I'm waiting to go to a conservation commission hearing at 6:30 as a matter of fact. I do design work and permitting.

A little net surfing and a lot of funk music on in the background just to get in the right frame of mind. This one is some native plantings and some vista pruning in a buffer to a Coastal Bank, buffer to a Coastal Beach, buffer to Land Under the Ocean, and in a Velocity Flood Zone. The trees were topped years ago, so the pruning may actually help them from breaking under their own weight. I'll let you know how it goes.

I do a lot of mitigation planting plans for construction projects on land within Con-Com's jurisdiction. Down here you could fill a niche by taking on these planting jobs. Too many scapers make mistakes doing them because they do not understand the significance due to lack of experience with the laws and enforcement. What seems like a good idea can be very wrong sometimes.

I don't make their rules. I just learned to work within them. I get a lot of violation enforcement design work because I have done enough to have a good raport with Con-Com and do pretty well for the client through careful design and finding good compromises between the two. It is like solving riddles. It is challenging and fun.

The area in which I work is so highly regulated that to take on a project that deals with ecological restoration work is like being on a suicide mission.
Your firm has to either have a death wish or is dedicated to solely working on these types of projects.

The amount of red tape, reams of application forms and fees, bureacracy , design review board meetings, commission review meetings, code compliance regulatory review boards and all the other agencies that must put their wet stamp of approval on these types of jobs makes them very undesirable.

its a very sad ,sad, sad, state of affairs.

Mich in zonal denial,

When I had a tree service years ago, there were no regulations, no license, and there were so-called "dumps".

I noticed that federally certified organic farmers have to run an office.

The Fitchburg Water Works got no bids.

I lived in a town that had no building code and no building inspector.
But you had to get a NH state insulation permit.
No free-form.
NH took federal money for passing this it turns out. And without debate.

Funny how the Old Man of the Mountain fell down just as New Hampshire became a blue state.

Jeremy-
I have an organic gardening business here in the Lakes Region of NH; I think we have spoken before. Last year I got my NOFA accreditation as an organic land care professional. There is so much to learn. I really need to go back to school for a Master's in an ecology/environmental field. However . . .

Currently, I am doing what I can in terms of restoring/editing woodland areas of my clients' properties and replanting riparian/shoreland areas with native plants supplied by my County Conservation District. This sort of restoration work fits within the "bioengineering" area of restoration and is the least sophisticated. I would like to try some live staking on a property with moderate shoreline erosion this spring but am not certain how my client will respond. As with so many environmental regulations, shoreline protection is difficult to enforce. Environmental stautes/regulations may be well or overly done in Michelle's wealthy Marin County, but not in our part of the country. Clients get skittish when you start talking state regulations, town and conty recomendations, DES regulations, the possibility of fines, etc.

I am far from an expert but am trying to learn. Have been appointed a member of my town's Conservation Commission and am just finishing up my first year. An enlightening experience that has helped me to truly see the other sides of the proverbial coin.

Anyway, laag has some interesting things to say above. Ecological restoration is a very complex area of work/study. Lots of books, journals, websites on ecological restoration. If you are interested, I can e-mail you some sources I have found to be useful.

Ginger

I don't want to give the wrong impression. I am not rebuilding the universe, rerouting rivers, pouring water back into the everglades, or anything. These are usually single family residential properties that have "resource areas" and/or buffers to them. That covers a lot of properties where I live.

Typically, "restoration" usually means giving up lawn or other "developed" areas of the property closest to the resource area and replanting with woody indigenous plants on these projects.

Sometimes it is restoring what someone cut down to create or enhance a view. Those are tough because the property owner has already done something to show he is not trustworthy (even if they have little knowledge of the wetland regulations). You are already on the wrong side of the fence from the get go.

To a degree, much of this is emotion based, as with any board. Once they are PO'ed you lose traction. The hard part is that in this work the property owner often wants to propose things that you know won't fly. In doing so, the board knows that you know, and they can take it a little personally. It is very easy to get the "here he is with another one" reaction if you are not careful. Yet, you have to sell them on your project or it won't fly.

I've worked very hard to substitute aggressive argument for showing the overall positives vs. the overall negatives to the resource and buffer and adjust the clients project to create the most positives. Making the most positive impacts on the resources is what I think is the purpose of these commissions and I think it works well when that happens. However, there are a lot of activists who get on these boards and try to stop every last little thing that falls in their jurisdiction without really looking at the big picture sometimes.

I can tell you that there is more wildlife on this sand bar now than any other time in my 43 years. You want to see a fox or coyote? Go to down town anywhere on Cape Cod and you will eventually see one. What you will see less and less of is views of the ocean and ponds unless you happen to own water front and got your vista pruning approved (2 corridors 25' wide, thinned rather than clear cut with the bottom 5' undisturbed). Try seeing a pond from the road or other public places. The notion of protecting these resources from rich developers is resulting into "grow a thick woody buffer to hide everything from those that can'tafford to own it".

The recreation of nature is displacing all cultural values to a point where we will need to create a Cultural Commission at some point to protect us from isolating ourselves from these other things we protect.

Very good points again, laag. I was making a similar point the other night to our town land use person: a homeowner is not going to want to re-green the brook that sits 50' from his house with a shrub buffer--the brook then won't be able to be seen; the brook is one of the reasons he purchases the property and places the house as close to the brook as possible. A middle ground is needed--low groundcovers, for instance.

