The Exit 150 “Pollinator Field” will be mowed yearly by VDOT

The so-called pollination field at Exit 150 will be mowed after all.

But only once a year.

The Board of Supervisors learned at the August 27 meeting that the Virginia Department of Transportation will indeed mow the huge field that now encompasses what was once a truck stop. The field has been growing up and looking rather ragged and citizens and county supervisors alike have questioned the upkeep.

State officials decided to turn the field into a “pollination area,” which would be a place to encourage bees, butterflies, and other critters. “You let it grow naturally until the end of the year,” VDOT representative Ray Varney told the supervisors. “Then it is mowed at the end of the year when seeds are done. That gets rid of the locust,” and other scrub trees that may be growing in the field.

Varney said the mowing would take place sometime between October 15 and December 15.

Valley District Supervisor Mac Scothorn, apparently not convinced that a pollination area at Exit 150 was in the county’s best interest, noted the area had become a great place for “bees and butterflies and things that hit the windshield.” He and Amsterdam District Supervisor Steve Clinton asked Varney for a meeting with VDOT officials to “discuss the visual aspect of Exit 150.”

                 — Anita Firebaugh, special to the Botetourt Bee