Keeping your property safe, secure and free of potential problems is always at the top of your mind. You know if they aren’t priorities, you could end up facing fines or even liability issues — which can lead to costly, major consequences.
Instead of having a list of what ifs constantly on your mind, add environmental services to your landscaping contract.
How Environmental Services Differ from Typical Maintenance
Your average landscape maintenance services are probably focused on enhancing your property’s curb appeal. There’s nothing wrong with having a landscape that looks good.
But when you’re ready to make your property more efficient, sustainable and compliant, you’ll want to incorporate environmental services.
As the name suggests, these services focus on what’s best for the environment, instead of just the aesthetic components of your landscape. Basically, environmental services have benefits beyond just improving the look of your property — like helping you reduce liabilities, inspections and fines.
Ready to make your property more sustainable and also help you avoid costly issues? Here are three environmental services that can help you and your landscape.
Maintain Detention and Retention Ponds
A detention or retention pond can be a great water management tool on your property. But if it isn’t properly maintained, you’re going to have some problems.
The state of Georgia requires property management companies to ensure their detention or retention pond properly collects all stormwater, and these ponds are subject to annual or biannual inspections from the city or county.
Here are some reasons an inspector might give you a citation on your pond:
- Doesn’t run properly
- Has too much debris
- Doesn’t meet predefined requirements set by the city or county
It’s going to cost more to fix these problems with your pond than it would have to perform regular, preventative maintenance. Summer is actually a great time to work on your pond since the weather is warm and dry, so get your pond up to code.
Keep your pond in good standing with these tasks:
- Install native plants around the pond to keep pollutants out of the water and protect against erosion.
- Keep the vegetation trimmed back so it doesn’t block pond accessibility.
- Aerate the soil surrounding the pond annually (biannually if it has high amounts of traffic) to keep the ground from becoming compacted and unable to absorb water.
These are things that should be included in your environmental services.
Control Vegetation
In addition to keeping your vegetation under control around detention and retention ponds, you should also trim it back around other areas to reduce liability and safety issues:
- Fence lines
- Power lines
- Over utilities
- Around industrial equipment (HVAC, transformers, etc.)
Overgrown brush and other plants can post safety issues if they block walkways or other objects. They can also create security concerns because overgrown areas can become places for criminals to hide.
By keeping vegetation in check, you’ll not only reduce your chance for liabilities, but you’ll also give site visitors peace of mind on your property.
Manage Stormwater and Erosion
Where does stormwater go on your property? If the answer is “I don’t know” or “wherever it wants,” you have a problem.
You need to ensure the stormwater doesn’t leave your site to avoid fines. You can do that by installing catch basins, stormwater piping, swales and other water management systems. Just make sure to keep them well maintained and don’t allow receding contaminants or sediments to come back out.
Water and wind erosion can also cause sediments and pollutants to make their way from your site to other areas where they aren’t supposed to be. Some ways to prevent erosion include installing retaining walls, native groundcovers and grading your property so the water goes where it’s supposed to.
Let T. Lake Reduce Your Liability with Environmental Services
Turn to a commercial landscaping company that understands your property should do more than just look good. Environmental services may be more behind the scenes, but that doesn’t make them any less important.
That’s why we offer services like heavy brush and aquatic vegetation management, wildlife control, wastewater pond maintenance, environmental permitting, compliance assistance, dust mitigation and erosion control.
Call our Macon office at 478-750-7733, East Dublin office at 478-272-3878 or fill out a form online to ensure your landscape is compliant.
