By Audrey Posten

Residents learned more about Clayton County roadside management during a field day in Elkader on Sept. 6. The event was led by Clayton County Roadside Manager and Weed Commissioner Adam Lake, in partnership with Trees Forever.

Bri Hull, the northeast Iowa field coordinator with Trees Forever, said field days are part of Trees Forever’s Stewards of the Beautiful Land Program, funded through the Living Roadway Trust Fund (LRTF). 

“Alongside the field days that we have in each county, we also do bi-weekly webinars from April through early October. We try to get a bunch of speakers that can talk about our roadsides and natural habitat and how we’re maintaining those,” she explained. “In Iowa, a majority of our public land is road sides. So that’s a big area of focus for us, along those farm edges especially, to help retain soil, reduce erosion and for nitrogen fixation. It also provides habitat, and there is some data to support that different plants are great for wind breaks and snow drifts, but also breaking up the landscape for drivers.”

Through the LRTF, cities and counties can apply for funding to purchase equipment and materials. Free seed is also available for roadside plantings.

That’s a vital resource for Lake, who operates on a tight budget and with limited manpower. Since taking over in 2022 and developing a roadside plan for Clayton County, Lake has taken advantage of the seed as well as thousands of dollars in grants toward a new pickup truck to pull a hydroseeder, a soil pulverizer that helps create a good seed bed for planting and a brush cutter skid loader attachment. 

“It really helps out,” he said.

According to Lake, Clayton County has had a roadside management program since the early 1990s. Although some more help is available for brush cutting come winter, he and just one full-time employee and one seasonal employee largely oversee the brush cutting, mowing, seeding and herbicide spraying along 900 miles of gravel roads and nearly 200 miles of highway in the county.

“There are roughly 5,500 to 6,000 acres of right-of-way that we maintain in our county,” Lake said.

The county typically mows highways three times per year and gravel roads twice. Staff start at the end of May and finish by the end of October. 

“So we’re making our second rounds on the gravels right now,” he explained. 

On Aug. 1, or a little after, begins brush eradication. 

“Because we can’t get around and spray everything, we just kind of knock it back,” Lake said.

While some county’s spray half their land in one year, Clayton does around one-third due to budgetary constraints, noted Lake. 

Timing is everything in Lake’s line of work.

“Not all weeds are ready to be sprayed at the same time. Some you need to spray really early spring, some are midsummer and some are in the fall to get it under control. Then you throw in seeding on top of it. Same with that. The best time to seed natives is spring, or we do some dormant seeding in the late fall, early winter, if there’s no snow on the ground,” Lake shared. “On top of it, we’re trying to keep complaints down with mowing, just for public safety.” 

With Clayton County’s hilly topography, Lake believes erosion is one of his biggest challenges, especially in cleaning ditches. Weed pressure is also challenging.

“We’ve got some of the best soil, and with good soil, you’ve got a lot of weeds coming up also. And I think it’s only getting worse,” said Lake. “There’s a lot of farmers dealing with it more and more too. They’ve got to spray more and more stuff on their property because they can’t control it. And it’s always something new that’s coming in or hard to control. So then they’ve got to keep adding different products to try and control it on top of what they already use.”

One of Clayton County’s primary pests is the Canada thistle. Another invasive called teasel is also rearing its head, particularly on the eastern side of the county. The plant Lake called “every roadside manager’s worst nightmare,” however, is Japanese knotweed. The shrub-like plant can grow up to 10 feet tall, and has stems that resemble bamboo along with broad, pointed leaves and white flowers in the summer.

Lake works with landowners on managing trees, brush and weeds alongside the roadways. Although the county doesn’t burn road ditches, landowners are welcome to do so. Some area volunteer fire departments even help. 

Landowners can also mow and spray their own roadsides. 

“I do get some calls in about what we’re spraying. Some people like it, some people don’t,” Lake shared. “We’ve got ‘no spray’ programs throughout the county, if they don’t want spray. I also get more and more people thinking, ‘You know, I might want to do it myself.’”

Lake acknowledged it can become more than some people want to handle, and not everyone has the means to do so. He may have to step in where safety is involved. That’s true of brush cutting as well.

“Some people don’t like the brush cutting we do. They just absolutely hate it,” he said, “but we have to do it for public safety. Getting sunlight to our roadways and also hard leaning trees and whatnot. In a storm, they all come down.”

Overall, Lake said partnerships with landowners are vital.

“It’s huge because it’s all right-of-way, but it’s still their ground. If they can maintain what they have, that just helps us out,” he stated. “There’s some areas in the county the public just takes care of it.”

Lake is continually educating himself through guide books, but also through conferences. Hearing from others in the field helps him learn about what seeding and spraying techniques are working for others. He regularly keeps records “to see what worked and didn’t work,” while taking into account the weather. 

Lake is appreciative of field days like the one on Sept. 6, where he can share some of the knowledge he’s gained. Attendees can ask questions about seeding and spraying and the products and tools available to help them.

“It’s just good to inform the public of what we do and why we do it,” Lake said.