For many parts of the nation, 2011 was a rough year for seeding. In the spring, large sections of the Midwest broke rainfall records; soggy soil made it impossible for large equipment to enter areas to do its work, postponing projects for erosion control professionals as well as farmers. Once summer arrived, the soil dried-and dried and dried; nearly a third of the US was scorched with record high temperatures and drought. EC crews fortunate enough to get work had small windows of time to get hydroseeding done in optimal conditions. The economy put a damper on things, as well. Smaller state budgets dried up some mainstays of the hydroseeding business-highway jobs. In response, some firms ventured into other areas, such as landfill reclamation and pipeline soil stabilization.
Not Connecting the DOTs
“This year I’ve been doing a lot less DOT work, because of state budget cuts and infrastructure cutbacks at the state and federal level,” says Ryan Cunningham, president/owner of Latrobe, PA’s HydroGreen LLC. “Usually, 50% of our work is for DOT, 20% will be private industry, and the remaining 30% is the natural gas industry, which is growing.”
Cunningham and HydroGreen vice president Jim Pratt have found steady work hydroseeding sites along the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale line, which runs from downstate New York to the northeast corner of Alabama. “We’re actually a subcontractor to the contractor drilling or putting in the pipeline,” Cunningham explains. “We travel into Maryland, West Virginia, Ohio, and all of southwestern Pennsylvania, and have even gone into northeast Pennsylvania, near Scranton, for this contractor. We apply EC solutions and revegetate both the well pads and transmission pipelines.”
He describes the work: “Their crews have just dug the site, then we come in when they’re putting the topsoil back on. We inspect this before our crews do any work. We ensure that they’re putting in the topsoil and that they’re tracking the slopes-using a dozer with cleats. We measure to find out what materials we need. But we want to make sure the site is properly prepared before we work, because we want the results to be correct and in accordance with DEP requirements. For areas with greater than a 3:1 slope, our policy is to track in all the slopes, which creates a seedbed and slows any washout. We highly recommend this. Whoever isn’t doing it should be; growth results will be far greater by doing so. Seed settles in the track marks and water pools in there, making a good seedbed.”
Although his main task is hydroseeding, in certain areas, other EC products are applied. “We will do wattles and blankets-usually North American Green’s SC250 and P300 in channels, and its HydraCX2 on slopes greater than 3:1. All in all, though, we don’t believe rolled blankets to be more effective than today’s hydraulically applied mulches. We apply a custom design. We approach the natural gas company and tell them our plan will work best, considering soil qualities and surrounding terrain.”
HydroGreen LLC owns Hydro-Seeders from Fairfield, OH’s Finn Corp. “We run a fleet of four Finns-two T-330s, a T-170, and a T-120 mounted on a track truck. We also have a Finn B-260 square bale mulcher, as well as seed drills and tractors.” Having the equipment mounted to a track truck makes it easier to get equipment and product where it needs to go. “For remote sites, we use 700 feet of hose with the Titan T-330 HydroSeeder, or drive in with the Finn T-120, which has been mounted right on a track truck frame. No clients wants to hear “˜I can’t do it,’ so you find a way to do it.”
Seed mixes can be one of his company’s devising, or one specified by the customer. “Engineering and gas companies most often agree with our design seed mixture, HydroGreen Extreme mix, which incorporates a lot of seeds native to the area. Other gas companies have their own blend of K-31, red top, bird’s foot, rye, or a standard reclamation mix. Some mixes work best in drought conditions, some work better in sandy, loamy soils, and others work better in wet and shaded areas. Covering all the bases is important for optimal results for all parties involved. If the site has poor soil, we need to prepare the site for a proper seedbed by amending in agricultural lime.”
