Temporary vegetation was required on a project perimeter to provide silt and erosion protection for a pad site in San Antonio, TX. What makes great base material makes less than ideal growing medium though, and there was less than one percent organic matter – far less than was needed to sustain successful plant growth.

In the spring of 2011, officials at the Indiana Veterans Home in Lafayette, IN decided to repair a severe slope failure that had occurred on the property. The failure left them with a severe 1.8: 1 slope to repair.

In 2004, Hydro Quebec worked with Verdyol to combine peat moss with their wheat based straw mulch to help reclaim road sides that were being built on their northern construction sites near James Bay. This project was located in the Northern Boreal forest where salvaging topsoil was impossible, and there was no topsoil to import.

Grand Parkway is a large scale project for the creation of another loop around the Houston, TX metro area. Previous segments of the project had significant issues establishing successful vegetation, resulting in erosion problems for the project. 

A previous vegetation attempt in 2017 rested in only sunflowers... a weed not in the seed mix used on the site. Significant rilling and erosion on the site due to a lack of desirable vegetation occurred. Additionally, successful vegetation at sufficient density was required to ensure liner protection.

The Dissette Street Widening Project had several unique features, chief among them was the requirement for a green wall system due to the projects close proximity to an environmentally sensitive wetland. Maccaferri’s Green Terramesh was chosen for the structural component and combined with Verdyol’s Biotic Earth to promote sustainable, lush vegetation. Biotic Earth was applied to the filled gabon wall at a rate of 3,500lbs/ac and topped with a fiber reinforced matrix (FRM) for further erosion control.

Since a plan had not been in place for preserving the topsoil , the soil on the site was lacking the nutrients needed for successful plant growth and sustainability. Willows were dotted around th site, but struggled due to the poor quality soil. PennDOT had seeded the area three times with inadequate results. The Engineering Architecture Design Services (EADS) Group asked Triton Environmental of Pittsburgh, PA for assistance.

An area along the shoreline of the Assiniboine River was eroding due to water level changes and wave action from boats. The engineer (KGS Group) designed a riprap toe to reinforce the lower shoreline and had originally specified four inches of imported topsoil and sod for the upper section. After the initial design, hydraulic options were considered as alternatives due to limited access.

State Department of Transportation Maintenance workers in Goldendale, Washington were faced with a common challenge when restoring vegetation at the interchange between highways 14 and 97: low organic content in the soil and a lack of precipitation. Located in the rain shadow of the Cascade Mountains, the project area receives yearly average rainfall of only 8 to 12 inches. This produces a landscape of open bunch-grass
prairies dotted with sagebrush and rabbit brush containing the occasional juniper tree. During the summer months very little precipitation will ever reach the ground resulting in near desert like conditions. Even though the site was situated along the mighty Columbia River, water was in short supply. Any restoration efforts would be complicated by historic low levels of precipitation and compounded by the existing drought facing the region at the time of installation.

Bohemian Knotweed is an invasive species that can take over an area, choking out existing vegetation and leading to erosion as the better suited species are displaced. Such was the case in Cordova Alaska, situated on the southeastern end of Prince William Sound. Eradicating the knotweed and establishing desired vegetation quickly was necessary to halt the advance of the destructive knotweed and restore the area.

Previous attempts at erosion control and vegetation establishment had failed on tower footings at the Baffin Windfarm south of the city of Sarita in Kenedy County Texas. Hot, dry conditions, low soil fertility, and
additional issue of the wind farm being an active cattle ranch combined to make clear why previous attempts at revegetation had been unsuccessful. Due to entanglement risk, the property owner also dictated no erosion control blankets with netting could be used – all erosion control must be hydraulically applied. A special blend of of seed was required due to grazing activity.
 

Previous attempts to revegetate using a fully synthetic TRM (Turf Reinforcement Mat) on other areas of the Sunset Farms Landfill in Manor, TX (just outside of Austin) had not reached satisfactory density vegetation for Republic Services.