HUXLEY -- The Iowa Department of Transportation is hoping to keep snow off the state's roads with natural landscaping.
The shrubs and bushes will attract birds and wildlife and provide color in the spring. But those are just the added benefits. Their real purpose to is create a "living snow fence," said Mark Masteller, of the Iowa DOT.
Once the bushes are planted, hardwood mulch will be spread in a thin line along the ditch to protect the bushes, Masteller said.
The plantings will include vibernum, ninebark, dogwood, hazelnut, willot, button bush and chokeberry. Once they grow to full height, the rows of shrubs will form a natural snow fence.
"We've put in between 200 and 300 miles of living snow fence around the state," Masteller said. "Most of it is along four-lane roads. It gives us a wider right of way to do the work."
He said the Iowa Department of Natural Resources' State Forest Nursery in Ames provided the plants.
Masteller said living snow fences aren't new.
"Farmers have been planting windbreaks
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In central Iowa, living snow fences are being planted on the west side of Interstate 35 between Ames and Huxley, on the north side of Iowa 210 between Cambridge and Slater, along U.S. 30 in parts of Boone and Story counties and along the west side of U.S. 65 between Collins and Mingo.
