Reduced Mowing in Peoria County in 2015

March 2015

Jubilee-Brimfield Road
This stretch of Jubilee-Brimfield Road is part of Peoria County's reduced mowing program.

Last year the Peoria County Highway Department conducted a pilot program to assess the impact of reduced mowing along its rural Right of Ways (ROW). Nearly 30 miles of the 300 County maintained roadways were ‘tested’, and the results are both interesting and point towards greater reductions in 2015. HOI Sierra club volunteers played an important role in monitoring the test areas and reporting any changes.  In fact, because of the success of the pilot program, it is possible that this year nearly all of the county roads will be mowed not on a fixed schedule but as needed, creating a great opportunity for wildflowers and pollinators to rebound in these areas. Reduced mowing has come to stay in Peoria County!

Why bother?  Because there is a dangerous lack of pollinator habitat across Peoria County. In the past 10 years,  the increased use of herbicides by farmers have eradicated much of the wildflowers once common on the edge of agricultural fields. The crisis of the Monarch butterfly migration can be addressed, in a small way, by roadside wildflower programs if they are developed across the country in the traditional migratory path of these butterflies. The potential for a diversity of increased wildflowers will benefit honeybees, wild bees, hummingbirds, bats, insects and other  types of pollinators.

In some areas the county ROW is over 100 feet wide, providing the potential for a 15–20 foot ribbon of wildflowers on either side of the roadway. Reduced mowing will also benefit the environment by reduced motor fuel. If our pilot study is accurate, very few motorists will notice and none will be adversely affected by this change. The pilot study did point out that some roadways are just too curvy for reduced mowing, when the taller flowers have the potential to obscure drivers  field of vision. Kickapoo Creek Road, for example, was determined to be one of those areas. 

While the final decision to have 100% reduced mowing in Peoria County will not be made until the end of March, it is clear that there is very good potential to create here in Peoria County and then hopefully spread to other areas in our state a simple and surprisingly easy idea to help the environment;  reduce mowing of the Right of Ways. For more information contact David Pittman at dvdpttmn@aol.com, 309-573-2354.