Rough and loose at Four Mile Creek

Photo credit: E. Lindsay

Rough and loose is a bio-engineering technique that was developed by Dave Polster to restore disturbed sites.

Plants do not grow well in compacted soils and so the first step that rough and loose addresses is de-compacting the soil as a preparation for planting.

The mounds and holes of the rough and loose technique create many different microsites:

• tops of the mounds are drier sites,
• bottom of holes are moist sites capturing water from run-off and precipitation,
• sides of the mounds face different directions providing sites for shade tolerant and sun-loving plants to grow.

Please see the presentation slides below on bio-engineering and its benefits for more details.