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thank you charles um thank you msu extension and a big thanks to shelby for getting us set up for this today um i've been in on a lot of webinars but this is actually my first so a little nervous but very much appreciate the opportunity um charles asked that i let's see i start tonight i'm trying to forward the slide if you right click on your screen yep and then does next slide pop up or are your arrows working now no okay um here let's do stop share let me exit sorry sure okay try again esther right click oh shelby it's not moving oh no [Music] okay maybe if we do what about now esther no i'm right clicking on the screen and hitting the arrow and it's not doing anything okay um it says waiting for esther done darn well to control your screen um is there maybe a pop-up asking you to take the remote control it says on the top you can control shelby warner screen okay [Music] so esther why don't you just tell her when to advance the sides will that work shelby yeah that works for me okay so if you could advance to the next slide okay so charles did ask me to give you a little review um he touched on what we're all about michigan wildflower farm i've been here 24 years um we have folks on our team that have been here 20 plus years so very experienced with native seed production and projects installing site preparation installation and maintenance i'm using wildflower seeds so the base of our our farm is about 30 acres of wildflower and prairie grass seed production so we're nurturing the plants harvesting the seeds um cleaning them they're all separated and stored individually sent in for testing and so folks can order individual species from us or we make a lot of seed mixes um so our website our contact information will be on the last slide today but our website is basically our catalog species list our standard seed mixes are on there we do make a lot of custom mixes for folks depending on the site conditions or the specs of a project let's say a landscape architect is making up a mix and so we do a lot of customizing of seed mixes too go ahead shelby and the other part of our business are services we bid on um primarily in southern lower michigan all kinds of projects um including the site preparation installation and management of those and then we also offer kind of focused consulting um seed mix design um working with landscape architects on site conditions what specific mixes would work best spec writing with regards to the seating part of a landscaping project we're called in to do project analysis if a project is already underway and there are some concerns plant id writing up management plans and then we use our farm um for workshop and training opportunities also going on site and working with uh crews or organizations to teach them you know how to do this themselves um the interest in this kind of work has um increased you know tremendously and so um we can't be everywhere at all you know at any time there are a lot of other good very reputable contractors that are doing the work but as i think the demand increases we need to be training more people to to do this work as well so um because we want these projects of all kinds to be successful um it trickles down it makes um everyone happy so shall we move ahead so getting back on the subject um wildflowers provide pollinator habitat um and we all know that um wildflowers are virtually all insect pollinated so although there are flowers that are it might attract a more specific um you know population of insect or or be more populated by insect activity virtually all flowers are visited by insects go ahead shelby but even beyond that um the pollinators that are sustained by wildflowers help not only where they are pollinating but neighboring crops farmers are using wildflower strips um blueberry farmers um orchard farmers are using these to attract pollinators to their crops for pollination of those as well wildflowers provide habitat for other wildlife including birds small mammals and reptiles they require require minimal if any inputs including fertilizer irrigation and herbicide in my 24 years here we have not ever utilized fertilizer for site preparation these are wild native plants they don't require fertile soils um they they're adapted to our conditions here in michigan so um you know you can take that off the to-do list which is great virtually all well i'd say about 90 plus percent of the projects that we work on and provide seed for irrigation is not an option um so we're relying on mother nature to you know provide the moisture with rain and melting snow and all that so it's not mandatory if you do use irrigation sure that can get initial establishment going faster but it is not required and herbicide is as i'll speak later a key tool for site preparation however once established there's minimal if any herbicide use either utilizing native plants in a pollinator system is also fantastic for what's going on below the soil level and these plants are deeply rooted by that i mean three feet six feet nine feet twelve fifteen plus feet deep into the soil that makes these plants extremely drought tolerant they can withstand droughty conditions they might kind of go into a dormant phase but they do not die off they come back year after year they can make it through because of those amazing deep roots also wonderful water holding capacity drawing water down deep into the soil which can really help in you know puddling situations and standing water sites and then lastly i'll mention providing an aesthetically interesting and attractive landscape if by incorporating wildflowers you'll have a variety of color bloom texture height throughout the season which provides a lot of interest to you know people that may be onlookers seeing it people driving by so solar sites with pollinator habitats are multi-purpose and provide numerous services and are sustainable next slide so what i'm focusing on today is successful pollinator habitat