Fifteen years ago, Daniel Schaaf was on target to put himself out of business. He was doing landscape work and installing rocks along shorelines in Wisconsin and Minnesota at a time when the "rip rap" method of controlling erosion was falling out of favor.
One day, a manager at the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources challenged Schaaf to come up with a more environmentally friendly way to stabilize eroding lake and riverbanks.
With no background in engineering, Schaaf did just that, devising a system now marketed under the name of ShoreSox. The patented approach uses 6-foot wide strips of burlap mesh that are stuffed with inexpensive organic material, such as corn husks or tree mulch. The fabric gets folded in half to form a tube (or sock) and is staked into the ground several feet back from the fragile shoreline.
Deep-rooted native aquatic plants can then be planted directly atop the fabric, which further binds the organic material to the shoreline and helps filter the nitrates and phosphates from runoff that promotes toxic algae blooms. The fabric itself eventually disintegrates, Schaaf said.
"It's simple to install, cost-efficient and instantly stops erosion and promotes revegetation," said Schaaf, the energetic and earnest CEO of the Minnetonka-based company.
Schaaf spent 13 years perfecting the method before taking it to market two years ago. He started out with small demonstration projects on lakes and waterways around the Twin Cities and property he owns in western Wisconsin, working with private homeowners, cities, counties and watershed districts to split the cost.
Winter's freeze-thaw cycle challenged him to design a system that could handle the shifting earth yet strong enough to contain the waterlogged fill, which can weigh 500 pounds when saturated.
While the industry's biggest player, India-based Geotextiles, uses shredded coconut hulls, Schaaf experimented with locally sourced materials. In the Midwest, he worked with farmers to source bales of hay or corn husks. In Florida, he stuffed the ShoreSox with pine needles, mulch from invasive Melaleuca trees or the muck dredged from the canals that were being fortified with the system.