Willow Spiling, Brush Mattress, Root Wads
Willow Revetment: Wherever possible willow (or even poplar) is collected locally within the catchment to maintain local biodiversity and also reduce project costs.
Alternatively, on sites where no natural willow is found, Salix can harvest live material from our own willow coppice.
Live Willow Staking is a method of restoring tree cover to eroding banks, even in higher energy environments.
This method is very cost effective and allows marginal vegetation to establish amongst the stakes. Black poplar can also be used successfully in certain applications.
Brush Mattress: A live willow brush mattress is capable of withstanding very high flow velocities and is therefore suitable in higher energy, mobile gravel bed rivers. The branches absorb flow energy, trap sediment and seed and as a result evolve with high biodiversity value.
Willow Spiling is a traditional technique which should only be used in low energy situations, but is a good method of retaining vertically eroded riverbanks in areas where regarding the bank in not possible.
Whole Tree Root Revetments (Root Wads): Root Wads are upturned tree roots with comparable bulk weight and size of a gabion or small blockstone.
Root Wads are ideal where water depth is too great for living bioengineering solutions or where flow velocities are high. Root Wads provide excellent cover for fish and deflect flows away from eroding or vulnerable banks.
