Planting Services
Good planters can make or break a large restoration project.
More important, however, is who lays it out.
Planning
Deploying large numbers of professional planters taking plenty of planning. Coordinating the arrival of plants, setting up storage locations, and getting the planters acquainted with the site puts the project manager under a lot of stress.
High-volume planting teams are accustomed to travel and working in new locations. Some teams travel from planting site to planting site throughout the planting season with few breaks in between.
Technique
High-volume planting should be performed by experienced adults. The work is hard and requires both focus and stamina.
Volunteers and young people are often easily distracted and planting quality can wane after just a few days.
The role of the lead ecologist or project manager is critical to coaching and maintaining good planting technique from the first day to the last.
Teamwork
The best high-volume planting teams are accustomed to working with each other and can rotate themselves through the high-intensity and low intensity roles, keeping everyone fresh and safe.
Several support roles are normally part of a high-volume planting team, including runners, counters, and quality control.
The project manager has the overall responsibility for planting quality and often splits their time beween planting and managing.
Layout
Perhaps the most important role on a high-volume planting team is the lead ecologist, who can also be the project manager. The lead ecologist’s role is to personally lay out most of the plants into the exact spot they want them planted, to maximize their habitat potential and their survivability.
Layout follows the contours of the land and the moisture content of the soil. The lead ecologist has the master plan clearly in their mind at all times, seeing the forest ahead.
Quality Control
Even the best planters can get tired or make mistakes. Each day, one person is chosen to stop planting early and to audit the day’s work, checking each plant (where possible) and replanting any that don’t meet our planting quality standards.
Rotating people through the quality control role helps to reinforce good planting technique in the team.
It is far less costly to build quality into the initial planting than to return and replant under warranty.
Precision Planting
Wetland planting requires both awareness and precision. Wetland species are highly sensitive to water depth and should be planted in bands representing each 6″ elevation change.
High-volume wetland plantings require surveying equipment to clearly delineate each planting depth and the planting team being constantly aware of the depth that they are working in.
