This page offers information, program description and best practice guidelines for roadside pollinator programs in individual states. Descriptions, where applicable, can be viewed by hovering over the link title.
Email conversation with Joel Hunt, Ohio DOT Program Administrator, Highway Beautification and Pollinator Habitat Program:
ODOT’s Pollinator Habitat Program began in 2017; however, the Department had planted a number of test pollinator habitat plots around the state since 2012. We currently manage 120 high-value pollinator habitats totaling 1,200 acres on roadsides, within interchanges, at ODOT garages, rest areas, and brown fields.
In May 2018, ODOT drafted mowing reduction guidelines in preparation of the Department enrolling in the US Fish and Wildlife Service Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for the Monarch Butterfly on Energy and Transportation Lands. By enrolling, ODOT agrees to: 1) Reduce mowing, 2) Use targeted herbicide applications on noxious and invasive weeds, 3) Maintain existing, and expand when resources are available, high-value pollinator habitats, and 4) Perform monarch/milkweed/blooming nectar plant monitoring at 50 sites four times per year.
In July 2019, ODOT implemented its final guidelines on mowing reduction: 1) Reduce full mow backs from up to four times per year to once per year, 2) Only perform full mowbacks during windows that coincide with the monarch migration (north of Interstate 70 – finish before May 1; begin June 30 and finish before July 10; begin after October 1…south of Interstate 70 – finish before April 1; begin July 1 and finish before July 20; begin after October 15. In addition, mowers should be set between 10 and 12 inches. ODOT is required to regularly mow medians and foreslopes (30 feet from the edge of pavement), so rural routes with less than 30 feet of roadside right of way are exempt. Urban areas are also exempt from the mowing reduction guidelines in order to allow businesses to have a clear viewshed.