Late last week, a Bluestem reader traveled west on Minnesota Highway 60 on ag-related business, snapping some photos for us along the way, presumably near or in this MNDOT project.
He mused about the effects of ditch mowing on the road, wondering if in the past, public money had gone into planting forbs as well as grass, all that remained in the heavily hayed ditch in the picture.
In Not in Minnesota anymore: SD Gov will oppress farmers' god-given right to hay right-of-ways, we reported back on Independence Day 2019:
. . .The Noem pandering to pheasant habitat contrasts sharply with the debate in Minnesota over mowing and haying state right-of-way ditches, where efforts to enforce the state's August 1 mowing opener have been greeted with calls to allow haying at any time, along with claims that leaving habitat alone during the nesting season does no good for pheasants, as they don't nest in ditches to begin with.
As we noted in our lede, the species is highly adaptable to varying political ecologies on either side of the states' borders.
What Minnesota Republicans said about ditch mowing
We recommend checking out Tony Kennedy's 2018 article in the Strib, Minnesota farmers, environmentalists and legislators stuck in a ditch over roadside maintenance, Iowa Public Television's report from Collen Bradford Kranz, Minnesota Continues to Debate Hay Making in Ditches, and 2018's Minnesota News Network's MN House authorizes extension of moratorium on permits for ditch mowing, haying (with AUDIO), which drops a money quote from Mazeppa Republican Steve Drazkowski:
MN-DOT for another year, until April 30, 2019, could *not* require permits for people to mow or hay in trunk highway ditches along their property, under a bill that cleared the Minnesota House late Tuesday on a strong vote. Members of both sides of the aisle say they need more time because agreement has been difficult — Mazeppa Republican Steve Drazkowski putting his finger on one major point of contention: “If people want to grow bees and butterflies and birds, there’s lots and lots and lots of space well, well, well beyond the two or three steps out of the car off of the road.” Drazkowski argues ditches should be clear for safety reasons, but others say that’s important wildlife habitat.
A reader sent us photos that illustrate the consequences of all-ditching mowing, all the time on publicly owned right-of-ways and medians. Remember, the ditch-mowing controversy isn't about allowing farmers to mow their own private property. Rather, it's about letting farmers mow public right-of-ways on state trunk highways after August 1, Minnesota's state regulatory date.
Here are two contrasting photos; first the median, filled with wildflowers:
Next, a ditch that's been hayed:
We have to wonder whether both the ditch and the median were replanted with forbs (like the flowers) as well as grass as part of the larger and earlier road project.
In an email, our correspondent explains the pictures:
At the point of the pictures, Highway 60 is being reconstructed and they have moved all traffic to the one side of the four lane highway. Thus the only picture I could get of the flowers is on the median. The other pictures of the ditch were taken a few miles east of that picture but on the right hand side as one drove. At that point, the median had been harvested but the bales were missing.
Learn more about earlier work on Highway 60 in South Central and Southwestern Minnesota in After lifetimes of work, Hwy 60 is complete, by Mark Fischenich at the Mankato Free Press in December 2018. While the highway is now a four-lane highway between Sioux City, Iowa, and Mankato, Minnesota, road construction in Minnesota is never truly ending.
Photos: Highway 60 median and ditch. Submitted.
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