2009 Iowa Code
Title 8 - Transportation
Subtitle 1 - Highways and Waterways
CHAPTER 314 - ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS FOR HIGHWAYS
314.22 - INTEGRATED ROADSIDE VEGETATION MANAGEMENT.

        314.22  INTEGRATED ROADSIDE VEGETATION MANAGEMENT.
         1.  Objectives.  It is declared to be in the general public
      welfare of Iowa and a highway purpose for the vegetation of Iowa's
      roadsides to be preserved, planted, and maintained to be safe,
      visually interesting, ecologically integrated, and useful for many
      purposes.  The state department of transportation shall provide an
      integrated roadside vegetation management plan and program which
      shall be designed to accomplish all of the following:
         a.  Maintain a safe travel environment.
         b.  Serve a variety of public purposes including erosion
      control, wildlife habitat, climate control, scenic qualities, weed
      control, utility easements, recreation uses, and sustenance of water
      quality.
         c.  Be based on a systematic assessment of conditions existing
      in roadsides, preservation of valuable vegetation and habitats in the
      area, and the adoption of a comprehensive plan and strategies for
      cost-effective maintenance and vegetation planting.
         d.  Emphasize the establishment of adaptable and long-lived
      vegetation, often native species, matched to the unique environment
      found in and adjacent to the roadside.
         e.  Incorporate integrated management practices for the
      long-term control of damaging insect populations, weeds, and invader
      plant species.
         f.  Build upon a public education program allowing input from
      adjacent landowners and the general public.
         g.  Accelerate efforts toward increasing and expanding the
      effectiveness of plantings to reduce wind-induced and water- induced
      soil erosion and to increase deposition of snow in desired locations.

         h.  Incorporate integrated roadside vegetation management with
      other state agency planning and program activities including the
      recreation trails program, scenic highways, open space, and tourism
      development efforts.  Agencies should annually report their progress
      in this area to the general assembly.
         2.  Counties may adopt plans.  A county may adopt an
      integrated roadside vegetation management plan consistent with the
      integrated roadside vegetation management plan adopted by the
      department under subsection 1.
         3.  Integrated roadside vegetation management technical advisory
      committee.
         a.  The director of the department shall appoint members to an
      integrated roadside vegetation management technical advisory
      committee which is created to provide advice on the development and
      implementation of a statewide integrated roadside vegetation
      management plan and program and related projects.  The department
      shall report annually in January to the general assembly regarding
      its activities and those of the committee.  Activities of the
      committee may include, but are not limited to, providing advice and
      assistance in the following areas:
         (1)  Research efforts.
         (2)  Demonstration projects.
         (3)  Education and orientation efforts for property owners, public
      officials, and the general public.
         (4)  Activities of the integrated roadside vegetation management
      coordinator for integrated roadside vegetation management.
         (5)  Reviewing applications for funding assistance.
         (6)  Securing funding for research and demonstrations.
         (7)  Determining needs for revising the state weed law and other
      applicable Code sections.
         (8)  Liaison with the Iowa state association of counties, the Iowa
      league of cities, and other organizations for integrated roadside
      vegetation management purposes.
         b.  The director may appoint any number of persons to the
      committee but, at a minimum, the committee shall consist of all of
      the following:
         (1)  One member representing the utility industry.
         (2)  One member from the Iowa academy of sciences.
         (3)  One member representing county government.
         (4)  One member representing city government.
         (5)  Two members representing the private sector including
      community interest groups.
         (6)  One member representing soil conservation interests.
         (7)  One member representing the department of natural resources.

         (8)  One member representing county conservation boards.
         Members of the committee shall serve without compensation, but may
      be reimbursed for allowable expenses from the living roadway trust
      fund created under section 314.21.  No more than a simple majority of
      the members of the committee shall be of the same gender as provided
      in section 69.16A.  The director of the department shall appoint the
      chair of the committee and shall establish a minimum schedule of
      meetings for the committee.
         4.  Integrated roadside vegetation management coordinator. The
      integrated roadside vegetation management coordinator shall
      administer the department's integrated roadside vegetation management
      plan and program.  The department may create the position of
      integrated roadside vegetation management coordinator within the
      department or may contract for the services of the coordinator.  The
      duties of the coordinator include, but are not limited to, the
      following:
         a.  Conducting education and awareness programs.
         b.  Providing technical advice to the department and the
      department of natural resources, counties, and cities.
         c.  Conducting demonstration projects.
         d.  Coordinating inventory and implementation activities.
         e.  Providing assistance to local community-based groups for
      undertaking community entryway projects.
         f.  Being a clearinghouse for information from Iowa projects
      as well as from other states.
         g.  Periodically distributing information related to
      integrated roadside vegetation management.
         h.  General coordination of research efforts.
         i.  Other duties assigned by the director of transportation.
         5.  Education programs.  The department shall develop
      educational programs and provide educational materials for the
      general public, landowners, governmental employees, and board members
      as part of its program for integrated roadside vegetation management.
      The educational program shall provide all of the following:
         a.  The development of public service announcements and
      television programs about the importance of roadside vegetation in
      Iowa.
         b.  The expansion of existing training sessions and
      educational curriculum materials for county weed commissioners,
      government contract sprayers, maintenance staff, and others to
      include coverage of integrated roadside management topics such as
      basic plant species identification, vegetation preservation,
      vegetation inventory techniques, vegetation management and planning
      procedures, planting techniques, maintenance, communication, and
      public relations.  County and municipal engineers, public works
      staffs, planning and zoning representatives, parks and habitat
      managers, and others should be encouraged to participate.
         c.  The conducting of statewide and regional conferences and
      seminars about integrated roadside vegetation management, community
      entryways, scenic values of land adjoining roadsides, and other
      topics relating to roadside vegetation.
         d.  The preparation, display, and distribution of a variety of
      public relations material, in order to better inform and educate the
      traveling public on roadside vegetation management activities.  The
      public relations material shall inform motorists of a variety of
      roadside vegetation issues including all of the following:
         (1)  Benefits of various types of roadside vegetation.
         (2)  Long-term results expected from planting and maintenance
      practices.
         (3)  Purposes for short-term disturbances in the roadside
      landscapes.
         (4)  Interesting aspects of the Iowa landscape and individual
      landscape regions.
         (5)  Other aspects relating to wildlife and soil erosion.
         e.  Preparation and distribution of educational material
      designed to inform adjoining property owners, farm operators, and
      others of the importance of roadside vegetation and their
      responsibilities of proper stewardship of that vegetation resource.
         6.  Research and demonstration projects.  The department, as
      part of its plan to provide integrated roadside vegetation
      management, shall conduct research and feasibility studies including
      demonstration projects of different kinds at a variety of locations
      around the state.  The research and feasibility studies may be
      conducted in, but are not limited to, any of the following areas:
         a.  Cost effectiveness or comparison of planting, establishing
      and maintaining alternative or warm-season, native grass and forb
      roadside vegetation and traditional cool-season nonnative vegetation.

