HANOVER, MD—The Maryland State Highway Administration is transforming roadsides and medians into thriving meadows for bees, butterflies, and other crucial pollinators as part of a statewide effort to combat habitat loss.
Timed with National Pollinator Week, which runs June 16-22, the agency announced the expansion of its program to cultivate native plant ecosystems. Nearly seven new acres of pollinator-friendly meadows have been seeded along highways in Queen Anne’s, Anne Arundel, and Howard counties.
The initiative aims to reverse the decline of pollinator species threatened by habitat loss, disease, and insecticides. State officials emphasize the critical role these creatures play in the nation’s food supply, noting that an estimated 85% of the world’s flowering plants, including essential crops like apples, blueberries, and nuts, depend on them for pollination.
“Protecting beneficial pollinators is important nationwide for the agriculture industry,” the State Highway Administration (SHA) said in a statement.
The newly seeded areas feature native plants, including milkweed, which is the necessary host plant for monarch butterfly caterpillars. The agency is installing signs to identify the designated habitats, cautioning that they may initially appear unkempt as the native ecosystems take time to establish.
These new sites build on efforts from last year, when the SHA installed several demonstration gardens at its facilities in Hanover and its district offices in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Frederick, and Prince George’s counties to educate employees and the public.
The program involves specific land management techniques, such as mowing only once a year during the dormant season and cutting grass no shorter than eight inches to provide nesting stubble for insects.
A federal grant is helping to support the conversion of land along state highways. The project is a collaboration between the SHA and partners in the state’s Pollinator Protection Plan, including the Maryland Departments of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Maryland Environmental Service.