establishment on solar sites depends upon solid site preparation installation and management and as charles explained the three um sessions that we're going to be having over the next three weeks are going to cover these you know three major steps i'm going to focus on site preparation and installation today and the third session is going to be focused on management so all are key this is very um you know basic information but i we cannot stress enough how important it is to spend the time in each of these stages that way you're assured of a successful planting when we see failures it's because something has been let go in one of these three and again it's very basic um the methods can vary and there are contractors and suppliers with with more experience than we have with regards to solar projects but tweaking the basics you know to adapt for efficiency are is is wonderful and we just don't want you to overlook how important focusing on these three steps really is next slide so site preparation i kind of see in two different um um parts let's say the first part is the planning part just like when you're getting ready to you know paint a room you got to tape it you got to plan it first landscaping this same thing a lot of thought goes into it first pencil to paper computer work to plan it so this this this part is key just like the other other three parts so the first part planning site analysis looking at these four different parts of the site that you're working with each site is unique and so it's important to look at the the features of that site so that you can best plan the correct seed mix and the correct techniques to install and choosing site-suitable species so soil type is it you know is it sand mucky loam you know dry as can be what is the light exposure is it full sun partial shade the light um of course with solar you're going to have the pop the panels um to uh adapt to as far as what plants you're choosing so take that into consideration there are definitely plants native species that can work in virtually every every condition the moisture content of the soil um so does it hold water does it drain well and we also like to look at the adjacent landscape is this going to be a piece cut out of you know um like a out of a an agricultural field what is the neighbor adjoining property what does that vegetation look like in the case of agriculture you want to take into consideration any other kind of herbicide use that may be taking place around your solar site also looking at weed potential that might be coming in if there's an old field you know full of a lot of invasive species just west of your site just be aware that some of that may be coming in especially during the first um establishment years of your of your site so the more information you can gather about your area um the better um site specifications so again with the regards to solar panels um i know that they are installed at varying heights but you definitely need to know that before you decide on what plants you're going to choose budget proceeding services contacting your seed suppliers and your service providers and just getting some bulk park estimates on what it would cost um to do this work is is really good information to have and you can work from there tweaking seed mixes and perhaps services too to best meet your budget and that all brings you to species selection next slide so species uh selection there are you know hundreds of species to choose from so from the information that we gathered in the site analysis that can help um you know direct you um diversity is very important the more that you have you know a variety of species the more sustainable the landscape will be from year to year depending on the climate conditions some species may be you know slighted a little bit too dry i'm noticing on our farm here this year the purple cone flower is very short i think the drought got to it but other than other species are doing fantastic so you want to make sure you have not all your eggs in one basket and not plant a monoculture but have things that you know a good variety most of our mixes have at least 20 species sometimes 20 to 30 so there's always something you know growing well and and and looking good and and filling the space so that's uh a big plug for diversity also different pollinators um go to or attracted to different flowers so the more diversity you have the more you'll attract a variety of pollinators with regards to pollinators bloom time is very important it's important to have blooms throughout the season virtually all of these species are perennial meaning they come back year after year once they're established the plants come back year after year however their bloom time is rather short i'd say it's typical for a bloom time of a perennial to be two to three weeks so something blooming in april is definitely not going to be blooming you know in summer later summer so we look at different bloom periods um earlier spring april to may june july kind of middle of summer and then august through october and you want to make sure that all of those periods are represented so that pollinators have something to go through then over the entire season the majority of our mixes include wildflowers and with for the pollinator habitat you definitely want it rich in the wildflowers but we would also encourage people to consider the prairie grasses too and there are some shorter ones that will you know fit the bill with solar panels grasses aesthetically are beautiful most of them are the warm season prairie grasses that turn gorgeous color later in the fall they do provide a good seed and habitat source for birds and also help to hold up wildflowers i do want to mention with regards to species select yeah species selection um to remember that patience is required i mentioned these are all perennials they don't establish quickly it's one to three years typically before we see everything in a seed mix represented some germinate and flower the first year more the