Wednesday, May 3, 2017

The Vital Tips On Erosion Control Blankets

By Ann Reynolds


These materials used to cover soil aid in preventing or in other words controlling soil loss by offering protective cover like a mat that is manufactured or engineered using straw, plant fibers, wood, jute, plastics, nylon, cotton and paper. This method is mostly used in areas where there are slopes and in channels where erosion hazard generally is quite high and there is hardly any plant growth to provide enough protective cover. In areas such as drought stricken areas, erosion control blankets can come in handy to curb soil loss menace.

This practice or method is mainly used for controlling loss of soil caused by water as a result of heavy rains. Mulching or mats are effective techniques used in minimizing erosive effect of splash erosion. The mats are place on newly planted soil or bare lands. The use of mats usually stabilizes the covered soil and protects the seeds that are planted. The chances of sediments being introduced into your land are minimized and one can have a weed free farm.

These control blankets are specified by designers basically to protect or provide cover to open areas, graded slopes or drainage swales hence allowing germination of seeds. In highly erodible areas some contractors may choose to use these mats control erosion temporary. To be clear enough, these mats are generally biodegradable materials that people used to protect unprotected slopes and some channel areas mostly from water and wind erosion.

The materials used to make the blanket are straws, coconut, wood excelsior and in some cases geotextile woven materials like polypropylene. These mats are more effective for stabilizing soils found on steep areas to moderate slopes, drainage swales, new landscaped areas and ditches about to be seeded or planted. Other additional advantages include, the use of mats will increase or facilitate water infiltration into soil.

The blanket if properly installed will provide proper aeration to the soil as well as preventing loss of water by the soil. There are a few types of these mats that one can choose from. The first type is netting which can be natural fiber or synthetic mesh that is installed over exposed area to prevent soil from these areas from being eroded.

Apart from providing cover, these mats regulate the temperatures in the soil and increase water retention levels by soil. One of the few limitations of mulching is that is requires proper selection and appropriate installation of blankets for them to be effective. It is known that these mats are not appropriate for slopes that are deemed to be greater than 3:1.

Straw mulch is another material to consider since this material may even be disc-anchored basically into the soil, covered with netting or hydraulically bonded. One should also purpose to preserve more of the existing vegetation since the goal here is to have as much vegetation as possible. This curbs soil loss and enhances the appearance of a property which may later be turned into more cash for the property.

Visual impact to people around the area should also be carefully considered. Do not use materials that are not environmental friendly. Synthetic materials are known to be biodegradable though their rate of decomposing is very slow compared to natural materials.




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