Current Impediments for New England DOTs to Transition to Sustainable Roadside Practices for Strengthening Pollinator Habitats and Health

John Campanelli (), Yulia A. Kuzovkina () and Samuel Kocurek
Additional contact information
John Campanelli: Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut, 1376 Storrs Road Unit 4067, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
Yulia A. Kuzovkina: Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture, University of Connecticut, 1376 Storrs Road Unit 4067, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
Samuel Kocurek: Department of Mathematics, University of Connecticut, 341 Mansfield Rd., Storrs, CT 06269, USA

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Government agencies whose work impacts the environment have sought more sustainable policy changes that require the use of native plants for revegetation. However, New England DOTs have encountered hurdles in attempts to transition from using cool-season turfgrass to implementing the more complicated management practices required to establish native plant communities. Two of the most significant barriers have been the slow transition to mainly using native plants for revegetation and the lack of genetically appropriate ecotypic native plant material (ENPM) produced in the Northeast. Growers of ENPM have resisted increasing production because they struggle to gauge demand due to substantial communication gaps between local producers and end users. Therefore, we organized focus groups with New England state DOTs, Departments of Environmental Protection, and Fish and Wildlife Services to determine their demand for ENPM and to explore their relationships with producers. We determined that the subcontracting of DOTs hinders their ability to develop relationships with producers because it leaves seed source selection in the hands of third parties. Another impediment was found to be the resistance of some maintenance departments to adopt sustainable management practices, such as reduced mowing. In summary, we determined that DOTs would benefit from establishing more direct relationships with producers to communicate their ENPM needs.

Keywords: roadside vegetation; reduced mowing; pollinators; ecotypic seed; native plant material (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3639/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/4/3639/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:4:p:3639-:d:1070469

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().