second year and more the third year and lastly here the oh no perennial annual i'm going to touch on annuals annuals are helpful to use as a cover crop and i'll be mentioning that um coming here shortly and then lastly local seed sources so local fauna local wildlife is supported best by local flora there's a lot of research going on as to just how important and critical local genotypes are to local wildlife including pollinators birds and such so always we encourage people to look as close as possible we have a couple of seed suppliers here and native seed suppliers here in michigan but regionally in the great lakes region many more so there's some great sources of seed material next slide please so that was the um you know kind of the thinking and pencil to paper part um site preparation the actual um physical work is the next part so cited always consider site accessibility look at how accessible it is for whatever equipment that you're going to choose as their fencing are there gates is it you know easily accessible um in general soil preparation we like to see as uh you know minimal soil disturbance even when it's bare soil by turning the soil over you're turning over more weed seeds that you know will be competition for the desirable seeds that you're going to be adding so the goal is kind of minimal soil disturbance but you do who want to deal with that vegetation that's on the site and so to remove that current competition if that's turf um if it's old field species with regards to you know preparing for solar sites herbiciding or tilling are probably going to be the two options um herbiciding kind of being the fastest we would use a glyphosate product not without a mazda pure just straight up i call it old-fashioned glyphosate to eradicate the existing vegetation if it's turf grass typically one application will do that's a mode basically monoculture of some turf species um and it's been because it's been mowed there's not a big seed bank there so usually one application will do it if it's old field up to three applications would be recommended to deal with the weeds you know that grow spring summer and fall for residential and smaller sites um we've heard of a lot of people using a solarization method and that's putting down a tarp or plastic in the late spring throughout the summer taking it up and then seeding in the fall okay next slide so on installation the goal is good coverage and seed to soil contact as far as timing we are typically seeding um spring meaning mid-may to mid-june or our preferred time to seed would be a fall or dormant seeding and that would be latter october in this area later october through the month of november why do we prefer that method if you think of how nature operates the majority of seeds are starting to fall now and throughout the fall there'll be more and more the seeds benefit tremendously from overwintering they're falling on the ground they're getting covered with snow they're getting fall rains melting snow temperature fluctuations and all of that helps tremendously with breaking the dormancy of the seed many well virtually all the seeds need to go through that process to break dormancy so if you do a fall seeding i find it to be much less stressful as far as immediately post seeding if you think of seeding in late october compared to seeding in june when we don't know what we're going to get in july as far as drought lack of moisture and that so if at all possible and it is not always possible we would default to a fall pla planting equipment can be depending on the scale of the project of course can be anything from a whirlwind hand seeder the even even ready spread cedar that you see on the upper left picture there atv cedar a broadcast cedar behind a tractor we personally prefer broadcast seating but a drill seating can be done as well but we do prefer broadcast seating depending on what the specification or design is for a solar area one mix may be used or it might be a variety of mixes so measuring the seeds prior to going on site for the different zones is very important the seating method as i mentioned we prefer broadcast seating and again depending on the scale on smaller projects we tend to divide the seed in half and go in one direction and then with the second half go perpendicular to that to assure good coverage including a cover crop and carrier um a cover crop i'll touch again on this a little bit and uh shortly but uh cover crop is important because that's something that grows quickly and and provides coverage the first growing season by carrier i mean something that you can add to bulk up the seed um especially again on smaller sites we recommend using sawdust sand vermiculite something to mix in with the seed to give you more volume to work with the seeding rate of of native species is very low compared to like turf grass is 200 pounds per acre with prairie species we're looking at about 10 pounds per acre so you know first timers are rightfully nervous when they get 10 pounds of seed and realize that needs to cover an acre it can these are all perennial they take up more space but it still is a small volume of seed to work with and it's handy to use a carrier if there are any erosion curl any erosion control concerns if there's a slope um or you're you know concerned about a washout erosion control blanket installed over seating can be very effective and helpful next slide so this is just a concept plan of a project that we worked on there were changes made after you know after this original concept plan but this is us uh a plan of a smaller solar park in east lansing that we've been a part of and it is about two and a half acres i believe there are about a thousand um panels um but you can see here uh the rows of panels a mix was chosen to go between the panels um on the north or upper and right along that edge a taller mix more of a kind of visual barrier was specified eco turf was recommended for the turf grass seed and then in the lower left there's a detention basin and