Evaluation of erosion control products using natural rainfall events

Five different erosion control products were tested on the slopes of a newly constructed highway sedimentation basin to determine their impact on vegetative growth, runoff and soil erosion. The five tested treatments were a wood fiber blanket, a straw/coconut blanket, a straw blanket, a bonded-fiber matrix (hydraulically applied) and disk-anchored straw mulch. Three replicates of each treatment were used. The site was seeded with native prairie seeds and the establishment of vegetation was monitored over time. Early in the study, a large runoff event from the area above the plots overtopped them and caused a failure of the bonded-fiber matrix product. These plots were reclassified as a bare treatment. For the season of plant growth, the straw mulch plots had the greatest biomass, and the bare treatment had the least. There was little difference among treatments after the second growing season. Runoff and sediment yield were analyzed for five storm events. The largest runoff and sediment yields were observed from the bare treatment. The soil erosion was approximately ten times greater than that from the straw-mulch plots. The blanket treatments had less erosion than straw-mulch plots. There was, however, little difference between blanket types.