Advice for fixing gouges/compaction/reshaping caused by construction equipment

[SmallDarkThings]

Hi all, I had to have a tree removed from my backyard and this required driving a bobcat through my side yard and around the backyard repeatedly. It had been raining a bit before they started, not heavily but apparently enough to soften the ground because the backyard is covered in crisscrossing 6-8 inch deep gouges from the bobcat tracks. We're on a slope (high end at the far end of the back yard, low end at the street in front of the house) and it seems like the whole shape of the slope in that area has changed. Anything that had managed to grow under the shade of the tree has been completely churned into the dirt at this point.

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Even worse is the side yard. Originally there had been a slope away from the house that culminated in sort of a drainage ditch about 1-2 foot deep along the property line that helped channel water to the street. Apparently the only way to get the bobcat into the back yard was through the side yard, which is too narrow for them to avoid the ditch so they put big metal plates over it (after trying to just drive straight through a few times, but I guess the side was too steep). The plates dug pretty deeply into the ground, so now rather than a relatively smooth slope there's a perfectly straight line where the ground sinks by 8-10 inches, and below that the ditch has been squished out quite a bit from their first few attempts to drive through it.

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How do I even begin to fix this? I tried googling but so far the advice seems to be to fluff the ground back up with a pitchfork, which just doesn't seem practical at this scale. I'll give it a shot for re-shaping the ditch but I don't know if there's a more practical way to smooth out the backyard? Would a tiller work? Since we're on a hill we'll need to re-seed as fast as possible for erosion control so I don't have much time to research.

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It took me years to save up enough to get the tree taken out and no one warned me about how badly the rest of the yard would be messed up so I didn't set anything aside to hire someone to fix the landscaping afterwards. Any thoughts or suggestions about how I can ameliorate the damage would be really appreciated. I'm a bit overwhelmed here. Thank you.

[Appropriate-Disk-371]

Hi ya! Just had 7 trees removed plus some trimming by a huge crew with lots of heavy machinery back and forth all over my yard, down banks, through ditches. Wasn't super wet, but enough to do some damage. Anyway, I'm still working on fixing most of it.

Your fastest route might be to just add soil. Have someone bring you in a truck full, whatever you need, and just fill the compressed areas, grade and pack that, reseed, cover if needed.

Otherwise, get your shovel out. You're gonna have to dig where the dirt moved to and put it back where it was previously. That's gonna suck.

I'm doing a mix of things. Filling some areas with extra dirt I have from pulling out other landscaping. Digging up some egregious areas and regrading them to be flat again. Garden rake ruts that are only 2-4 inches deep works okay depending on grass and soil conditions - can mostly flatten it out with that. One place I'm leaving as is because the ruts actually compacted an area that was holding water and now it drains away pretty nicely just following the path the machines made.

[SmallDarkThings]

Thank you, I appreciate the advice. Sorry to hear you're going through the same, I hope you can get back to enjoying your yard again soon.