KDOT burns pollinator habitat to support new growth

KDOT employees burned about 15 acres of native plant habitat to make room for more plants and to remove
unwanted vegetation.  

Working amidst sheets of smoke while dodging charred grass shards floating down from above, on the morning of Nov. 25 employees from the KDOT Ottawa and Garnett offices burned off about 15 acres of native plant pollinator habitat at the I-35 Homewood rest areas.

The ground was initially burned in 2017, after Homewood was selected as the first location in Kansas for the project to create pollinator habitat for the Monarch butterfly. I-35 is known as the ‘Monarch Highway,’ where the colorful Monarchs stop frequently on their migrations between Mexico and Canada.

By burning the area, unwanted vegetation species have been removed and nutrients have been recycled back into the soil to support new growth of the milkweed and wildflowers. 

 A grant from the organization Monarch Watch provided funding to plant the area with 1,152 milkweed plugs, as milkweed is considered a key plant to the survival of the Monarch. In addition to placing the milkweed plugs, KDOT crews planted a mixture consisting of 23 species of native wildflowers and grasses at Homewood.

Melissa Davidson, Engineering Technician Specialist with the Bureau of Right-of-Way, was on hand to assist with November’s controlled burn. “Native grasses like to be burned in the fall” instead of the spring, she explained. "The prescribed burn helped remove unwanted species from the area, and recycled nutrients back to the soil to support the new growth of the milkweed and wildflowers. 

Davidson said that since the special pollinator habitat was established in 2017, the rest areas have experienced a noticeable uptick in the numbers of brilliant Monarch visitors.

To prepare for the burn, Ottawa Supervisor Bruce Myres said the crews first cut a 15-foot path through tall grass on the border of the burn area. 

Myres lit the fires using propane and a weed burner, working in sections from east to west. “Basically, we did a back burn,” he said. The work began at the rest area on the southbound lanes, with crew members wielding shovels and a leaf blower to put out the fires as they reached the edges of the habitat.

“When we burned it the first time, the native grasses really came back,” Myres recalled. 

Myres said that KDOT plans to establish a new area of pollinator habitat at the junction of I-35 and U.S. 59. Other efforts to develop habitat in southeast Kansas continue at the rest areas on U.S. 69 at Trading Post and U.S. 169/U.S. 400 in Montgomery County.

Davidson has created a webpage dedicated to providing information and updates on KDOT’s pollinator habitat efforts. The page can be accessed at  http://pollinatorpartners.ksdot.org/ and is also on the KDOT website.

“Little by little people are learning about what we are doing, and we’ve gotten many great comments about it,” Davidson said.