Contacts
- Craig Wilkins
651-366-4270 - Dan Gullickson
651-366-3610
Location
Minnesota Department of
Transportation
Office of Communications
395 John Ireland Blvd.
Mail Stop 150
St. Paul, MN 55155-1899
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Living snow fences increase highway safety, mobility during winter months
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Tons of wind-blown snow that could block Highway 212 or drift into nearby downtown Bird Island will instead collect among rows of trees and shrubs planted along the highway.
The plantings create a living snow fence, a natural barrier that disrupts the flow of wind-blown snow and keeps it from reaching the roadway.
The fence, grown by retired farmer Vern Prokosch of Bird Island, is about one-third mile long.
It uses graduated rows of cedar trees, shrubs such as red dogwood and American plum, and native prairie grasses.
Their stepped heights create turbulence that disrupts the wind’s force and drops the snow before it can reach the highway.
The fence encompasses about 8.5 acres.
Landowners compensated for participation
Prokosch earns compensation for the land from both the Minnesota Department of Transportation and the Conservation Reserve Program.
His installation typifies the snow fences built throughout the state by Mn/DOT working with landowners and agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the University of Minnesota’s Extension Service and county soil and water conservation districts.
Dan Gullickson, a forester and Mn/DOT’s project manager, said the program creates benefits for both participants and the public.
While landowners are compensated, Mn/DOT benefits from lower highway maintenance costs for plowing and removing ice and snow in fence-protected areas. The public gains a safer trip on a highway more likely to be free of drifts and icy patches.
Mn/DOT works with landowners to design the projects so they work efficiently and cause minimal disruption to farming operations.
Since 1998, the department and its partners have worked with landowners at 64 sites to create nearly 20 miles of living snow fences in the state.
Fences’ effects can reach far beyond the planting site
Dave Woefel, Bird Island’s public works director, said the benefits of the snow fence extend far beyond Prokosch’s property on Highway 212.
“There used to be a lot of crashes due to drifts and white-out conditions up by his place and the cemetery; now there are very few,” he said. “And the fence helps the city, too.”
Woefel said effects of the snow fence can be seen in a new addition on the city’s southwest side, about 1,000 feet away from the fence’s end.
“We used to get heavy drifts on that side of town that required extra plow passes to clear; now we can plow it like anywhere else in town,” he said. “Mn/DOT and its Willmar District made a very wise investment with this.”
For more information or enroll in the program, contact Gullickson at 651-366-3610 or visit the project’s Web site: www.dot.state.mn.us/environment/livingsnowfence/.
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