There are many aids for erosion control – all to protect and strengthen soil. But what about the soil? Could soil by itself, ever not require these aids? It is important to examine the soil as its own “protection”, its own “erosion control”; soil that will not erode and not cause sedimentation; soil that will stand up to heavy rains without any aid, or blanket. Such a soil would be a breakthrough in soil technology and open many possibilities for Landscape Architects and Geo-technical Engineers.

Hendrikus Schraven, owner of Hendrikus Schraven Landscape Construction & Design, Hendrikus Schraven Organics, and Soil Dynamics, has developed patent pending soil blends that he calls EssentialSoil™. The product is an organic based soil that mimics the texture and micro-biology of native topsoil overnight at depths of 12” to 36” and remains stable on 1:1 slopes or steeper. It does not erode, rill, or slump during record rains. It also promotes healthy rapid plant and root growth, more than twice as fast as conventional soil. Tested in both laboratory & field, the soil is now becoming known for a long list of benefits and characteristics that apply not just to erosion control, but other environmental, biological and ecological concerns as well. Hendrikus won both the “Contractor of the Year Award” and the “Excellence in Technology Award” from the International Erosion Control Association for his work in organic soils application. To understand the role that this product will have in the future, the broad range of these benefits should be understood.

EssentialSoil™ in fact, has seven primary environmental and ecological characteristics. Each has its own benefit:

• Erosion/Sedimentation - Near zero sedimentation rate with 98% erosion effectiveness. (Caltrans Soil Erosion Research Lab, June 2000)

• Runoff Reduction - In runoff on a 1:1 test

slope by 31%. (Caltrans Soil Erosion

Research Lab, June 2000)

• Stability - Will not erode, rill or slump

without root growth, during rain conditions

on 1:1 or greater slope. (Caltrans Soil Erosion

Research Lab June 2000)

• Permeability - Resembles course sand.

(Shannon & Wilson 2000)

• Retention - 45% water retention even on

steep slopes. (Caltrans Soil Erosion Research

Lab, June 2000)

• Plant / Root Growth - EssentialSoil™ is

typically installed at a minimum of 12” deep.

Plant and root establishment is accelerated, forming

deep root structures and disease resistant plants.

• Water Purification - Binds heavy metals.

Beneficial microorganisms assist in degradation

of pollutants. (Soil and Plant Lab. Inc., 2000)

Hydraulically-applied soil binders, bonded fiber matrices, and rolled erosion control products all have an important role in erosion control. The role of this new product however, seems to be both as a stand alone product and as an adjunct to these conventional products. What results could be achieved by combining the soil with geocomposites or cellular confinement systems?

How It Works

Soil Dynamics coined the term, “bio-stable”, which refers to soils that are strong and stable because of the combination of certain key organic and mineral products with the biological processes created by the many microbes, bacterial, fungi present within the soil. These microorganisms act as an army of tiny engineers, structuring the soil, shredding, building, damming, opening, feeding plants, and protecting roots. Like yeast is to water and flour, microbes are to minerals or organic matter, in the right ratio. EssentialSoil™ functions because of the synergistic relationship between all the above components. The process of installing the soil includes inoculation with microbial compost tea, regardless whether the soil is pneumatically installed or installed by wheel barrow and shovel.

Once installed, (usually a minimum depth of 12”) the organic components bond, forming a matrix within the soil. This matrix allows water to flow into and through the soil rather than across the surface. According to the Soil Research Laboratory in San Diego, EssentialSoil™ has “reduced runoff volumes (31%). A high reduction in erosion (98%) appears to indicate that the product can retain water within its matrix without creating instability.” Even after a “50 year storm event was applied after three successive 10 year storm events (7 inches precipitation over 41 hours on 12 inches of bare soil) there was NO erosion, and water was retained in the soil at a high rate” (45%). Conjointly, moisture is retained through innumerable micro-aggregates composed of fine organic matter and micro “dam” building microbes. The soil becomes its own 3-dimensional biological and geotechnical net. Dr. Elaine Ingram of Soil Foodweb wrote in April 2000, that the stand alone product “will result in nutrients remaining in the soil, instead of leaching into surface and ground water…and EssentialSoilTM will lead to improvement in water-quality in urban and suburban areas.” Further she wrote; the soil..."will enhance disease-suppression, nutrient-retention, nutrient-cycling and soil structure building organisms.” Hendrikus Schraven Landscape Construction & Design has been able to reduce watering schedules as much as 70% on lawns in the North West Region.

Global Applications

Combined with EssentialSoil™, grading plans can incorporate steeper slopes and some engineered retaining walls may be shortened in height. Planting designs can be expanded because the soil, even on steeper slopes will permit and support larger and more diversified plants. Mines and barren land reclamation can be reforested without waiting for nature to rebuild its own soil. Durable and high infiltration ball fields, golf courses and turf applications can be designed and maintained without herbicides, pesticides and chemical fertilizers that pollute groundwater. Highway road cuts can be built to be free from freeze-thaw damage using a permanent cover of bio-stable soils. Logging and clear cut areas can accelerate their reforestation process. Sedimentation can be reduced into our shorelines and water bodies.

The product represents a method of organic soil replacement for erosion control: a form of “bio-terra” technology whose goal is to generate thick organic living soils that would take nature 100 to 1,000 of years to create….in only one day. Aware of all the opportunities and potentially global significance for EssentialSoil™ Hendrikus Schraven invites responses and collaboration from many different professions, Landscape Architects, designers, engineers, biologists, politicians and policy makers from every region.

The time for expanded thinking and new technology in the area of erosion control is at hand. The rate of “soil erosion in the USA is approximately 17 times the rate of which it forms; and approximately 90% of US cropland is currently loosing soil above the sustainable rate” (US Global Change Research Information Office). It is time to work together, to combine technologies and invent new ones, to solve some of the critical problems we are now facing.