The decision this year to curtail mowing along Allen County roads — to deal with a tight budget — might be a good practice to continue. Budget concerns aren’t likely to evaporate soon, which may make continuance of minimal mowing a done deal regardless.
The county has about 1,000 miles of roads, which means mowing along both sides involves shearing vegetation from 2,000 miles of rights of way.
Years ago, some land-owners took on the responsibility, and some still do today. However, not all have the equipment necessary for the task. We’ve a pretty large number of gentleman and gentlewoman farmers who don’t have a tractor sitting out back with a brush hog attached, and riding mowers aren’t much of a match for road ditches. Consequently, shifting responsibility to residents probably would not be productive.
Maybe, instead, policy change is in order.
Intersections should be shorn of weeds and brush that impair visibility for approaching motorists; hard-surfaced roads should get attention twice or so a year because they are thoroughfares, which carry more traffic.
Elsewhere, roadside weeds, accentuated as they are in many places by wildflowers, might reach the point where they’re hardly noticed; familiarity has a way of doing that. And, keeping some undergrowth in place certainly would be an advantage for quail, rabbits and other full-time residents of the countryside.
That would be particularly true near cultivated fields, where farmers — for very good financial reasons — squeeze in as much of a crop as they can.
— Bob Johnson
