Invasive Species Control, Ecological Restoration & Maintenance
restoring ECOSYSTEMS…
is what we do. Today’s wildlife, and their habitats, are oft-disturbed, and our job is to make them healthy.
“Ecological Restoration” is a general term that encompasses many different construction techniques and strategic approaches aimed at restoring ecological health to the land. Often, these techniques and approaches have to be customized and adapted to unique conditions, and can always be optimized using the science and practice of phenology. NCS creates stable, diverse natural communities by timing our techniques when animals and plants need them most.
Invasive Species Control
NCS assists private and public land managers, CISMAs, and community leaders in conrolling invasive species in southeast Michigan. We offer a range of services including preventing, identifying, reporting and managing exotic weeds - including winter discounts on brush and weed removal from landscapes, gardens, and natural areas! While invasive species cutting and treatments are main practices (and can be done at a winter discount!), there are many practices that encompass an integrated approach. Our experienced professionals have innovated and learned these specialized techniques over many years and hundreds of projects, integrating GIS, biologists with decades of agency planning experience, and highly skilled applicators.
Maintenance
Maintaining native landscapes and natural areas are what’s called ‘stewardship’. It’s the routine action taken to sustain the aesthetic and ecological integrity of a restoration site. This practice is the foundation of our company and is considered our highest priority. What happens if there’s no stewardship? Just like you wouldn’t leave your lawn un-mowed or your yard without maintenance, a natural area needs to be cared for as well.
Once a natural area is created, restored, or enhanced, it must be stewarded in order to thrive. Without it, it will become overgrown with invasive and weedy species that are detrimental to the site. The goal of natural area stewardship is to prevent the invasives from growing and thereby allowing the native plants and flowers to flourish. A thriving native environment attracts pollinators such as bees, butterflies, and dragonflies along with an increase of birds and other animals that depend on native plants for survival.
And because mother nature is so fickle, every year at each project site is different. Rain, fire, flood and drought all have an effect. If you try to predetermine a specified number of visits to a project, it’s highly likely that the project won’t look nearly as good as it could. Mother Nature is unpredictable and stewardship needs to occur when the timing is right for each project, and cannot be predetermined.
A best practices approach to stewardship puts the project on a performance plan where we get together with our clients and determine success criteria based on an increasing number of native plants and decreasing number of invasive species. We work year-round to meet and exceed the success criteria – making the project a success.
Some of our stewardship techniques include:
Monitoring
Mowing brush & weeds
Prescribed fires
Brush cutting
Applying herbicides
Hand-pulling weeds
Releasing biological control organisms
NCS’ range of Ecological Restoration services include:
Invasive Species Control - spray treatment and monitoring
Biomass Removal - precision mowing, hydro-axing, cutting treatments
Restoration + Phytoremediation Planting
Erosion Control- Shoreline, Streambank, + Slope Stabilization
Natural Area Management - Forest management, Seasonal monitoring/maintenance, GIS and planning
Construction Management, Erosion & Sedimentation Control, Contractor Oversight
Wildlife Habitat Structures - Rootwads, Snags, Nest mounds, Hibernaculae, Basking logs, Provide & Install
Biological Control
Please see our related design, consulting, and native landscaping services pages, and Contact Us to link your plan to winter 25% OFF DISCOUNT action! https://www.naturalcommunityservices.com/take-action/
WINTER DISCOUNTS! NCS offers 20% off Design, Invasive brush control, volume & winter site assessment, grants, forestry consulting, live staking/bioengineering, native seed sowing, Phragmites brush-hogging, woody invasive species control & related work done in winter! CONTACT US now - info@naturalcommunityservices.com or 248-513-1909
