Tree Shelter - Seedling Protection Tubes

Sole Source Tree Shelter Seedling Protection Tubes. Summit Environmental Group, LLC, PO Box 12267, 114 Sylvania Ave, Toledo, OH 43612 The product is a one piece Tree Sentry Shelter which is easy to install and easy to re-collect and use again. It takes no tools to install. The product stacks and stores easily. The other shelters fail to stack easily and are not reusable. Standard shelters typically have three separate pieces; a wooden stake, the shelter, and zip tie closures. The stake is placed through the shelter and then tightened with the zip ties. These types of shelters require a hammer to install and take 2 to 3 times longer to establish than a one piece shelter, like the Tree Sentry. Two piece shelters often damage tree seedlings because they are narrow and can be easily inserted into the same hole as the tree seedling, damaging the roots. These shelters have a mesh design that can provide access to browsing animals. The one piece shelter is wider at the base allowing for plenty of space around the planted seedling, and provides additional microsite protection from the sun and browsing animals. The one piece shelter is made of translucent materials and include design features that allow the shelter to photo-degrade over a period of 5-7 years and separate or fracture and, in the event the shelter is never removed, not constrict the developing seedling which it protects as it matures into a tree. Both types of shelters have been used by other Forests in Region 3, and the Tree Sentry Shelter is preferred by the Cibola, Coconino and Lincoln National Forests. Re-collection time for the one piece is approximately 3 times faster, saving salary paid to employees for re-collecting. The Tree Sentry Shelter (one piece) has been reused up to 3 times from the original purchase by other forests in the region (Coconino). The one piece shelter provides not only protection from browsing damage by ungulates, but the solid, translucent material design creates microsite conditions that provide shade and moisture retention in the soil to increase the likelihood of seedling establishment and survival. The two piece shelters are a mesh design that do not provide the microsite conditions. The two piece shelters have to be bagged separately and are difficult to restack for storage. Stacking of the two piece shelters are difficult because they come in four size sets, which must be sorted by size prior to stacking for storage. The stakes and shelters generally cannot be reused. Effectively, the two piece shelters can only be used once because they. Overall, the one piece tree shelter saves the government and the contractor time and salary due to the ease of application and the ability to be easily collected and reused. It involves only a one step process of pushing it into the ground, while the two piece shelters involve a three step process: 1) pound the stake into the ground with a hammer, 2) push the shelter onto the stake and 3) pull the two zip ties tight. I have researched extensively and cannot find a product similar to this. All the other shelters I looked at include the stakes which are way too thick to get into the ground easily. The predominant soil type in the areas to be planted has a high rock content, which increases the difficulty and likelihood that stakes may be broken while pounding in the stakes. The one piece shelter is pre-assembled with three wire staking legs attached to the base which allow 8 inches of soil penetration for stability, and the flexible metal stakes can more easily penetrate into the soil around rocks.