Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Regarding this last point, sometimes suitable plant materials can be salvaged and transplanted
from a nearby site that will be developed in the near future. Some organizations have established
native plant salvage nurseries using volunteers to dig up and pot native plants from proposed proj-
ect sites with the permission of the project developer and property owner. These plants are later
made available to native plant revegetation projects at a nominal cost.
PLANNING FOR SALVAGED PLANT MATERIAL
It should be determined early in the design stage whether salvage plants are going to be a part
of the project. In colder latitudes, it is not feasible to salvage plants during the winter when the
ground is frozen. Therefore, it is important to schedule the constraints into the overall project
schedule during the design stage. This will prevent unnecessary delays during the implementation
phase. It is important to have a good understanding of when a site will be ready to receive salvaged
material and when that material has to be removed from the donor site.
In some cases, you will not have an option of waiting. Providing an interim holding location
for the transplant specimens may be an option. However, doing this can be stressful to the plants,
so you need to evaluate the duration between translocation operations to allow sufficient time for
the plants to recover from the shock of the move. Several factors and conditions must be evaluated
to transplant specimens from donor sites. First, the soil is similar to the donor site and in the case
of wetlands has the same physical characteristics. Also, supplemental watering should occur im-
mediately after placement. Watering will help settle the soil around the root ball to minimize air
pockets. Finally, in the case of moving succulents such as cactus, a holding period aboveground
to permit broken roots to callous is required prior to placing succulents in the ground. This will
greatly reduce the incidence of bacterial infection through the roots. Some advantages and disad-
vantages of translocation plant materials follow:
Advantages
• Introduces mature specimens on-site immediately
• Significantly augments visual aspects of the project
• Introduces a higher species diversity than is typically possible with seeding and planting
from nursery stocks (this is especially effective with marshes, grasses, and many understory
plants of riparian systems)
• Relocated root systems with soil around the plants will also contain numerous organisms
that can colonize the site typically faster than if emigrating on-site from adjacent areas.
Disadvantages
• May require unique or larger equipment than is typically present on a project site
• Requires conditions to be successful (to get the equipment close to the plant, there must
be a clear area around the specimen or at least on one side)
• Depending upon the equipment needed, the cost can be high and can require adjusting
the design approach.
• Ground must be sufficiently firm to support the equipment used to translocate the plant.
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