My sister lives in Maine and was stopped from selling her riverfront property for several years by one citizen activist and her attorneys; this woman thought she saw rare butterflies on the property, she was worried that new homeowners' dogs' excrement would run into the river, she thought extra people would scare away the waterbirds, etc, etc. She lived on the river herself, had built a big trophy house, had two large dogs, her chemlawn went right down to the river's edge - but she didn't want anyone else spoiling her view. Eventually the land was sold and 5 lots carved out of it.

You wrote: "Typically, "restoration" usually means giving up lawn or other "developed" areas of the property closest to the resource area and replanting with woody indigenous plants on these projects." and "These are usually single family residential properties that have "resource areas" and/or buffers to them. That covers a lot of properties where I live." Same here. That's what I am doing in my business in a few cases and all that I am qualifieed to do. Being on the ConCom and understanding the various views on the restoration issues has opened my eyes, tho'. A middle ground(no pun intended!) where the most positives occur is the best solution.

In my area, though, we are far from having "a thick woody buffer hiding everything from those that can't afford to own it." Lakes and streams are kept from the view of visiting tourists and those who don't own waterfront property by buildings. We have Midas Muffler, Burger King, Trustwotrhy Hardware, Friendly's, several hotels, etc. on lakefront property; the McMansions are what hides the lake from view as you drive along the Lake Shore Drives that the lakefront towns all have. This is New Hampshire.

Just received an excellent shoreline stabilization handbook that I ordered from the Lake Champlain Planning Commission; we are working on a pamphlet for homeowners and developers in our town with reasonable ideas about the interpretation and carrying out of our state shoreline protection act. This is for new construction. At any rate, I have a more moderate view than I did a year ago and value time spent and lessons learned on the ConCom.

Superphosphate,
I think we may operate our businesses at different ends of the spectrum.

It's one thing to ask an organic farmer to have office space and quite another to restore a former wetland after it has been inhabited by the U.S. Army.

Enclosed is an article on the Hamilton restoration project that I have worked on and off ( the residential sector ) for the past several years.

Here is a link that might be useful: 55 million starts restoration project

I just came from a conference on wetland reparation/restoration in Delaware as well as NJ. The focus in Delaware was their transition from tax ditches for storm water management to the creation of wetland habitats in rural areas. The focus on the NJ side was wetland creation/restoration/revival in urban settings--ie. Newark and the NJ Turnpike basin. What struck me about the speakers (other than the absoutely fascinating projects they do) was who they were. The speaker from Delaware worked for the state and does private projects as a sideline. The one from NJ was the largest wetland restoration contractor in the East and works on all types of projects from private properties to many hundreds of acres of tidal marsh. Both were highly specialized and didn't do any other type of work.

Thanks for the great responses, everybody. I asked because it is something that seemed to fit in with what I am already doing (organic landscaping). I know I will need more education, and also I think I should grow my company for a few years, as most projects I have read about seem too big for a one man band. Maine is not highly regulated, so I don't think there is a lot of restoration work being done at the residential level.

Ginger- please do email any sources of info you have, or just post them. Probably other people will be interested, too.

Thanks,
Jeremy B

Jeremy-
Here are 3 books worth reading; they cover both theory and practice, with lots of hands-on, practical advice:

The Once and Future Forest: A Guide to Forest Restoration Strategies
by Leslie Jones Sauer (she is with Andropogon landscape design firm-have you seen her present? she is excellent)

The Sunflower Forest: Ecological Restoration and the New Communion with Nature
by William Jordan

Wetland Creation and Restoration: The Status of the Science by Kusler and Kentula

Ginger

All,

What trees or shrubs you would like to have for restoration that you can't find available?

How about Pitch Pine in 4" x 10" tree bands?

Is this mostly about re creating swamp land?

Recreating swamp land is not what I get involved in. There are lots of wetland resources that are not standing water where I am. And it is not just the wetland, but the buffer to it. Work in a swamp, even sneaky work that someone is trying to get away with, is not usually anything more than the cutting of trees and shrubs or mowing down brush. It is pretty hard to get away with that, much less something else. Anything anywhere near these areas requires permitting, so that any site where "accessory work" might be desired would already have eyes on it.

Usually, someone wants to build a house, addition, or garage that is within 100' of a resource area. They can't alter "swamps" or Coastal Banks, marsh land,... or within so many feet of each depending on the resource. Work in the buffer areas needs to be mitigated. That usually means creating a bigger vegetated buffer using native plants.

It is a very very common thing that a small landscaper could easily specialize in. All it takes is the ability to follow plans and Orders of Conditions and to open communication with local conservation commissions. Soon you would learn a lot and you would be recommended. So many times well established landscape companies do not take the time to follow the plan and Order and make mistakes (I have a big problem with one right now because he keeps trying to short cut). After a while you could get involved with the design and presenting to the commissions for approval. It can be a very small operation with low overhead.

my main business is eco restoration.

i think that its a good little niche, if one would like to enter this part of the landscaping.

but please dont be a hack. i take my work very seriously when it comes to the ecology of where i live. i may not know ecology where u live but that isnt my business. my business is within 40 sq miles of my home and make no mistake about it, i know my area very well. i think that is important in eco work, know ur subject very well.

froggy