British Columbia Inventor Honored for Excellence In Erosion Control

A British Columbia erosion control professional has been honored for developing a unique helicopter-hydroseeding unit that greatly reduces the cost of controlling erosion in remote areas.

John Dawson, with Pacific Erosion Control Systems Ltd., Courtenay, BC, Canada has received the 1997 Technological Advancement Award from the International Erosion Control Association.

The annual award recognizes a new erosion control process or technique that significantly advances the level of erosion control technology by offering proven, cost-effective solutions to erosion and sediment control problems.

The award will be presented to Dawson during formal ceremonies at the annual IECA conference in Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 27.

Establishing a good cover of vegetation is a critical step in rehabilitating severely eroded areas, like landslides. Dawson designed, engineered and built his state-of-the-art unit to meet the specific requirements of hydroseeding these areas by helicopter.

Helicopters are the only practical way to seed remote areas which are inaccessible to a truck-mounted hydroseeder. With aerial hydroseeding, a large bucket, filled with seed, fertilizer and mulch and slung beneath a helicopter, is used to apply the slurry over erosion-prone areas. Typically, the bucket is filled on the ground using a hose from the tank of a truck-mounted hydroseeding unit.

Dawson's invention is a portable, aluminum and stainless steel tank that uses hydraulically driven pumps and agitators to mix the slurry. It features a one-of-a-kind slurry delivery system that fills the helicopter bucket much faster than a conventional truck and hose system.

When the seeding site is within about 1 km (1/2 mile) of the mixing tank, this system enables the helicopter pilot to lead the bucket, carry it to the target, unload it, return and reload in 90 seconds, Dawson reports. With the high cost of helicopter time, such fast turn around times are required to keep expenses affordable, he notes.

"The unit has proven to be a very cost efficient, no-foot-prints solution to protecting the environment by providing access to many of the more remote areas that conventional hydroseeding methods can't address," says Dawson.

To date Dawson's unit has been used to seed more than 700 hectares (1,750 acres) of landslides, gullies and deactivated roads, including the Queen Charlotte Islands, and has helped protect some of British Columbia's most environmentally sensitive areas.

The IECA, founded in 1972, is a non-profit professional organization with members in 40 countries around the world who share a common responsibility for the prevention and control of erosion.

This is the sixth year of the annual IECA Environmental Excellence Awards program.