Habitat Restoration & Management of New England's Natural Areas

 Native Plant Establishment

Vernal pool planting Newfane, VT

PLACE BASED ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION:

We provide in-situ restoration services focused on specific natural communities based within the direct region of the project. Nature is our guide and we painstakingly search for reference ecosystems to base our plans. We specialize in using plant materials of local provenance to the site which means that seeds and cuttings are collected nearby and eventually reintroduced to the restoration site.

  • Our restoration projects are based on Reference Ecosystem/Plant Communities

  • We emphasize genotype-specific plant material whose seeds or cuttings are collected close to the restoration project site

Native Plant Installation, Seeding & Soil Preparation

Native plant revegetation, seeding/hydroseeding, soil preparation (mychorrizal fungi inoculation, activated charcoal, compost, sheet mulching, and traditional woody mulch), and temporary irrigation and plant protection systems for: wetland restoration, mitigation sites, natural community restoration, warm & cool season grasslands, and wildflower meadows.

Native Seed Collection

Remnant Restoration 

Remnant restoration is a new service we are offering that was inspired through reading "Bringing Nature Home" by Douglas Tallamy. Tallamy's message is not to surrender the suburbs and smaller areas to invasive species, but to slowly  convert invaded areas back to native habitats one small property at a time. We are trying to take this a step further by restoring a remnant of what the natural community may have been like prior to disturbance or destruction. We use methods to explore the historical ecology of the area to inform the project.

We are working with several landowners and land trusts on small-scale (< 1-ac.) affordable projects that demonstrate natural community restoration in urban and suburban landscapes that will hopefully inspire a sense of place focused on the region's natural communities. Examples include a pitch pine savannah (.75-acre), sandplain grassland (0.5-ac.) and Atlantic white cedar swamp (0.15-ac.).

Plant Salvage

Plant salvage is the process of saving native plant material from sites that will be seriously disturbed (development) and transplanting the plant material to nearby restoration projects or In many cases the plant material can be carefully stockpiled for while earthmoving activities take place. The plants can then be transplanted to the same site. 

Streambank Stabilization & Riparian Revegetation

Riparian planting, vegetative buffer strips, soil bioengineering, & erosion control. We use site appropriate native plants, plugs and cuttings reinforced with biodegradable erosion control materials to stabilize and protect streambanks and strengthen vulnerable riparian zones.