Minimizing Damage Before and After Wildfires

Minimizing Damage Before and After Wildfires

There has long been a lot of conversation surrounding the existence of wildfires and the damage they cause landscapes and surrounding environments such as the air and possible water sources, etc. Here in the United States, wildfires were of massive concern and all over the news on the West Coast. In fact, just this month (December, 2017), fires surged through Sonoma County, California devastating 28,000 acres of land, causing over 20,000 evacuations, killing at least 17 people, and leaving widespread devastation in it’s wake. These fires are not uncommon.

Why does this matter?

Well, wildfires can be much more widespread in scope than just the immediately effected area. For instance, when vegetation that provides food, heat, water, clean air, lumber, and more uses gets is lost in these tragic infernos, it’s inevitable that surrounding communities, and far-reaching places will feel the effect of these losses. For one, it’s an obvious net loss, and, consequently, resources need to be pulled in from elsewhere to make up for the loss.

So, the question is, how do we minimize damage of these freak occurrences? Is it possible?

The short is, “absolutely.”

But it’s a study. And a serious one at that. It’s something the requires taking a close look at landscapes and the inherent makeup of land that is more often subject to wildfires than others. For instance, wildfires thrive off of dry and arid conditions. So, an obvious first line of thought is in the soil – which of course is something we’re very into here at Global Environmental Solutions. Not only does the soil play a direct role into the fertileness of vegetation and of “life” in general, it also can play an important role in spread of fires.

For instance, making an attempt at maintaining a level of moisture in soil can help retard the spread of wildfire. This can be achieved with an application of products such as our DirtGlue® soil stabilization solution which aides in “compacting” soil and keeping it bound together more succinctly to hold in moisture and cancel out pockets that can further dry out surrounding terrain. Our DirtGlue hydromulch blend solution can also help lock moisture in and aide in the development of more fertile environments for the spread of vegetation which can consequently add more tempered degrees of humidity and moisture to there air and soil – which, as we know, fire does not like.

Another study is in how a terrain slopes and slides. By building up terrain in areas you can legitimately change the course of potential wildfires, which will greatly decrease spread and saturation of flames – giving firefighters more of a fighting chance of remediating a threat.

As is evident, at the heart of all this talk about wildfires is the effect such a development can have on an ecosystem. A healthy ecosystem is vital to sustain life. Minimizing damage by generating preventative measure is a thought worth pondering. And, if you are hit with this type of devastation, getting an ecosystem back up and running at a healthy rate is a must. Our solutions can help you germinate and get vegetation back in production, which will help pump life back into an existing ecosystem.

If you’ve put thought into it, give us a call to learn how we can help facilitate stronger, healthier results. If you haven’t thought about it, now’s the time – we’re here to help consult you through the ins, outs, and potential throes of wildfires.

Trails & Rails – DustLess, DirtGlue, DirtGlue Polymer Pavement System

Masonry Waterproofing

As you likely know, Global Environmental Solutions is all about the study of terrain and facilitating the engagement of products that help our customers take better control of whatever terrain and unique project their faced with. In short, we’re our customer’s best friend. There are myriad options on the market, but there exists no line of products as tried and true as the GES line in the face of both functionality and environmental wellbeing. Further, to optimize the impact of our solutions on your project, we will customize solutions to meet your unique requirements. This isn’t a “one size fits all” kind of operation/organization!

A couple of areas our suite of products is greatly suited for are the cultivation and maintenance of the vast occurrences of rails and trails. There are countless of each throughout the world, and both require unique applications related to the users end-goal(s).

With the construction or revamp of a rail system, the terrain is the most important part of the equation assuming you’re hoping for a smooth train ride through-and-through. When you look at them, railways are “built up.” They’re typically not simply “flat,” but are developed on level ground atop controlled “banking” that helps prevent tie rot and other environmental variables.

When it comes to trails, state agencies have made it a part of their annual budget cycle to repair, revamp, and construct new walking trails through the woods, and/or around town and state parks. Some of these trails are literally just earth – dirt, roots, gravel – some of them are built up and paved for safe walking practices.

How can Global Environmental Solutions help create strong rail and trail systems?

