North American Green HydraCM Quickens Vegetation Growth Background For Christ the King Cathedral School in Lubbock, Texas, expansion was a necessity. With the school incorporating K-12 classes, the school grounds required additional building space. One construction project required the relocation of the practice football field to make way for the school expansion. Problem The project site was being built from scratch on a site near the school that had previously been an open pasture. With limited time before the fall football season, the practice field needed to be completed and fully vegetated within a few months. Selecting the correct products to control erosion and aid in vegetation reestablishment would be essential to the success of this project. As a community volunteer John Wanjura with the USDA assisted in the design of the football field project. Solution The top 6-8 inches of silt loam soil were prepared and leveled with the use of a Grader/Maintainer. Herbicides were then used on the field to kill off any remaining unwanted vegetation. Soon after the site grading was complete, the irrigation system was installed followed by top soil preparations. The difficult part of reestablishing dense vegetation on the field was then addressed. After conferring with other engineers at the USDA, Wanjura decided that the use of a hydromulch was needed to prevent soil erosion and to aid in vegetation establishment. North American Green’s HydraCM hydromulch was evaluated based on several of its performance properties. The proprietary blend of straw, reclaimed cotton plant material, tackifiers and polymers of the HydraCM allows for high moisture and soil retention. The HydraCM mulch was applied on Memorial Day 2008 with a Bermuda seed mix along with a blend of fertilizers. Establishing Vegetation with HydraCM on a Sports Field Application CASE STUDY Volume 11 Number 3 14649 Highway 41 North Evansville, Indiana 47725 812-867-6632 1-800-772-2040 FAX 812-867-0247 www.nagreen.com Updated 10/2008 View of the fully established football field six weeks after application of HydraCM