth a few times, and stretch on for a good bit, maybe half a mile or more? They are not snowmobile tracks, though it wouldn't be impossible they were little 'snowmobile roads' or something (weird as that might be). Any wild ideas?

Right around here, if it matters.

posted by so fucking future to Grab Bag (5 answers total)

Possibly a way to trap drifting snow, without putting up a snow fence? The highway department in my town in Vermont does the same thing in some spots.
posted by beagle at 2:03 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

I grew up in Wyoming, and snow storage and disposal could be a big headache - after a major storm event, snow that had been collected from the highways into dump trucks would need a place to be stored until it melted, and snow adds up surprisingly quick. Quite often the highway department or private citizens would use the collected snow to create temporary snow fences. Often this would occur on state land or highway right of way, but sometimes on private land if a landowner was so willing or if they were the ones plowing their own roads.

Here's an article about such an operation in progress for a municipality. Here's another one. Although in both it looks different due to using machines to flatten the snow (because they're not trying to create temporary snow drifting) you can get an idea of how the system might work.

There's a lot that goes into snow removal and storage, particularly how it affects local hydrology and whether or not it involves chemicals or additives (for melting or sanding) so there's often quite a bit more thought put into it then people realize! Kinda cool.
posted by barchan at 2:34 PM on March 28, 2018 [3 favorites]

Yeah, my guess is that it's an attempt to build a natural snow fence. You can do the same thing with trees or corn.
posted by craven_morhead at 2:59 PM on March 28, 2018 [1 favorite]

That seems like an inefficient way to build ineffective snow fencing. Could it be snowmobiles or ATV-ers or off-roaders?
posted by theora55 at 9:00 AM on March 29, 2018 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Thanks for the great answers! Snow fencing and/or being related to snow removal all seem plausible, but maybe not quite slam dunks.

Being near the border does lend credence to the snow removal theory, as I often see little maintenance depots/parking spots/turnarounds for that purpose at state borders in the larger region, generally.
posted by so fucking future at 11:08 AM on March 29, 2018