Peter Stewart, Lands, Environment and Cultural Heritage Manager for Nacap, knows the importance of getting erosion control done right—especially on projects in steep country with dispersive soils.
“The erosion control is a large component of any civil job and this one in particular ’cause there’s quite steep country and there’s dispersive soils,” Peter says. “So we wanted to get in front of the problem beforehand by purchasing a unit like this so that we could self-perform the hydromulch.”
The Advantage of Erosion Control
By bringing hydromulching in-house, Nacap gained more control over timing and seed quality.
“By engaging a contractor, we weren’t privy to the quality of the seed that was going to be used,” Peter explains. “What we’ve found with it, particularly on this property and it’s happened before, is that a lot of farmers, if we’re doing any reseeding, they want a particular blend for their property. And so this has given us the opportunity to mix and match to what the landholders want. It’s their land so we wanna make sure that we’re doing the best by them.”
That ability to act quickly has also made a difference. “We found that hydromulching when we want to do it, which is pretty much straight away after works have concluded, is the best way to get the best result for the landholders.”
Protecting Land and Reputation With Erosion Control
Nacap applies hydromulch immediately after reinstating topsoil to protect it. “We’re only allowed one entrance into the wind farm as we go, we’re setting it up, putting the top soil back down, hydromulching it, giving it a bit of water to protect it straight away,” Peter says. “That’s in our interest ’cause there is weeds around and not serious weeds, but they’re serious enough for the farmers to be worried about them. And so we wanna make sure that we’re not impacting on that. We have strict weed hygiene requirements for this job.”
Previous experiences with contractors underscored the benefits of the VX2000. “We’ve had larger companies do the hydromulch and then they missed a lot of areas and we didn’t get the results from them. I don’t know if they were using substandard seed, but we’ve got good seed, we’ve got a good rapport with all the local suppliers.”
Built for Flexibility in Erosion Control
The VX2000’s versatility is another advantage. “We can use this machine for different purposes. Gives us the flexibility to put the right seed mix in in the right place,” Peter explains. “We’ve gone through and researched what the best seed is to hold the top soil in place. So if it’s flat ground we can use a different seed bank of what the farmers like for their pasture. If it’s for protection of waters and the steeper areas, we’ll put a different seed mix in.”
The Result Everyone Sees With Erosion Control
Peter is clear in his recommendation: “I’d recommend the Vortec VX2000 to any civil company that deals with topsoil. Any civil works impacts on the ground. That’s what’s left afterwards that people see and that’s what I get impressed by where we’ve done the hydromulching now using the Vortec VX2000. That’s come up really well and that’s what the local landholders are seeing now. ’Cause they’ve been here, they’ve put up a lot of cars and machines going around, but now that they’ve got the finished product, they’ll be quite satisfied.”
