!["We are proactively initiating wildflower areas to encourage growth and we hope to see them propagate and spread,” Public Works Director Stephen Furman said. [Special to the Press Gazette]](http://127.0.0.1/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/ghows-DA-4a8b3794-03cb-587c-e053-0100007f0079-09afda89.jpeg)
MILTON — Santa Rosa County’s Public Works Department, in cooperation with the Santa Rosa Master Gardeners, is designating several county road rights-of-way as wildflower protection areas.
"Wildflower Area" signs will identify the locations, most of which are marshy and rural. A modified mowing schedule will help promote the spread of wildflowers already present in the area.
Wildflower areas will initially include:
- Munson Highway/County Road 191 North
- Garcon Point Road/County Road 191 South, south of Interstate 10 to Avalon Boulevard/State Road 281
- Dickerson City Road off the south end of Garcon Point Road
- Quintette Road/County Road 184, from Renfroe Road, west to the Quintette Bridge
- East Bay Boulevard/County Road 399, south side from Edgewood Drive to Church Street
- Some locations contain the endangered white-top pitcher plant as well as the threatened redflower pitcher plant, both endemic to Santa Rosa County.
Other identified wildflower species include the white-top sedge, hatpins, coreopsis, variable leaf sunflowers, rayless sunflowers, dew thread sundews, drumheads, orange milkwort, yellow bladderwort, Florida lobelia, bristleleaf chaffhead, wand goldenrod, shepherd's hook, yellow aster, pale meadow beauty, rayless goldenrod, pineland daisy, Glades lobelia, Savannah meadow beauty and yellow-eyed grass.
"This will be an ongoing program as the wildflower populations are currently not established," Public Works Director Stephen Furman said. "We are proactively initiating wildflower areas to encourage growth and we hope to see them propagate and spread."
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: County designates wildflower areas to restore pollinators