Our Approach
Straughan has provided Landscape Inspection Services and programmatic support to the Maryland State Highway Administration (SHA), Landscape Operations Division (LOD) through two concurrent contracts. Straughan has managed the landscape inspection program to ensure work has been performed in accordance with contract requirements and that sustainability objectives have been met. In this capacity, we have performed plant inspections to verify they are correct and disease free. We have prepared and managed invasive species control for both new construction and maintenance contracts. An important aspect of this field work is coordinating successfully with contractors and various public and private agencies to make sure that all project needs were being met.
Straughan also performed several GIS tasks in support of this program. We designed geodatabases to house data for the Green Asset Management System. Straughan designed specific field forms for mobile devices used to evaluate landscape beds objectively and to capture new landscape assets. We also managed the tracking and inventory of noxious and invasive species via GIS per the Office of Environmental Design business plan objectives and migrated the data into an enterprise GIS forum. Straughan assisted with the review, development, and editing of specifications, Special Provisions, and Standards manuals for SHA.