Proper application is essential. “We do a lot of our slopes in a two-step process. On the first pass, we leave mulches out of the mix-just seed, water, lime, fertilizer, and our proprietary products. This is designed to get as much seed-to-soil contact as possible on the slopes. During a second pass, we apply mulch. We put down the correct amount of seed on the slopes as per the manufacturers’ recommended application rates-no exceptions! We’re sticklers for that, for all slope hydroseeding. Adhere to manufacturer’s application rates, regardless of what you may think.” Most sites in this area are 1 to 5 acres. “The Finn T-330s have a one acre capacity; we can empty it in 10 minutes, or it may take as much as 25 minutes.”
How did 2011’s projects fare-not only with the deluges and droughts, but also with the unexpected hurricane? “We actually didn’t have any re-dos when Hurricane Irene blew through Pennsylvania, because we did the job right the first time!” Cunningham says proudly.
“We also had the honor of working on the Flight 93 National Memorial, in Shanksville, PA,” he goes on. “I feel we were very fortunate to be chosen for the 80-acre memorial site. Working closely with the US Park Service, and York, PA’s Kinsely Construction, we revegetated the entire site.”
From his company’s startup, Finn HydroSeeders have been doing their jobs. “Finn has been very good to us; it helped us get started with a level of expertise, professionalism, and input by its sales staff, as well as an “˜open-door policy’ expressed by its chief executive officer. Finn has always been willing to listen to our input, whether good or bad, and continues to strive to improve uponan already superior product. We tell Finn things that we’d like to see changed or improved upon on future units and it takes our input very seriously-which is very important to us, for our continued business. We feel Finn’s service, support, and input is a integral part of HydroGreen LLC’s success.”
Another part of that success-teaching the customer. “We have found in the past 10 years that 80% of our day is erosion control work; the other 20% is education, making clients understand why we do things the way we do-giving the customer the correct amount of materials per the specifications of both the engineer and product manufacturer. This helps us build stronger relationships. Clients realize the quality of workmanship.
Our taking the time to educate clients makes the entire erosion control industry look better.”
Landfills Grow Grasses, Too
Since 1972, Dresden, OH’s Dresden Landscaping LTD has offered a variety of services, which gives it an opportunity to prosper in one area when another is slow. “Overall, seeding and erosion control is 70% of our business. Of that, highway work and reclamation of power plants is 40 to 50% of our seeding work. The rest is private industry, schools, commercial. We put in sports field and commercial irrigation systems, build segmented retaining walls, install turf block, and do patio paver work. About 15% of our business is residential work,” says managing member Tobias Watters. “We do hydroseeding for a variety of clients; in the past few years, we’ve been fortunate to pick up landfill reclamation jobs.”
In fall 2011, Watters’ firm spent about a week working on a landfill expansion for the John Amos Power Plant in Winfield, WV. “It has its own rubber-lined landfill, which contains ash material from power generation. When firms create landfills, there’s lots of disturbed areas around the liners; we seed the area. We work on the earthwork surrounding it, for a number of general contractors. For instance, we’re doing two landfills for this particular contractor; they call us as they need us. Sometimes we have longtime contracts, other times we’re called in. We did another power plant job in 2009-the Big Sandy Power Plant in Louisa, KY. Even though that was a hot, dry summer, at the end of the season we had outstanding results. And we couldn’t have done it without our Bowie.”
For the past dozen years, Dresden Landscaping has operated Bowie hydroseeding machines. “The Bowie equipment did an outstanding job at Big Sandy,” Watters says. “We were written up for outstanding performance. Trying to move around those Kentucky hills-2:1 slopes-in a lot of cases, we strapped the hydroseeding machines on dozers and pulled them around the site. We have a Bowie Victor 1100 model, with 1,100-gallon capacity, and a gooseneck trailer format. We pull the machines with smaller trucks, which give us greater access capabilities. We also have a Bowie double-axle trailer. For the most part, we’re OK on slopes, but if it’s a steep slope, we need dozer support, so we can get right next to where we need to be.
“We can cover about an acre per tank,” he goes on. “For almost all our projects, we hydroseed, with straw mulch on top, then come back and spray a tackifier on top of that. It’s a three-step process: seeds, fertilizers, lime, and slickifier, then straw mulch-2 tons per acre-then tackifier blended with hydromulch, to keep it all in place. On most jobs we run two trucks: one for hydroseeding and tackifier, one for ground preparation.
