Hobbies And Interests
Pros: Cost
Restoring roadsides to prairie can be inexpensive. Seeds for many iconic prairie species, such as big bluestem and Indian grass, can be bought for less than $10 per pound, and an acre can be seeded with about 10 pounds of seed. Once established, that area will never need to be reseeded. For many municipalities, this one-time investment makes a lot of fiscal sense. Maintaining a roadside prairie is also inexpensive, usually requiring work only one day each year.
Pros: Ecological Processes
Prairie plants perform ecological tasks important to people and towns. Their roots can extend into the soil up to 24 feet. This allows the plant community to capture, filter and store surface water from rain and runoff, recharging shallow unconfined aquifers. Municipalities can access this recharged water in a sustainable fashion for use in residential, commercial or industrial areas. Prairie plants also stabilize soils with their deep and dense root systems. This prevents erosion and, over time, dramatically improves soil quality as the root systems live, die, decompose and regrow.
Pros: Minimal Maintenance
Maintenance for prairie communities is simple. No special fertilizer, weed killers or other chemical applications are needed. Prairies are maintained by fire, through prescribed burns in either the fall or, more commonly, the spring. The plants are adapted to fire and are unharmed. A trained crew conducts the burn during the dormant season, reducing last year's growth to ash. This has four benefits: the ash returns nutrients to the soil, the fire kills many weed species, next year's growth is unimpeded by thatch, and the black ground will heat up faster because of the low albedo, speeding next year's growth.
Pros: Wildlife
Roadside prairies provide habitat for wildlife. The plant community, once established, attracts native songbirds and butterflies, which are aesthetically pleasing. These birds and butterflies are adapted to living in prairie ecosystems and are usually not found anywhere else. Increasing the available habitat can help increase the overall populations of these species. They also allow entire food webs to re-establish themselves, from hawks to rodents to hundreds of microscopic species living in the dirt, enriching it and letting the plant community flourish further.
Cons: Establishment Time
Prairie restorations, regardless of where they happen, can take four to five years to become fully established. This is because of the way prairie plants grow. While many weed species grow shallow roots and quickly reproduce, prairie plants spend their first few years putting significant energy into root development. A spindly, scrawny purple prairie clover has roots as thick as a person's finger extending down for many feet. These root systems allow a prairie plant to out-compete a weed for soil nutrients and allow them to hold water deep underground, where weeds can't reach. The time needed to develop these features can seem long for some people.
Cons: Blowing Smoke
Prescribed burns along roadside prairies can temporarily impede driving conditions if smoke blows onto the roadway. While an experienced burn crew with a good burn plan and proper weather conditions can minimize this occurrence, a sudden gust of wind or poor planning can cause problems for drivers. Warning signs placed near the road in advance of a burn can prepare traffic for blowing smoke. Prescribed burns rarely last for more than a few hours.