Free seeds!

This is good folks. If you have ever looked at the monarch migration maps you will see those northern migrants travel through Tennessee and North Carolina to get up to New England. Everything we plant for the monarchs also helps all our imperiled pollinators.

Does anyone recall our Bicentennial Beautification Act of 1993?

continued...

What started out with plans ( see TCA 54-5-1203 Wildflower program) for 96 acres of our highways to be lined with wildflowers is now nothing but a TDOT grant to make local city exchanges pretty. I've yet to find the written guidelines for those grants but the exchange/welcome area TDOT pointed me to did not include any native plantings let alone 'wildflowers'.

TDOT has also pointed to swath mowing which rotates areas that are left to grow for longer than the average cutting schedule.

No one is saying to leave every stick and tree in the right of ways. Certainly where plants block a driver's line of sight need tending. But the battle to plant more is only complete if we also work to protect those plants already in the ground.

If anyone else has seen examples of these grants I would appreciate those locations.

Happy Pollinator Month!