Here are several products that you can benefit from utilizing:

  • DustLess® – Similar “topical” products merely coat terrain to enable dust control for a limited amount of time (until the product dries out), but DustLess® is an absolute workhorse when you’re looking to address the most accessible layer of a rail or trail way. While competitor dust suppression treatments coat the dust particles; DustLess®  soaks into the individual soil/dust particles and making them too heavy to move, thus eliminating dust.
  • DirtGlue® – DirtGlue® polymer emulsion is a powerful, high-tech bonding agent specifically engineered to bond soil particles together. This product comes in handy at the outset of a project like trail or rail creation/renovation because it allows you to establish a strong base from which to work without the worry of uncertainty and a variable base of terrain.
  • DirtGlue Polymer Pavement System – The DGE Polymer Pavement System consists of a few of our products rolled into one convenient “kit.” When you’re developing a net new trail system (of the paved variety), and/or a higher end railway system, you need something that is ahead of the curve and sure to address myriad moving pieces and parts. The DGE Polymer Pavement System establishes a solid foundation, a waterproofing agent (TerraDry® ) and a powerful, high-tech bonding agent (DirtGlue® Industrial). It is significantly less expensive to construct and maintain than asphalt or concrete while producing a permanent, hardened surface that equals or exceeds the strength and lifespan of asphalt at the sample application thickness. In short, it insures a durable smooth surface that resists erosion and traffic shear.

When it comes to the development and maintenance of unique trail and railways there are a LOT of options. If you’d like proven experience matched with kindhearted customer service, we’re here to take your call and talk you through your product. Contact us today and we’ll get you on the trial to environmentally sound (and safe!) success.

Global Environmental Solutions: Conquering your unique project goals with customized solutions – yesterday, today, and all your tomorrows.

Bolster the Bottom Line: Keep Your Hydroseeding Equipment Running All Year Round with GES Products

Roadbase Stabilization

We understand that when it comes to hydroseeding and hydromulching you’ve got a lot of options to work with. Options are good. They keep the industry “honest,” or, at least that’s the hope.

Being headquartered in New Hampshire, we’ve been staring at a lot of hydroseeding and hydromulching activity on the side of highways, and the countless arrays of construction projects that happen during the spring, summer, and fall months. Some of it will be considered a success. Some of it “will suffice.” And some of it will fail. It’s a part of the “business.” It’s often not in your best interest to go with “the cheapest quote.”

With that said, we want to be as honest with you as we possibly can. It comes in the form of a proclamation – not because we’re looking to exude a degree of overconfidence – but rather, because our pride and reputation is in the products we produce. Therefore we’re here to tell you that DirtGlue is the finest product on the market when it comes to contractors and their quest to find a multi-faceted solution to their hydroseeding and hydromulching needs and/or operation. Sure, others have likely made the claim, but again, we’re coming at you as unbiased as we can possibly be. When we created our suite of products we studied what others were doing. We got to the root of common problems and improved upon areas of strength and we came up with our own, unique solution that, quite simply, exceeds expectations and flat out lasts. The proof is in the science. The science is in the “glue.”

Consider the following:

Using DirtGlue Polymer Emulsion instead of your regular tackifier when you “get to work” on a project is a much more effective and cost competitive solution when it comes to preventing runoffs and accelerating germination, which is the ultimate goal when you’re hydroseeding, right?

The unique bonding capabilities built in to the inherent core of our polymer technology keep soil, seeds, nutrients, and cellulose mix in place during heavy rains and extreme runoff situations (we’re again looking right at those jobs on the sloping banks at the side of the interstate on our commute to work…)

The long and short of things is this: DirtGlue Polymer Emulsion eliminates costly and time-consuming re-sprayings and touch-ups and every application gains a happy and satisfied customer, and, a well executed, environmentally sound jobsite.

DirtGlue Polymer Emulsion combined with your hydroseeding mix:

  • Holds water in the soil longer (thus feeding into a sought after greenhouse effect)
  • Protects the soil and plants from rapid dehydration
  • Enables two to five days of earlier germination
  • More than a 20% increase in the germination rate of grasses
  • Reduction in soil losses due to strong precipitation (sediment control)
  • Prevention of loss of fines due to wind erosion (dust control)

We all know that cost is at the heart of the things we choose in life. Cheaper is not cheaper in the grand scheme of things. Cheaper means (quite often), lesser quality. And lesser quality gives way to greater margins of error, and, as we mentioned earlier, more follow-up to touch up jobs, and, in some cases, completely redo a task to fulfill a contract agreement. By just adding one cent per square foot, with DirtGlue Polymer Emulsion you are able to guarantee the job and offer peace-of-mind to not only the customer, but also, also, you. You don’t have to worry how it’s going to work, because, quite frankly, it just works. In the end, the cheaper solution will wind up costing you a little bit more at the outset.

