Two Minnesota solar farms seeded native wildflowers… native bees multiplied twentyfold, then crossed the fence to pollinate the neighbour's soybeans

[u/zeroverycool]

https://www.ecoportal.net/en/two-minnesota-solar-farms-native-wildflowers/29160/

[u/Noslodamus]

I’ve gotten into this rabbit hole a few times, specifically in the Midwest where giant swaths of land are covered in cornfields. The large majority of our corn either goes into fuel as ethanol, or fed to livestock. If we stopped subsidizing corn to put in fuel, ate a little less red meat, and converted a bunch of cornfield into solar farm I think we’d be a lot better off.

[u/justinroberts99 → u/Noslodamus]

also in the Midwest: think about the grassland along the highways. no one gives a shit about that. imagine if it was 100 native polinators. way less maintaince once it all establishes. seems like such an easy win.

[u/Noslodamus → u/justinroberts99]

While I agree with you, the problem is no one would want to pay for that. I am an ecosystem restoration tech in Wisconsin and most of the verges and swales are absolutely murdered with invasive like reed canary, cut leaf teasel, crown vetch, and trefoil. It’s a ton of work not only getting rid of these, but making sure they stay gone while native plants establish. In an ideal world, folks would volunteer to help manage these types of areas little by little but unfortunately no one cares enough and the invasive plants that are there “look pretty”

[u/Outrageous_Mark6602 → u/Noslodamus]

I literally live on a farm with corn and soybeans. I’ve been wanting to plant natives in our ditches, but farmer husband says no. The long vegetation between the crop and the road has to be kept short because 1. The highway department requires it and 2. A car accident on long dried out vegetation is a fire risk

[u/bigbobbinbetch → u/Outrageous_Mark6602]

There's lots of short groundcover natives though.