curage

CONT: [Les cureuses] actuelles, portées, semi-portées sur tracteur ou automotrices, assurent le curage du fossé en un seul passage et peuvent également servir à son creusement.

CONT: During drier periods, the effect of ditch cleaning and/or complementary ditching is greater, but then, the level of the water table is usually not critical for the trees ... In most cases, the first commercial cuttings in peatland forests are performed in connection with ditch cleaning, which requires removal of trees along the ditch lines anyway.
OBS: If the main purpose of the cleaning operation is to deepen the ditch or remove silt from the bottom, the dragline bucket is most used.