INDIANAPOLIS — Knee high by the Fourth of the July used to be a measure for corn in Indiana, but now it could be applied to roadside grass.
The state is intentionally allowing vegetation to grow this summer, as part of a plan to better manage 40,000 acres of roadside land.
Its first round of roadside mowing started in mid-May. The next likely won’t come until August.
That’s prompting complaints, although fewer than in past years.
Highway officials hope that means Hoosiers are getting used to a new schedule and, as one official put it, no longer expect “roadsides to be manicured like their front lawns.”
That’s how Nathan Riggs, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Transportation, described an aesthetic that he thinks is fading as Indiana moves deeper into an “integrated vegetation management plan.”
Put in place over the past decade, the plan combines measures such as less mowing, more weed eradication and planting native grasses and wildflowers.
Not everyone’s sold, as evidenced by calls that still come from people who mistake native grasses for tall weeds, he said.
Conservation expert Zach Lowe said it’s a criticism heard across the Midwest, in states relying less on the costly, potentially dangerous practice of roadside mowing.
“Maybe we need a public service message that says, ‘Just because it’s not mown, doesn’t mean it’s not being managed,’” he said.
Lowe is on a team of Purdue University wildlife management experts that has worked with highway officials on roadside maintenance since at least 2000.
Back then, the DOT cut grass along 90,000 miles of roads and in highway medians five times a year.
The cycle has been reduced to three times, usually in late spring, late summer and early fall.
There are additional mowings in some areas, as needed, where tall grass interferes with drivers’ visibility.
Lowe thinks the mowing cycle could be reduced to twice a year in some places, and maybe even once a year where federally funded wildflowers are taking root.
Lowe said he hears a few gripes that the state’s 800 acres of wildflowers look messy.
But complaints are fewer, he said, as people learn that wildflowers provide habitat that combats the decline of species such as butterflies.
“Who doesn’t love a butterfly?” he said.
Less mowing has other, practical benefits. It means hiring fewer highway workers, and less exposure of workers to traffic and inattentive motorists, cutting down on liability costs.
Riggs said Indiana spends about $8 million per year to mow 40,000-plus highway-side acres.
Herbicides used to eradicate weeds and slow grass growth cost about $32 per acre.
Despite tall-grass complaints, state surveys show that mowing is far down the list of public concerns, well behind fixing aging roads.
Only 3 percent of the complaints fielded by the Department of Transportation, Riggs said, are mowing-related.
Still, some complaints are highly visible, like the homemade, unauthorized campaign sign for Democratic gubernatorial candidate John Gregg.
Recently plopped onto the side of a roadway, the sign promises that Gregg, if elected, will make sure the grass is cut.
Riggs declined to comment other than to say it doesn’t seem to be a widespread concern.
“I think we’re getting people to see there is some reasoning behind the decisions we make,” he said.