Spare the Sod, Spoil the Wild

By Dan McCord

I am a resident of the Ridgefield Subdivision in Fishers, Indiana. Having an interest in the well being of our community, I volunteered for our homeowner’s association board when it was turned over to the residents approximately three years ago. Like many homeowner associations, Ridgefield was challenged by the ever-increasing cost of grounds maintenance. Adding to our problems, the developer had established homeowner dues inadequate to cover our operating expenses. Since the association’s covenants strictly limit dues increases, and most homeowners were against a significant dues increase, we had to become creative in trying to balance our budget.

Ridgefield has more than 13 acres of common area to mow and maintain. Lawn maintenance was our largest expense. After giving the issue a lot of consideration, our solution was to have a nature park in our subdivision. Our plan was to convert half our common area turf grass into prairie consisting of native grasses and wildflowers, which would not require the ongoing maintenance and mowing that the lawn grass did. Since the native plants had evolved in our area, they have very deep, extensive root systems and are better adapted to our soils, weather, and other biological and physical conditions. In addition, the native plants would not require fertilizers or watering. We projected the conversion to a native prairie would cut our maintenance expenses in half.

In late fall 2005 and throughout the beginning of 2006, we developed our prairie restoration plan and implementation strategy with the assistance of a wildlife biologist from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. After a lot of research, we created a project budget, choose native seed that was compatible with the site and located a company to prepare the site.

Locating a company that would plant the seed at a reasonable cost was an obstacle. The wildflower seeds are extremely small; the native grass seed is hairy and has to be planted very shallow. Therefore, the seed could not be planted with a conventional lawn-grass seeder. Several companies were available that specialize in planting native plant seeds; however, their planting charge was prohibitive given our association’s struggling financial position. Just when we thought our well laid out plan was coming to an abrupt halt, we were introduced to Pheasants Forever.

Pheasants Forever is a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to conservation of wildlife habitat. We were lucky that the local chapter of Pheasants Forever had an experienced habitat team and the equipment for planting native prairie. In May 2006, the native prairie was planted by the Central Indiana Chapter of Pheasants Forever at the small cost of membership. Local chapters of Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever are located throughout the Country and can be a significant resource given their technical expertise.

What started from financial necessity has also provided many environmental benefits. For example, we improved control of storm-water runoff, reduced chemical and pollution runoff, eliminated a goose nuisance at our retention pond and reduced algae growth in our retention pond. In addition, the native prairie has attracted a tremendous amount of wildlife to our neighborhood since it provides needed food and shelter. As a result, the residents not only enjoy the striking floral display, they also enjoy the abundance of songbirds and butterflies in the area. Due to these environmental benefits, local and state government cost-share grant funds were available for our project, which provided financial incentives to our association to implement the plan.

With the planting assistance of the Central Indiana Chapter of Pheasants Forever (http://www.pfcic.org/) and with financial assistance from the Hamilton County Soil & Water Conservation District (http://www.hamiltonswcd.org/) and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild), the cost to plant the prairie was much less than maintaining the area with turf grass. Therefore, the conversion more than paid for itself in the first year. Because we had minimal maintenance expense for the area in the second year, we have significantly improved the association’s financial position. We achieved the goal of reducing operating expenses to a level supported by our annual dues assessment. Furthermore, the cost savings allowed us to build our operating reserve fund to an adequate level while also freeing funds to be used for other community improvement projects.

Our prairie restoration project has been a complete success. We not only saved money, but made a positive impact on the environment and local wildlife populations. As a result of this success, I now help other local homeowner’s associations plan and implement similar projects through a not-for-profit organization: the Hamilton County Urban Conservation Association (http://www.hamiltoncountyuca.org/). We expect 2008 to be a busy year as we have five other communities converting common turf areas to native prairies. If your community is interested in saving money, attracting wildlife, and improving the environment, you should consider a native prairie restoration project.

Dan McCord is the president of the Ridgefield Property Owner’s Association and founder/president of the Hamilton County Urban Conservation Association.