Door County Roadside Wildflower Reprieve Has Ended--Next Year and From Then On Let Door County Roadside Wild Flowers Thrive!

Previously I explained how the interior roadside wild flowers of Door County had been spared the guillotine this spring and we residents and lucky tourists were greeted with wild grasses and wild flowers in all their budding glory. Now the pardon has been withdrawn and the Door County Highway Maintenance Department have begun their methodical destruction of all this beautiful enhancement of our roadways needlessly. We are told that this must be done for road safety reasons. Dear Town, Village, and County Boards who are responsible for the roadside mowing of roadside wild flowers how flimsy beautiful columbine, Indian paint brush, daisies, hare bell, prim rose, wild geranium, and so many other temporal flowers and willowy including rare lady slipper orchids can possibly be safety hazards?

These Door County enhancements are deliberately cut down during their peak blooming periods along dirt and gravel roadsides extending about 8 to 10 feet from the actual roadway edge. Except for a few high grasses growing at obstructed intersections it is impossible for these willowy relatively short stemmed flowers to obstruct vision or pose a safety hazard in any discernible way. When the growing season ends these flowers die back naturally and decompose, and subsequently any remnants would be severed during winter road plowing.

Meanwhile the beauty of roadside wild flowers would add to tourist incentives and used to attract photographers and travel groups who rarely have the opportunity to view wild flowers that grow in Door County along our roadways. The naturally growing roadside wild flower could become a tourist draw throughout the brief seasonal period that they grow.

Those of you who think that the roadside wild flowers of Door County should be a treasured asset that are allowed to bloom in all their glory and not be subjected to the County Highway Maintenance Department mow-down operations, please contact your local town and village boards and you county board representative representative. Speak up for an even more beautiful and self sustaining Door County by preserving the beauty of roadside wild flowers for all to enjoy during our brief flowering season.

The five lady slipper orchards (bright yellow spots) shown in this

along a portion of the roadside adjacent to our property have recently been mowed down after a very short but very appreciated life. Here is a close-up view of one of the five. Perhaps next year these treasures in Door County will be spared, and all roadside wild flowers can live for all to enjoy and treasure.

.