“An average job will use 2,500 bales of straw, which we have shipped to the site. Vendors also ship seed to the site-very convenient for us. As for the water we’ll need, our machines have pumps on them; we pull water from streams, or often there are water tanks onsite.”
Seeding species vary. “At power plants, grasses and clover are specified by American Electric Power; the specific mixes vary from plant to plant. For highway work, we do that by plan, specified by ODOT, its mixes one through eight. Sometimes it’s wildflowers, sometimes “˜roadside’ mix, turf plant mixes. Planting wildflowers that don’t have to be mowed is an upcoming trend. We do a lot of crown vetch mix for ODOT, and some wildflowers are added after the mix.”
Watters can’t say enough about his Bowie machines. “Bowie is fantastic. For example, we had a machine that went out on a Monday, to be used by a crew that had mobilized Sunday night. The machine needed repair the Friday before. Bowie made sure we had the parts-they UPS-ed them overnight-so we could get back on the road. I swear by these guys; we work with them directly to order parts, but we bought the machines from Larry Barch of Midwest Bowie in Grove City, OH.”
When asked if he’d replace his current machines with Bowies, Watters said, “Yes, but I don’t know when-they really last. We still have our first machine. We go pretty crazy on maintenance-the machines are rinsed after every use, and after four years of hard work, we usually have them blasted and repainted. Actually, we have a 1980s model we bought used; it’s been repainted, re-decaled, and still running strong.”
Of course, every hydroseeding job needs seed, and many Michigan erosion control companies depend upon Brighton, MI’s Rhino Seed & Landscape. However, 2011 was rough.
Working in Colorado’s Piceance Basin involves steep terrain and semiarid conditions.
Bulldozers with cleats track the slopes to prepare a seedbed.
It Takes a Tough Skin to Sell Seed in This Market
“2011 was a “˜down’ year for us, in restoration work,” says Ted Clark of Dan’s Excavating in Shelby Township, MI. “There was some federal road work, but it was a wet spring. Then we got 90-degree weather, with no rain, for two months-which wiped out all what we’d done in the spring. It would’ve been nice to water those sites, to save the work, but it’s usually not in the budget, nor feasible, to water 50 to 100 acres. We don’t do any commercial work, but we do road projects, preparing sidewalks, and so on. Maybe things will change next year, and we’ll have more than we can deal with.”
“We do work for Michigan DOT, although we didn’t do any in 2011,” says Joe Servinski, owner of Midland, MI’s Servinski Sod Service. “It’s been a slim year for everybody. We do all kinds of landscaping work-residential, commercial, and highways. Seed mixes depend upon what the specs call for; anything we put in is whomever’s project specs-but we use Rhino Seed, as we have since we started business in 1967.”
Servinski lays down seed with a hydroseeding machine. “Everything is hydroseeded; sometimes we drill seed, sometimes we use straw mulch or straw blankets-whatever works to get good growth on a site. The past few summers, it seems we always got drought conditions; then this spring we got lots of rain. However, we were pretty lucky-we had no re-dos. But then, sometimes we double up on seed or apply tackifier, to make sure everything holds.”
Getting More Fiber Into the Gas Industry
In its two years of existence, Triton Environmental LLC of Commerce City, CO, has learned that diversification is a key to stability. “From my perspective, we were very busy in 2011 and didn’t see a slowdown in hydraulic products at all, but we diversify,” says owner Dean Lamanna. “Hydroseeding products are a big part of our business. We do some light manufacturing, but we also distribute blankets and other EC products. A lot of what we sell comes from Fiber Marketing International [FMI] in Spokane, WA.”
Although the business is young, Lamanna and his partner have been in the erosion control industry for many years. “We distribute all FMI’s hydroseeding products, working with site owners or project contractors who do the work. Working on a site, we can offer it all-from soil tests to independent agronomists with advice on how to control the erosion and treat the soil. With our help, you can have almost a turnkey operation.