         b.  Identification of the relationship that roadsides and
      roadside vegetation have to maintaining water quality, through
      drainage wells, sediment and pollutant collection and filtration, and
      other means.
         c.  Impacts of burning as an alternative vegetation management
      tool on all categories of roads.
         d.  Techniques for more quickly establishing erosion control
      and permanent vegetative cover on recently disturbed ground as well
      as interplanting native species in existing vegetative cover.
         e.  Effectiveness of techniques for reduced or selected use of
      herbicides to control weeds.
         f.  Identification of cross section and slope steepness design
      standards which provide for motorist safety as well as for improved
      establishment, maintenance, and replacement of different types of
      vegetation.
         g.  Identification of a uniform inventory and assessment
      technique which could be used by many counties in establishing
      integrated roadside management programs.
         h.  Equipment innovations for seeding and harvesting grasses
      in difficult terrain settings, roadway ditches, and fore-slopes and
      back-slopes.
         i.  Identification of the perceptions of motorists and
      landowners to various types of roadside vegetation and configuration
      of plantings.
         j.  Market or economic feasibility studies for native seed,
      forb, and woody plant production and propagation.
         k.  Impacts of vegetation modifications on increasing or
      decreasing wildlife populations in rural and urban areas.
         l.  Effects of vegetation on the number and location of
      wildlife road-kills in rural and urban areas.
         m.  Costs to the public for improper off-site resource
      management adjacent to roadsides.
         n.  Advantages, disadvantages, and techniques of establishing
      pedestrian access adjacent to highways and their impacts on
      vegetation management.
         o.  Identification of alternative techniques for snow
      catchment on farmland adjacent to roadsides.
         7.  Gateways program.  The department shall develop a gateways
      program to provide meaningful visual impacts including major new
      plantings at the important highway entry points to the state and its
      communities.  Substantial and distinctive plantings shall also be
      designed and installed at these points.  Creative and artistic design
      solutions shall be sought for these improvements.  Communications
      about these projects shall be provided to local groups in order to
      build community involvement, support, and understanding of their
      importance.  Consideration shall be given to a requirement that
      gateways projects produce a local match or contribution toward the
      overall project cost.
         8.  Vegetation inventories and strategies.
         a.  The department shall coordinate and compile integrated
      roadside vegetation inventories, classification systems, plans, and
      implementation strategies for roadsides.  Areas of increased program
      and project emphasis may include, but are not limited to, all of the
      following:
         (1)  Additional development and funding of state gateways
      projects.
         (2)  Accelerated replacement of dead and unhealthy plants with
      native and hardy trees and shrubs.
         (3)  Special interest plantings at selected highly visible
      locations along primary and interstate highways.
         (4)  Pilot and demonstration projects.
         (5)  Additional snow and erosion control plantings.
         (6)  Welcome center and rest area plantings with native and
      aesthetically interesting species to create mini-arboretums around
      the state.
         b.  The department shall coordinate and compile a
      reconnaissance of lands to develop an inventory of sites having the
      potential of being harvested for native grass, forb, and woody plant
      material seed and growing stock.  Highway right-of-ways, parks and
      recreation areas, converted railroad right-of-ways, state board of
      regents' property, lands owned by counties, and other types of public
      property shall be surveyed and documented for seed source potential.
      Sites volunteered by private organizations may also be included in
      the inventory.  Inventory information shall be made available to
      state agencies' staffs, county engineers, county conservation board
      directors, and others.  

         89 Acts, ch 246, §6; 95 Acts, ch 3, §2
         Referred to in § 314.13, 314.21, 317.11