Name our New Hammer Mill! 

Stop! Hammer time. 

Our Conservation Crew has acquired a new machine to help with native seed processing. This gorgeous hunk of metal is a hammer mill. While new to us, this hammer mill had a history of being used for agricultural purposes like grinding and milling or even glass crushing and was recently refurbished by the seller.   Modern day restoration ecologists regularly repurpose hammer mills to process a wide variety of native seeds. After collection and drying, the plant material gets fed into the hammer mill, where rapidly rotating metal hammers break the seeds free of their hulls and other plant material (chaff). This material can then be sifted to separate the chaff from the seed, allowing for improved seed-to-soil contact as well as assemblage and sowing of custom seed mixes. 

Last year our crews collected seed from 144 unique native species. That's a lot of diversity that we could then spread across stormwater utility land! We sowed the seed over swathes of land that underwent disturbance such as invasive plant removal or on sites that could benefit from the biodiversity boost. After weighing our processed seed and cross-checking prices of the largest native plant nurseries, we calculated that - if we had wanted to purchase this seed - it would have cost $73,718. Holy buckets! Purchasing native seed for just one acre of land can range from $600 for the most basic mixes to sometimes over $2,000 for super diverse mixes with rare species included. Collecting the seed ourselves gives us the power to include a lot of those rare species and sow a lot more acreage at a higher rate than if we were limited by a budget.  

Having our own hammer mill will make our seed processing that much smoother and ease up on the constraints of storage space. We are very happy to have it! So happy, in fact, that we think we ought to name it – and we want your help! Send us your cleverest, goofiest name ideas for this new equipment and we will have a vote. 

As a reminder, any proposed names need to be consistent with City & Engineering Division policies. 

Submit your name idea!

DEADLINE FOR SUMISSIONS: 4 p.m., Sept. 10, 2026

We are excited to see what you come up with! 

-Engineering Conservation Crew