DLZ’s landscape architects carefully select plant species on each of our projects to meet clients’ specific needs, and these selections frequently include native plants. Let’s talk about four great reasons for utilizing native plants on your next project.

#1 – Lower Maintenance and Increased Sustainability.

The number one request we hear from clients is for low maintenance landscapes. One of the best ways we can accommodate this is by specifying native plants. These plant species are acclimated to the soil, temperature, and rainfall conditions of the project area. This means they are likely to utilize less fertilizer and pesticides and require less irrigation throughout their lives, which conveniently may translate into lower annual costs for your organization.

#2 – Avoid Contributing to Degradation of Natural Resources.

We have all seen the lovely white blooms of the Callery pear along roadsides in the spring or the bright hues of purple loosestrife along ditches and streams. Beautiful, right? WRONG. These plants and others like them are taking over natural areas, putting native species at risk of endangerment and lowering the biodiversity within our landscapes. Invasive plants are not only degrading our plant ecosystems, but they also contribute to maintenance issues both on traditional commercial, municipal, and residential project sites and within our natural areas such as state parks. The costs of removal, chemical treatments, and revegetation can really add up; Invasive species cost the U.S. over $120 billion in damages every year, according to publications from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Unfortunately, many species that are considered invasive are still for sale in the nursery industry, such as barberry, wintercreeper, English ivy, and Norway maples. To increase your knowledge before your next project review or your next trip to the home improvement center, check out the available resources listed below and know what to avoid.

#3 – Meet Permitting Requirements. 

Permit agencies such as the Indiana Department of Natural Resources require native species for mitigation on projects. Most agencies can provide a list of preferred plants that are native to your state and region. It is important to note that frequently ‘straight species’ natives are required. ‘Cultivars’ (a plant selected for desirable characteristics that can be maintained by propagation) are often restricted as they do not provide the same genetic diversity as a straight species. They may also lack features of the straight species such as seed, nectar, and pollen production.

#4 – Increase Wildlife Habitat.

Birdwatching in Spring 2020 may have enjoyed more popularity than ever before. Using native plants can attract wildlife to your backyard by providing food and shelter. Certain species have greater wildlife value based on fruit and seed timing and supply as well as plant structure for shelter and nesting. Native flowering plants can help attract pollinators. Reducing lawn areas and replacing this with native plantings promotes biodiversity, reduces chemical use and air pollution, and increases the opportunity for habitat.

Resources.

The Indiana Native Plant Society (indiananativeplants.org) provides information on landscape worthy native plants, buying resources, Indiana’s invasive plant list, and many more educational materials.

The Center for Invasive species and Ecosystem Health (invasive.org) is a governmental and university partnership that provides invasive species lists, maps, and photos.

Many state natural resources departments also publish lists of invasive plants.

The Audubon Society provides a native plant database at https://www.audubon.org/native-plants.

The U.S. Forest Service provides information on plant hardiness zones, landscaping for wildlife, and other topics at https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/Native_Plant_Materials/Native_Gardening/index.shtml

Penn State Extension offers many resources on landscaping for wildlife such as this article https://extension.psu.edu/landscaping-for-wildlife-trees-shrubs-and-vines 

DLZ is expanding its’ conventional drilling capabilities with a compact, multi-function Geoprobe drill rig. Our new, all-terrain mounted drill rig, a Geoprobe 3126GT, broadens our subsurface investigation abilities. Although small in size and weight, the new rig allows us to access locations our larger and heavier rigs could not easily reach. Its articulated mast gives us the ability to drill on uneven terrain or at odd angles, which would typically be difficult with a conventional rig. Equipped with numerous safety features, including an inline drilling system to eliminate aligning the automatic hammer over the drill rod, a common pinch point, the Geoprobe 3216GT comes packed with all the capabilities of our larger, conventional geotechnical rigs, but in a small package.

CONE PENETRATION TESTING

For over 50 years, DLZ has offered traditional auger and mud rotary with standard penetration test (SPT), undisturbed tube sampling, piston, and Dennison sampling, as well as NQ, HQ, PQ wireline, and conventional rock coring. We are delighted to bring state-of-the-art, wireless Cone Penetration Testing (CPT) (ASTM D5778) to our subsurface investigation offerings. The CPT system is used in conjunction with our conventional drilling to rapidly characterize subsurface conditions and estimate the geotechnical parameters of the materials in the subsurface. The rig is factory equipped with integrated CPT head-feed rate controls and cone overload protection. It has a maximum of 36,000 pounds of downforce and 48,000 pounds of retraction force. The operator uses a laptop computer to monitor and collect the CPT data, including cone tip pressure, sleeve friction, pore pressure, and tilt angle from the CPT tool string. The rig can also add sensors like seismic or other geo-environmental logging tools.

A MAINSTAY OF ENVIRONMENTAL SAMPLING

After 20 years, we are very excited to announce that Direct Push (ASTM D6282) sampling is back at DLZ. This drilling method is a mainstay of environmental sample collection. Fast and efficient, Direct Push sampling has a small borehole diameter and generates no waste soil cuttings for later disposal. Plastic liners inside the tooling capture the soil and minimize the potential for cross-contamination of the sample. Additional capabilities include in situ discrete water sampling used to profile a groundwater aquifer and installing conventional monitoring wells and prepacked monitoring well screens through the tool string. We have several experienced Direct Push operators on our staff, including our first operator from 25 years ago.

DECADES OF DRILLING SERVICES

DLZ has provided geotechnical drilling services for a wide range of structures. With this new Geoprobe drill rig, we now maintain 11 drill rigs, various support vehicles, and equipment capable of providing most types of rotary, coring, and auger drilling throughout the Midwest.