And what’s more is this:

The GES line of products can keep your hydroseeding equipment operable and fueling your bottom line for the entire calendar year. Who wouldn’t want to take a more well rounded means of control over their expensive equipment for all four (potential) seasons rather than having it sit idle for many months at a time? How might you achieve this? Let’s give you an overview…

DirtGlue® polymer – This product is used primarily to stabilize embankments to prevent erosion, and help contractors with regulatory issues, erosion control, stockpile capping, and BMPs for SWPPPs
(Spring, Summer, Fall)

DustLess® dust suppressant – Quite simply, apply dust control on high traffic areas and eliminate the need to use water while achieving far superior results.
(Summer, Fall)

ArenaKleen® dust control – Your equipment can be used to apply our ArenaKleen dust control product to riding arenas (both indoor and outdoor), offering safety to not only the horses stomping around in the arena, but people who are subject to the adverse effects of breathing in potential dust threats.
(Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall)

So give us a call and add to your application technology / operative arsenal what many in your industry are already doing – eliminate the seasonality of your business – make it year round!

Traditional Environmental Techniques: An Antique Auto

Equestrian Dust Control

Porsche is a legendary brand. The company traces its roots to the 1940’s when an aging Ferdinand Porsche developed his namesake car. A talented automotive engineer, and founder of the Porsche car company – he is best known for creating the first gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle the Lohner-Porsche, developed in 1894 and marketed from 1900 – 1905 – the Volkswagen Beetle, the Mercedes-Benz SS/SSK, and several other important developments in addition to his famous Porsche automobiles. Porsche also designed the 1923 Benz Tropfenwagen, which was the first racing car with a mid-engine, rear-wheel drive layout. In short, he stayed busy, and as far as the automative industry is concerned, he was an outstanding revolutionary

As they say the rest is history.

As a kid, I was a car nut. Initially American muscle cars. Then having seen the cute (as well as fast and nimble) little Porsche 356’s on TV shows such as the original Mission Impossible series and in movies such as Harper, starring the great actor Paul Newman and several movies with another great actor, Steve McQueen, I became enamored with, and then addicted to these tiny, but amazingly fast, great handling cars. So much so that I joined Porsche Club of America and raced for a time when I was able to afford such luxury and had less concern for my own wellbeing. Eventually Porsches evolved and I graduated from the 356 Porsches to its descendent, the mighty Porsche 911, and then, to its successor, the ultimate Porsche, the 911/930 Turbo. Porsche was one of the first car companies to offer turbos in cars for the general public [albeit only a few with deep pockets as those 930’s were made in extremely limited numbers… we’re talking 1,300 cars on average per year – offered under the “Sonderwunschprogramm” (special order program)].

I’ve followed those vintage 356 Porsches and the actors who drove them over the years. The cars are now very valuable classics and those actors are dead. You can’t hide from Father Time – age catches up with everyone and everything.

Time too has long since caught up with most traditional environmental techniques. They don’t work well enough in many cases and they’re inefficient or relatively ineffective in other cases.

Now, much like Porsche with their new modern, ultra-fast, better, handling, better braking, better fuel economy, modern 911 automotive derivatives for the modern era, here comes Global Environmental Solutions with its DirtGlue Enterprises line of products to provide new modern approaches to environmental products and application techniques.

GES/DGE offers:

  • Extremely long-term dust control without water
  • Paving without asphalt or concrete
  • Hydroseeding/hydromulching without washouts
  • Permanent waterproofing for masonry
  • Chemical roadbase stabilization that is permanent
  • Erosion control that lasts and lasts
  • Dust control that stands up to any and all climate conditions
  • Sediment control at the source instead of silt fence after the fact
  • And, just like Porsche – much, much more…

GES is not just another soil stabilization and dust control company, just as Porsche is not just another car company.

The two of us are entirely different entities serving entirely different markets, but are both highly focused on research, development, and customer service. The goal has always been to provide the best possible results in an industry where ‘good’ just isn’t good enough.

At GES, we strive for technical and ecological superiority with every product we offer, in every project our products are introduced to, 100% of the time. The road we travel on (and may even have had a hand in stabilizing) is that of a joint effort – where success and creativity abound. Ride with us. We’ll get you to where you need to go, and we may even have some fun in the process.

Like Porsche, with GES products there “is no substitute”…

Our Own Chris Rider Featured in Soil Erosion & Hydroseeding Magazine

Chris RiderChris Rider was featured prominently in the March/April edition of Soil Erosion & Hydroseeding Magazine. The article, “A Sticky Business” is an in-depth conversation regarding tackifiers and how to properly and responsibly take control of the earth causing potential difficulty within the environmental confines of your project.

Read it here: http://soilerosiononline.com/article-497-a-sticky-business.html