HomeMy WebLinkAboutPrairie Adjacent Properties Letter
Great news for your neighborhood!
As part of the Iowa City Climate Action Initiative, beneficial prairie and native plantings will be planted
on the City property adjacent to your property. This neighborhood prairie is a part of an initiative to
increase prairie acreage throughout the city. This will create a new habitat for a variety of pollinators
and animals and reduce pollution from mowing. The Parks and Recreation Department will manage the
establishment and maintenance of your neighborhood prairie.
Prairie establishment occurs during a 3 to 5-year period with occasional maintenance of mowing,
prescribed burning, over-seeding and invasive species removal. These management techniques may be
implemented to help the prairie establish, flourish and outcompete undesirable species. Prairies go
through many changes from the initial establishment, during the seasons and throughout decades. The
process will begin this spring and fall in preparation for seeding in late fall.
What to Expect:
Year 1 – Brown grass, and bare looking soil.
Year 2 – The first sprouting of prairie grasses and forbs
(prairie flowers).
Year 3 to 4 – Transition from early dominant species to
varieties with longer-term establishment.
Year 5 – A lush mix of grasses, sedges and forbs benefitting
many pollinators.
The prairie establishment boundaries will take property lines into account and define a buffer of turf-
grass between your property line and the prairie area. Kindly remove anything you may have stored,
constructed or is encroaching on City property, and be sure to mow only to your property line, and no
further.
The Parks and Recreation Department is committed to reaching our climate action goals and doing our
part to further the sustainability of the community. Prairie is one piece of our contribution and your new
neighborhood prairie is important to our efforts.
For information on the Iowa City Climate Action Initiatives and prairies visit:
• City of Iowa City’s Climate Action Initiatives: https://www.icgov.org/project/climate-action
• Tallgrass Prairie Center: https://tallgrassprairiecenter.org/
For more information, contact Tyler Baird, Assistant Superintendent of Parks, at Tyler-Baird@iowa-
city.org or (319) 356-5100 x2069.