ROADSIDE REVEGETATION

An Integrated Approach to Establishing Native Plants and Pollinator Habitat

Index

Introduction

The Roadside Revegetation report was written to provide current best practices for planning, designing, and implementing a revegetation project that will also create habitat for pollinators. The report identifies steps and considerations in developing a revegetation project from a variety of perspectives, and presents them in a typical design project order from planning through implementation and maintenance. A diverse writing team of experienced civil engineers, transportation engineers, landscape architects, botanists, geneticists, pollinator conservation specialists, soil science specialists, restoration specialists and environmental protection specialists applied their specific experience and knowledge to this report. Technical aspects of the writing was reviewed by Department of Transportation (DOT) civil engineers and landscape architects and revegetation specialists from several state and federal agencies, who also applied their regional perspective on the planning, design, installation, and maintenance processes.

Users of this report may find it beneficial to review Table 1-1 and the Primer for a quick overview of a revegetation process and an outline of the report chapter contents in order to gain an understanding of the full scope of the report and how it is organized. The Primer also provides an introduction to the online Ecoregional Revegetation Application (ERA) tool and the Native Revegetation Resource Library. The ERA is an extensive ecoregional plant database that also includes pollinator value information for each plant. The ERA provides a list of all native plants within an ecoregion as well as a list of "workhorse" plant species, the primary beneficial native plants for pollinators and roadside revegetation in a specific ecoregion, and then allows designers to download either form of information in a digital spreadsheet for evaluation and manipulation for their project. The Native Revegetation Resource Library is an online depository that contains copies of applicable revegetation and pollinator educational resource material, referenced from other online sources, compiled in this one location for designer convenience.

This report was written by technical experts for the technical experts involved in the revegetation planning, design, and implementation process. Many report topics include regional and optional considerations and techniques that designers can evaluate for applicability to their project conditions. The writers of this report envision the following ways to use this report:

  • Primary Revegetation ReferenceDesigners, revegetation specialists, and contractors can reference the document as they work through revegetation project planning, design, implementation, and monitoring and maintenance.
  • Education Tool—The report may be used in the classroom and field demonstration setting to educate the next generation of designers, installers, and maintenance professionals.
  • Supplemental Information—Using the information to revise and supplement existing agency standards and best practices.
  • Planning Resource—The Table of Contents (TOC) can be used to identify applicable revegetation tasks for specific projects.
  • Scope of Work Development—For creating a revegetation project scope of work for a Request for Qualifications or a Request for Proposal.
  • Scope, Schedule, and Budget Resource—The TOC can be used as a template for creating a list of revegetation tasks for an estimate of labor hours, project budget, and project schedule.
  • Project Team Evaluation—For evaluating the project team strengths and identifying additional sub-consultant expertise that may be needed for the revegetation project.
  • Revegetation Project Agenda Outline—Using the TOC as a project kick-off meeting agenda to discuss revegetation topics and to start team coordination.
  • Operations and Maintenance Report—Portions of the information can be used as an outline of the revegetation project operations and maintenance tasks.
  • Project Management Resource—The client, managers, and team members can identify the revegetation project tasks and then track progress of each task throughout the project duration.