there too a shorter rain garden seed mix was specified there next mix next slide i'm sorry so these are some of the mixes um that were installed so again we had the short uh short two to three foot uh pollinator mix that went in between the rows of the panels with the wildflowers and some prairie grasses as you see the taller six to eight foot pollinator mix um included those species that were on the the the north and east side again for barrier and then a rain garden mix in the back um in the detention area the eco turf fescue mix was chosen to be sewn under the solar panels next slide [Music] so these i just wanted to show some samples of these um this is these are components of the short mix so spider wart on your left lance leaf coreopsis uh purple cone flower below and to the right yarrow so shorter species bloom time for pollinators so this the choreopsis would be blooming probably would be booming first of these four followed by spiderwort uh purple cone flower and yarrow next slide and then into the fall or later in the season you have the black-eyed susan in the center there on the left smooth aster on the right bergamot and below that a little blue stem so again bloom throughout the season pollinators are finding the source of nectar all year so that's that's what our goal is there next slide the tall mix was is composed of new england aster indian grass stiff goldenrod [Music] and common milkweed next slide and big blue stem on the upper left false sunflower yellow cone flower and iron weed so again just uh you know a lot of variety here a lot of variety and texture um in height and um attracting all kinds of pollinators next slide and these are components of the rain garden seed mix that we've yet to seed it will be sewn later this fall blue flag iris fox tail set to the right blue lobelia lower left sneeze weed in the middle and marsh blazing star next slide and then the fescue mix um we call our our brand of that is eco turf that we use it's a mix of five different short growing fescues nothing native about it per se but it has become a very popular option for people for an alternative turf a lot of these individual fescues are in traditional turf grass mixes but this you know collection of exclusively of fescues um makes for uh hardier and less um requires less maintenance so these fescues have deeper roots they stay greener longer they're slower growing and so if you choose to cut them um they don't need to be mowed with the frequency of a traditional turf mix and then many folks don't cut it at all and it grows to about 10 12 inches but because they're fine and hair like in texture they just kind of bend over and it's a very soft look so this is the mix that was sewn underneath the uh the panels in the project that we were involved with next slide so i wanted to touch on annuals um and cover crop so uh non native annual wildflowers uh is a good option for sites that it would be very beneficial to have color the first year so on very high visibility sites corporate sites that we work on and some residential too this is very much appreciated because again the perennials are slow to grow you see minimal if any bloom the first growing season so having color the first year um something that germinates quickly establishes and flowers the first season these annuals are not native they're not hardy and so these would only be used in a spring seating they would not um you know probably make it through our winters so in mid-may to mid-june it would be included in the perennial seeding or you could overseed the perennial seeding that you did last fall with the annuals the other option year-round would be annual rye and that's probably the most common cover crop that we use and that can be done in both spring and fall seedings next slide so just wanted to share what we um how what our this project looked like in east lansing for us um last year we did site preparation um throughout the summer once the site uh was ready and we could you know let the the soil rest and have that seed bank germinate we started to do herbicide applications so we did those um later summer through the fall and then in later fall later last year we seeded the short mix the tall mix annual rye and eco turf came back this spring and overseeded with annual wildflower mix really wanted to um this is a very visible site on a main road so we wanted to provide that color this year and we have gone in twice so far for selective cutting for weed control i'm not going to elaborate on that today because i think session number three is going to cover that um but that's the management that has taken place so far this year and we are planning to go uh this fall to do uh the seeding of the rain garden next slide and so lastly i wanted to touch on pr tips for wildflower plantings on solar sites so almost anything that you can do to make the site look intentional um is is a good thing um that can be done very helpful to do the weed control um manage the edges even outside of the solar area let's say the area is completely fenced in make sure that edge around the fence is mowed and you know neat neat looking i'll say it all frames what's going on inside so a mode edge goes a long way to show care signage is extremely helpful i know for the east lansing site um they have some signs up and again just showing intention and somebody is doing something here you know wildflower planting pollinator planting in process and it all it all helps engaging public via newsletter paper social media using the site for events classes tours education as we see more and more of these kind of sites coming in the more we can educate people to understand them and what's going on there not only with the fantastic you know solar energy but also the habitat that this is providing um is is just fantastic it really should be celebrated and there's so many options too to register a site as a you know monarch way station wildlife habitat pollinator habitat through the cersei society um the options are endless