Winter roadsides
As Iowa motorists enjoy a winter season with relatively few
weather-related concerns, they should have more opportunities to notice
roadside prairie landscapes like this one along Hwy. 3 in Butler County.
Though the showy colors of summer and autumn are gone, native vegetation
in winter continues to brighten roadsides, provide habitat and slow
blowing snow.
The area pictured is part of a large, city park planting hear Allison.
Wilder City Park prairie was funded by the Living Roadway Trust Fund in
the mid-90s.
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Roadside Opportunities
The native grasses and wildflowers of Iowa's original prairie landscape are well-adapted
for use on roadsides. Hardy and beautiful, native roadsides offer aesthetic, economic,
environmental, and educational opportunities. Establishing prairie plants in roadside
rights-of-way:
- provides low-maintenance weed and erosion control
- reduces surface runoff and erosion by improving infiltration
- reduces snow drifting and winter glare
- ensures sustainability by increasing species diversity
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- enhances wildlife habitat
- beautifies the landscape by providing
ever changing color and texture
throughout the year
- preserves our natural heritage
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Support Iowa's Resource Enhancement
and Protection (REAP) program
 The state of Iowa
invests in the enhancement and protection of its natural and cultural resources
through REAP. The annual REAP appropriation is set by the legislature, and is supplemented
by sales of natural resource license plates. The Living Roadway Trust Fund is one
of many beneficiaries of the program. Iowa citizens are the biggest beneficiaries,
and have several opportunities to ensure REAP's success. Visit
REAP
to learn more, or click the license plate for information about purchasing natural
resource plates.
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The Iowa DOT's
2012 Wildflower Calendar
is available here. |
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