“One of our strengths is our experience in the industry; we have a lot of tech knowledge and bring it to bear,” he goes on. “FMI has done a fantastic job, making products for us for our customer base. Contractors ask us what we recommend-maybe they need to know what product to use, the regulations in the area. Every job’s different; that’s what’s fun in this business. At the end of the day, if we don’t get it to grow we’re not successful.”
“Triton has provided us with great service,” says Bryan Whiteley of Colorado’s Encana Natural Gas. “They’ve never pushed products on us and we’re not pigeon-holed into product lines. Since we’re the specifier, we look for products “˜good enough’ at the lowest cost; Triton gives us items to test and use.”
Whiteley manages projects over 900,000 net mineral acres for the company; many of his projects are located in Colorado’s Piceance Basin. “I assign projects to various contractors. We’re dealing with steep, varied terrain-from 4,000- to 10,000-foot elevation, bust mostly pinion juniper woodlands. It’s semi arid, almost desert, with less than 13 inches of moisture per year. Sometimes it takes over a year or two for native plants to establish themselves.”
In its search for natural gas, Encana disturbs soil. Once a site is established, well pads must be built, as well as the access roads to allow trucks to them. Compressor stations that pump the gas must also be built; a full working site can range from 5 to 20 acres. All this construction happens on various land plots; some land Encana owns, some is federal or state land, and still other plots are held in private hands. No matter who owns the soil, however, Encana must conserve it.
“When we build a new road, we immediately revegetate the slopes,” Whiteley explains. “Access roads can range in length from 100 feet to 10 miles. Any topsoil that sits longer than a month gets revegetated. I do the revegetation and reclamation plans; we contract the hydroseeding work. Well pads, sites that range in size between 5 and 13 acres, get initial coverage; we stockpile the topsoil and reseed it when the pad is finished. Facilities such as compressor stations get revegetated as soon as the site reaches its final stage; we re-contour the soil and seed it. Pipelines also run through these areas. When all construction is finally done, we remake the land’s original contours and seed. Contours can vary-sometimes the area is flat, sometimes it’s steep.” Depending upon the surrounding environment, seed mixes can change from site to site, but the crews’ mulching practices remain the same throughout. “Between new construction and reclamations, we can have five to 30 projects going at a time, with each site sized between 5 and 20 acres.”
Access can be a problem. “When we first start on a site, it’s difficult, but once we have roads and pads put in, it’s easier. Our biggest difficulty is obtaining water. We’ve contracted tanker trucks-someone hauls in water 24/7-and we also use storage containers so the hydroseeding machines aren’t waiting for water.”
Just as the gas work goes on all year, so does the land reclamation. “We seed year round. Yes, we get snow, but if we know that, we just manage the project to seed when there isn’t any snow. However, we can seed in snow up to 4 to 6 inches deep. If you apply your seed hydraulically, including all amendments and hydraulic mulch, this process ends up melting most of the snow.
“Amendments include composted poultry manure for a base, humates, and mycorrhiza,” he goes on. “Triton makes us a custom mix so that all comes in one bag, and also sells us products for surface management, such as wattles, blankets, and wildlife fencing. We don’t use silt fences in the Piceance Basin; we’ve banned them because they are high maintenance, from wind and wildlife damage.”
As the sites are challenging, Whiteley admits, “There can be some bad years getting seeds to start, but we’ve developed practices for good results. In some places during 2011, we had 100% coverage in one year, although growth can sometimes take two years. We have to plant lower-maintenance species, and take into account that different habitats require different seeds-predominantly grasses, but also forbs and shrubs.” After planting, there’s still work to be done: “We have to manage annual and perennial weeds-invasives, or plants that are not listed with the different counties where our sites are located. Weeds such as napweeds are invasive,” he sighs.
Although plants might be hard to establish, are many of the jobs covered in one pass? “No. We often have to touch up sites, because we work year round, and sometimes the conditions aren’t the best.”
