Biotic Soil Technologies (BSTs) and Native Vegetation for Effective Waste Containment Closure - A Midwest Case Study

A common issue encountered when attempting vegetative restoration for successful landfill closure is the lack of available quality topsoil to introduce a suitable environment for establishing sustainable vegetation. In most standard practices, topsoil is stripped and stockpiled until another landfill cell reaches capacity and closure commences. When stockpiling topsoil, the amount of topsoil available for reuse is often lacking, as a result of the newly introduced terrain. The depth of topsoil that naturally and originally supported vegetation on the pre-landfill, horizontal footprint will now have a much greater surface area to cover as the typically flat terrain has expanded into substantial hills. Further, this topsoil that may have originally had properties indicative of healthy soil will have significantly degraded over the time period that the substrate is stockpiled and before it will be utilized on cells being prepared for closure.
Biotic Soil Technology (BST) is a generic term to describe the emerging field of manufactured growth media containing biodegradable fibers, biostimulants, biological inoculants, and other components engineered to cost-effectively increase organic content, accelerate sustainable vegetative establishment, and promote regeneration of denuded soils.
While BSTs are gaining wider notoriety and have been proven in countless climates and applications, unjustified skepticism around their efficacy in conjunction with native vegetation exists. In this presentation, we will review a local case study in the Midwestern US that outlines the site assessments required to determine the suitability and need for BST, key parameters when selecting a native vegetative seed blend, the execution of the revegetation plan, and the results of the project.