Re: OT: roadside maintenance
- To: iris-talk@onelist.com
- Subject: Re: [iris-talk] OT: roadside maintenance
- From: J* B*
- Date: Wed, 09 Jun 1999 08:20:22 -0400
From: James Brooks <hirundo@tricon.net>
At 06:33 PM 6/6/99 -0500, you wrote:
>From: "S&C Rust" <srust@fidnet.com>
>
>Have been off the list for a few days. Did not mean to ruffle anyone's
>feathers about collecting the old pale yellow iris. Have permission to do
>so from the lady that lives at the farm along whose edges it is growing,
>although it is now on county property. The county's idea of roadside
>maintenance is to spray everything with Roundup.
>
>Cindy Rust
It has taken a long time of alternating rage and friendly persuasion but
the county roadside crews and I are now communicating. Last summer I
pointed out to the driver of the roadside mangler that the jewelweed that
blooms in such profusion in my ditches is highly attractive to
hummingbirds, and I'd like to keep it that way. Since then he doesn't mow
in front of my house (where I. pseudacorus and I. fulva also grow in the
ditches). Turns out the guy is just a big softie about hummers.
Washington County, Tennessee, also restricts its use of herbicides like
Roundup to bases of signs, around bridges etc. Given the job they have to
do, they are beginning to bring a degree of sensitivity to it.
However, we have a ways to go. Right now as some of the ditches are nearing
the midsummer peak of chicory (my favorite), Queen Anne's Lace, thistle
flower, wild orange daylillies and wild pea, I can count on the roadside
manglers laying this profusion of color to waste one fine day in July. Yet
on the Interstate medians they are starting to catch on to the low
maintenance option of planting wildflowers - but the kicker is they never
plant anything native to this region!
James Brooks
Jonesborough, TN
hirundo@tricon.net
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