Troutbert, I have not run any projects, but have been a long term observer of some individual projects. The worst survival that I saw had to do with the location of the plantings…directly in a spot where strong current occurs when the creek is high. Most got bent to the ground and variously covered with debris. Some survived, however.
The second problem I’ve noticed has been common. The groups plant the trees in too great of a density. Survival is good but eventually a few trees will win the battle for sunlight at the expense of others. Half the density would cover twice the distance.
As for species that I have noticed performing well…tulip poplar and hybrids, river birch, sycamore, willow, redbud. I might have seen pin oak too, but that memory is a bit vague so someone else may want to comment on that species. Additionally, the first four grow quite rapidly.
I am not a big fan of the tubes; they are reported to be bird traps and where strong stream currents occur during flows across the flood plain the currents bend the trees down, pull a lot of the tubes off, and deposit them downstream as plastic litter.
I have not seen any survival problems in agricultural flood plains, some of which were most likely legacy sediment based on the abundance of dams that occurred in these areas.
