Habitat Restoration Contracting Services
Vernal pool planting Newfane, VT
REAL DEAL RESTORATION:
We provide in-situ restoration services focused on specific natural communities rather than the simplified plant assemblages typical of the pseudo-restoration and mitigation projects put forth by most consulting and engineering firms. Nature is our guide and we painstakingly search for reference ecosystems to base our plans. We use only plant materials of local provenance to the site even if that means we have to collect seed and have the material contract grown to our specifications.
Our restoration projects are based on Reference Ecosystem/Plant Communities
We use only genotype-specific plant material whose seeds or cuttings were 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.
Conservation Grazing
We use cows, goats and sheep on the landscape to maintain early-successional open habitats, manage habitat for vulnerable wildlife species (turtles and grassland birds), and manage an assortment of invasive plants.
Prescribed Fire
Some natural communities need periodic fire as a way to renew themselves. Fire in some communities is a natural process and without burning these areas build up woody debris that can be very dangerous if/when a wildfire does get started. We have teamed up with a licensed burn boss to offer small-scale prescribed burning services in support of projects that would benefit from it. Examples include wildflower meadows, some grasslands such as sandplain grasslands, heathlands, pitch pine-scrub oak barrens, and calcareous fens. In most cases we will begin a project with mechanical clearing in order to make it possible to control a burn under optimal conditions. All prescribed burns require the preparation and submittal of a Burn Plan to state authorities. For more information about prescribed burning click here.