but all of it is positive and draws very good at you know attention to your project so with that next slide i am ready for some questions i do have contact information here please feel free to send us an email and we'll we'll be happy to answer that any questions all right esther we do have uh quite a few questions here so i'm going to start as they came in here so you kind of touched on this james is asking can you speak to soil preparation requirements before planting fertility tilt and organic matter with regards to the plants yeah before in in terms of soil preparation requirements before planting you talked about uh weed control um but is there in terms of fertility or tillage or organic matter is there any considerations for those things um not from my experience and there might be folks out there you know that have more experience or or can add to this we really analyze the site as it is you know when we're there as also i did not mention you know the history of the site what was growing there before if it sustained vegetation um what kind of vegetation was it we're not you know fertilizing um whatever they have to do the solar panels of course are going in prior to seeding so they're doing you know the earth moving the site soil preparation it should be you know an even grade to make it um you know easy to actually actually do the seeding but you you know you just want good seed to soil contact um it doesn't have to be bare soil if you had dead stubble left from an herbicide application that's okay um that dead stubble actually acts as a mulch um for seed it doesn't have to be tilled immediately prior to seeding okay so james and i will mention to to charles that much of the seed needs to be just on the surface and pressed in it should not be deeply sewn some of the species actually need light to germinate so if the if the soil surface needs to be lightly scratched you know with a heroic or something to that nature just to just to rough up the very surface of it seed into that and then the seed pressed in okay very good very good james if you've got a follow-up question uh go ahead and type it in here michelle asked what what seed or seed mix would you use in a small shaded area um well my first question would be how shaded we do have a woodland edge mix and those species such as columbine blue stem goldenrod bottle brush bottle brush grass are all suitable for a woodland edge if it's deep shade i recommend getting woodland plants especially for a small area you know prairie species like we talked about today take one to three years to establish from seed woodland deep woodland plants take much longer so i recommend for deep woods to get woodland plants from a native plant nursery but check out our woodland edge mix on our website that you know if you do have some light um coming in throughout the day that might be suitable okay bob asked the question does one plant the perennial pollinator mix after the solar farm is established and then he says if so how quickly should they go in in the fall say late october or right after the solar panels are constructed and working which would be in mid-september um yeah i mean you could any time you know september on again we're usually focusing on latter october through the month of november definitely you know once everything once all equipment is out of there as far as the um solar equipment installation so what impact does this have uh in terms of compact soil compaction if you come in after the the uh the panels are up the rays are uh any any compaction problems soil compaction um that's a really good question charles um you know we didn't have that experience with the site that we're working on in east lansing i'm wondering if there's somebody out there that might have more experience with that um okay because i'm not sure exactly you know on on larger scale there might there might be a lot heavier equipment used okay michelle would like to know where this east lansing solar park is the one that you uh worked on uh i can it's on bircham drive i can i can get an address maybe and we can email that it was through um michigan energy options okay all right maybe she could reach out to you and and um sure and ask that question all right uh another question here when planning what can be done to the spreading of wildflowers over the years to other areas in other words becoming weeds on other properties you kind of went out there a little bit did you ask how do you prevent them from spreading elsewhere that's correct it depends on what's growing adjacent to it um i haven't found that to be a problem you could use you know um you know taller species on an edge to make in essence a barrier or even use some woody material along edges if you need to make that barrier to prevent seeds from from spreading typically typically they will not be a problem in already established vegetation i don't you know it's not something that's going to take over into the lawn or um you know into an ag field where there's already you know crops and a lot of field work going on okay all right great um james asks another question here what about mowing and biomass removal some of these plants can create a lot of biomass is there any concern about having too much residue after a while yeah that's definitely something you know to be addressed and i'm sure that um session three is going to cover that um but i mean i can mention that on you know on plantings usually after two to three years after establishment so establishment is usually uh taking up to three years and then beyond that especially if you have the prairie grasses you are going to have um a buildup of thatch and that would be on a cyclical basis not a yearly but every few years you would need to cut and break off or burn which is not going to happen on the solar site [Music] right so okay very good all right janine has a number of questions here um some of which i have uh wondered myself so janine uh can you recommend flowering species that would be suitable for