Our Services
Black Oak has been providing vegetation management services for solar projects in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, and Illinois since 2020. Several of these scopes of work were awarded through a competitive bidding process run by other industry leaders and resulted in our team signing numerous multi‐year contracts. Currently, our vegetation management portfolio consists of 30 solar projects, totaling over 3,200 acres or 700 MWdc across the Midwest.
Mowing Services
We have various scopes of work at each of the 30 projects we are currently under contract with, but they are predominately oriented around providing mowing services 3‐4x a calendar year. The cornerstone of Black Oak is having intentional relationships with not only project owners, but also EPCs, the site O&M, landowners, neighboring communities, and all other parties affiliated with a project to ensure our team works collaboratively with each stakeholder.
We manage numerous sites that have had routine insurance inspections, EPA compliance audits, Independent Engineer check‐ins, and investor diligence visits during construction and/or operational phases of a project. Our team takes tremendous pride in their work and understands the importance of executing on a vegetation management strategy. We prioritize mitigating fire risk, reducing rodent/pest habitat, preventing overgrowth that entangles with the solar system, eliminating production losses due to shading, and ensuring the project maintains the highest standard of vegetation management in the industry.
We tailor our equipment selection to accommodate row spacing, racking configuration (fixed v. tracking), above ground wiring, vegetation type, frequency of mows, weather conditions, and within array v. open area mows.
Black Oak’s fleet of equipment currently consists of the following:
8 x 72” commercial zero turn mowers
3 x 94” rear‐discharge mowers
2 x 82” tracked rear‐discharge mowers
2 x 4500 8WD Ventrac mowers
1x 70 engine horsepower four‐wheel new Holland tractor with an eight‐foot pull behind bushhog
We routinely lease skid steers with mower deck attachments as needed
10x+ string trimmers that enable crews to address areas that mowers cannot access.
Herbicide Application
Nearly all of our existing contracts also include herbicide application within the array, near piles, combiner boxes, inverter skids, and perimeter fencing. Our standard herbicide mixes target both noxious weeds and invasive species but will be adjusted to accommodate whatever the site needs are. Our crews have obtained appropriate licensure and we ensure we comply with all state and local regulations.
Our general approach is to spray in the early spring prior to weeds sprouting. We find this to be the most efficient approach and typically allows us to use the minimum rate required per label recommendations. We continue to monitor weeds throughout the growing season and apply additional herbicide as needed. In the fall we will then apply herbicide on unwanted tree saplings, briars, bushes, and other woody vegetation as those plants start to become dormant.
Other Services
Black Oak is actively providing several other scopes of work throughout our solar project portfolio. We also offer seeding, vegetation planning, brush/tree removal, panel washing, snow removal, light civil remediation, and rodent management.
We have decades of growth production experience outside of solar and are well positioned to leverage those capabilities for our customers with projects in construction or pre‐construction. We have added weekly mowing services for municipalities to our list of offerings. We aim to further expand this service in 2025.