"to fence in" = "cercar" ?

Question

I'm trying to say the following English sentence in Spanish:

• "Fields and water wells should be fenced off with locking gates wherever possible".

I see that there are two ways to say "fenced off" in spanish, one is to use the verb "cercar" and another is to use the verb "vallar". In the case of my above sentence, is one verb more appropriate to use than the other?

Bonus question: the SpanishDict Dictionary gives me two options for the word "gate" in Spanish: "puerta" and "verja". Is one of them better to use than another in this case?

My guesses for how to say this in Spanish are:

1. Donde sea posible, los campos y los pozos deben ser cercados por una cerca con una verja que se cierre.

2. Donde sea posible, los campos y pozos deben estar en una zona vallada que se cierre.

Are either of these right? If so, which? And if not, can someone help me out with the correct way to say it?

Thank you very much!

Alyssa

Answer 1

Cercar sounds more natural for me than vallar, but maybe it's just me.

Donde sea posible, los campos y los pozos deben ser cercados por una cerca

Por una cerca it is not necessary here since you're using the word cercado

Answer 2

Any chance "deben ser segurdos" or "...protegidos" might work here too? Or even "ser separados con una cerca" - what do you think?

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