planting near panels okay which which you already did uh for safety and cost effective reasons panels are often installed within 18 to 24 inches of ground clearance so low growing ground cover is needed to avoid any shading or safety concerns for the operator so i guess you you did answer that question uh yeah yeah and and i have you know i do see that panels vary a lot i've seen recently some articles i think from wisconsin and minnesota where they are much the the panels are much higher um than you know like what we did here at what was done in east lansing so you definitely would be able to you know find the native plant that would fit that bill it would just be different if you just have 24 inches then that's going to be shorter than the short mix that we used and and made and perhaps that is why they specified the eco turf in this case in east lansing for immediately under the panels okay her last question i think is one that i can answer would a similar planting design be considered to meet pa 116 standard if the eco turf were used under and near panels and the taller wildflowers planted in other parts of the site so the answer would be yes as because it's it's all in support of these pollinating insects so um the one of the things that i learned from my my apiarist colleagues is that uh you can manage these sites for the commercial honeybee or you can manage these sites for the native species native honeybee species or native pollinating insect species and there's a there's a difference there um so you you know as you think about what you want to put in there uh that's something to or so jenny and i i guess i would say that the answer is yes to your question there yeah and i will say you know there's so much i mean there aren't i do not know of any flowers that exclusively the european honey bee goes to and other bees do not i mean on our flowers like right here we're looking at uh bergamot i mean the bumblebees and i wish i could identify all the pollinators that we see on those including including the honeybees so you know again diversity as much as you can put in there for a variety of pollinators the better okay um charliza put the address this of the burcham community solar a rough address in there um shelby are you able to copy and paste that into the chat box i can't do that if you can do that that'd be great and then um one last question here before we conclude bob asked if there are going to be sheep and other appropriate livestock what forage grass species are recommended can any wildflowers be mixed in with grass or segregated from the tall wildflowers i'm going to take a crack at that and then esther if you want to add to that um i would think that it's going to be a different forage mix because you're going to be wanting to keep you know keep the weight on those sheep and i don't think that uh that flowers are gonna do that so you're gonna want more of a grass mix would be my uh would be my guess that said uh we are going to be bringing in some some people who know the answer to that better than i do and our intent is to have another one of these type of webinars including a virtual field day in january so bob if you can just hold on to that question and tune in when we and uh we'll we can answer that and i someone just put in clovers and alfalfa and i can take you to a site in lenawee county where uh clover was planted exclusively and it was absolutely marvelous uh the stand of clover that they got in fact it was so good that it probably would probably should have been harvested uh and or hey for jorge it was just it was just outstanding yep and i've also seen um and and we've um we've accommodated by um filling orders for it including clover with even the fescue mix so a low growing you know fescue mix but then clover in it to provide habitat um you know and a nectar source for pollinators so yeah people are getting very creative with this and it's it's wonderful to see um and as far as you know livestock and forage value um i i think that's really exciting and and i'm sure the native grasses could be a you know a component of that but that's just another unique use um dual use or an additional use for a solar setup so i think it's wonderful multi-purpose yeah yeah so uh last question that clyde asked here and then uh we'll we'll end with his question he asked if are there any sites visible to drive by and i have uh i've been looking for those sites land like i said uh there's a five five acre site that harvest solar has harvest solar is out of jackson and they put a clover mix in and very happy with how that turned out but uh i have not seen a whole i've i mean i couldn't even tell you where to go to see uh uh a pollinator planning in a solar project in michigan so if there are any out there then i guess i'd like to know but um i know there's a lot of solar projects out there but they have gravel or they've got turf or you know they're they've got other things not the pollinator plantings right i i mean i'd like to know about more sites too um to visit in michigan um i know there's thousands of acres um just west of us in you know wisconsin minnesota and such but we're really just at the beginning stages here in michigan to to be doing this so um hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have places to go visit but again i please contact me if you know of some other ones that are underway i'd love to visit yeah yep and same here all right well that concludes our webinar today uh as i mentioned earlier there's a survey when you log off that should pop on uh pop up on your screen please fill that out and please plan on joining us next tuesday during your lunch break from noon to one for the virtual field day and then the following tuesday for uh the maintenance part of this i want to thank esther for this great presentation uh very informative uh excellent information here and hopefully it's been a benefit to all of you who have who have uh who have been on the webinar here so uh with that shelby i think we're done