Missouri Partnerships Result From Increased Awareness

Missouri has been expanding roadside programs by partnering with more non-traditional sources. The following are just a few examples of such partnerships which have recently been established.

One such partnership began in Polk County, thanks to the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) and the Nature Conservancy in cooperation with Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT). Dozens of volunteers rescued the plants from a 5-mile stretch of land that will be part of a project to widen Missouri 13 near Collins and Bolivar.

Greg Young of Bolivar contacted MDC regional biologist Mike Skinner when he learned the highway project would pass through remnant prairie. Skinner just happened to know of a 10-acre area at the Springfield Nature Center that would benefit from transplants, and arranged to bring flowers and fields together.

Two Saturday-morning "digs" attracted 30 and 46 volunteers, respectively, who carefully removed coneflowers, rattlesnake master, prairie blazing star, prairie cordgrass and other native plant species for transplanting. Skinner estimated more than 3,000 plants were removed. "These digs helped us save quite a bit of money."

Editor's Choice - Missouri DOT's statewide photo competition poster.

Normally, digging wild plants from the side of Missouri highways would be illegal, but MoDOT roadside manager David Cissell helped the groups obtain a special permit to dig on the right of way. The volunteers employed techniques Cissell discovered while researching methods to encourage plant survival. An inch of seed-bearing soil was also removed and spread in areas across the district to encourage regrowth of native prairie grasses and wildflowers.

In addition to the Springfield Nature Center, the transplants have found far-flung new homes at Founder's Park in Springfield, Wah'KonTah Prairie near El Dorado Springs, Lakeside Nature Center in Kansas City, the United States Department of Agriculture facility in Greene County near Brookline, and MoDOT right of way locations. Ozarks Greenways, a nonprofit conservation group, is using several hundred of the plants to beautify trails around Springfield and along Rails-To-Trails projects between Willard and Bolivar.

A partnership emerged in northwest Missouri when MDC approached MoDOT with a plan to increase local ecotype prairie forbs on the right of way. Their idea was to allow the public to see the plants blooming while they grew the seed for use on MDC and MoDOT seeding projects rather than have the seed plots in some out of the way unviewable area. The plantings were installed last spring and should provide a good show this season.

Another partnership known as the Henry Shaw Ozark Corridor (HSOC) involving HSOC Foundation, MDC, City of Fenton, Maritz, DNR/Route 66 State Park, Shaw Nature Reserve, MO Native Plant Society, Washington University/Tyson Research Center, Sierra Club, and MoDOT, laid a foundation for the conversion of I-44 right of way to native plantings from Powder Valley Nature Center to Shaw Nature Reserve near Gray Summit.

Expanding roadside partnerships beyond the traditional areas like Adopt-a-Highway, has proven to benefit MoDOT. It has provided closer relationships with other entities, and has provided win-win situations for all involved parties.