Attitudes toward and adoption of roadside revegetation using native plants by departments of transportation in New England states

Abstract

Recent federal policy changes mandate the establishment of native plant communities along roadsides and the utilization of roadsides and other federal lands to benefit pollinator health. State departments of transportation (DOTs) have faced significant barriers, however, when attempting to transition from the traditional protocol of using introduced cool-season turf grass to revegetate roadsides to implementing new, more complicated management practices required to establish native plant communities. This study used focus groups to help our research team anticipate the challenges New England state DOT managers would confront before our team authored a manual that would guide efforts to transform roadside revegetation practices. Two-and-a-half years following publication of the manual, we used online and written surveys of these DOT managers to determine the progress they made in implementing new protocols and the hurdles they encountered. We projected that the challenges would fall into 3 overarching areas: a) concerns about existing private subcontracting systems used for post-construction roadside revegetation; b) the need to educate employees on the benefits of transitioning to revegetation using native plants; and c) lack of funding for exploring and developing new methods and practices. Ultimately, our follow-up surveys clearly reveal that the greatest obstacle to transitioning to the use of native plants for roadside revegetation involves funding, which remains insufficient in an era of chronically stressed government budgets.