News Feature                                                            1/16/2009

Living Snow Fences Making a Difference in Minnesota

Do you have big snowdrifts on your property after a winter snowstorm? Do snowdrifts block your driveway or nearby roads so that you are concerned about your safety just picking up the kids after school? Did you know that you can do something to stop blowing snow?

Living Snow Fences (LSF) are making a difference in Minnesota. LSF are designed plantings of trees and/or shrubs and native grasses located along roads or around communities and farmsteads. Properly designed and placed, these living barriers trap snow as it blows across fields, piling it up before it reaches a road, waterway, farmstead or community. Mn/DOT has documented that LSFs reduce snow related accidents from 25 to 60%.

Federal and State highways throughout Minnesota have been identified as problem sites for drifting snow. The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) has documented these results on maps that are now available in USDA Service Centers throughout the state. Both Highway and emergency service officials know that creating living snow fences provide huge benefits to residents, beyond the property boundary of the person that planted the LSF.

Some of the benefits of LSF include:

• Preventing big drifts that lead to stranded motorists
• Improving driver visibility to reduce vehicle accidents and fatalities
• Reducing use of the public’s money by reducing plowing
• Lessening impacts on our environment with less salt use, fewer truck trips, and less fuel consumption.
• Reducing shipping delays for goods and services

For more information about Mn/Dot’s Living Snow Fence program, please check out the following website: www.livingsnowfence.dot.state.mn.us

If you are interested in learning more about how to design and successfully implement a LSF, please stop by an NRCS office located in a USDA Service Center.

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