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ODOT Roadside Pollinator Projects

We¡¯re helping pollinators in trouble by creating designated pollinator way stations¡ªgardens for bees and butterflies¡ªin highway rest areas in Madison and Wood Counties. The two demonstration gardens are part of the Ohio Department of Transportation¡¯s (ODOT) commitment to increase pollinator habitat and support for the state¡¯s habitat initiative. Our marketing team, native plant nursery staff, and services teams collaborated with ODOT and their Ohio Pollinator Habitat Initiative partners to complete these pollinator habitat demonstration projects.

In Madison County, along Interstate 70, the unique garden honors those who lost their lives in the First World War. Our team grew and supplied more than 1,600 full-size red poppies and native pollinator plants from our native plant nursery. We wrote and designed the permanent interpretive signage, educational booklets, commemorative posters, and native seed packets for this garden as well as for the Travel Center Pollinator Garden in Wood County along Interstate 75. For one of ODOT¡¯s largest sites at nearly an acre, we supplied and installed over 1,000 native pollinator plants including wild columbine, butterfly weed, whorled milkweed, tall coreopsis, spotted Joe Pye weed, wild bergamot, common ironweed, and prairie dropseed.

Perennial pollinator plants are thriving in both gardens, and we¡¯ll continue to maintain and monitor these special places so bees and butterflies can thrive too.