Finger
Lakes Conservation Services has experience
with:
REVEGETATION
OF
MINE LAND
LANDFILL CAPS
CONSTRUCTION DISTURBANCE
FAILED SLOPES
DRY SITES AND WET SITES
The Three “Rs”:
Revegetation, Reclamation,
and Restoration.
Revegetation is what happens on sites that
have a fair to good soil resource base, and for some reason the
owner desires a change in vegetative cover. Perhaps farmland
is going back to woods, or cool season grass lawn is going to
native grass meadow. Maybe a created wetland is being installed.
Species used may be modest in number or extensive; single or
multiple cover types may be planted.
Reclamation is what happens on disturbed soils
that are often denuded or poorly vegetated. We have worked on
mine sites, landfills, failed slopes and construction sites where
disturbance has greatly altered the soil resource. These sites
do not have natural soil conditions. They can be vegetated with
a long-term expectation that plant diversity will improve over
time. However, we recommend that the first priority should be
site stability. Long-term vegetative objectives should be considered
during the reclamation process and front-loaded into the planting
scheme as appropriate.
Restoration is a term
that, in our opinion, is greatly overused, though we admit
it is a very popular concept among those who consider themselves
to be ecologically aware. True restoration is an act of nature,
not man, and occurs in time frames and with complexity beyond
our capabilities. Anyway, if global warming is driving climate
change then “restoration“ becomes
somewhat nebulous in the grand scheme.
If you have a disturbed site and you need functional
stabilization and site reclamation, or if you want to revegetate
a site with native or benign introduced species perhaps we
can be of assistance. Call us.
