TX Highway Beautification Act of 1965 (Spring: mover, home, landscaping)

[elnina]

Some of you maybe don't know why our highway roadside is so beautiful in the Spring.
It's the Texas Highway Department which 40 years ago helped Mother Nature to cultivate the springtime beauties.
The department planted about 5,000 varieties of grasses, shrubs and bright-petalled wild flowers.

Each spring we can admire vibrating hues of buttercups, crimson clover, bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush and other flowers that sprout from seeds cast along highway rights of way by the men of the Highway Department.
The THD, sometimes dubbed as the nation’s largest “landscape gardener,” cultivates more than 800,000 acres of roadside with flowers, shrubs, trees and grasses.

Great project and a great job!!
Go for a scenic drive this weekend to enjoy the warm weather and beauty of the Spring.
It looks like next week will be quite rainy.

https://texashighways.com/travel-news/a-texas-bouquet/




Date correction - the project is almost 60 years old.

[SanJac]

Right. This was the work of Lady Bird Johnson almost 60 years ago, not 40.

[ScoPro]

Yep, she was a prime mover & shaker to help beautify the roadsides of Texas.

[BobTex]

Originally Posted by elnina

Some of you maybe don't know why our highway roadside is so beautiful in the Spring.


Date correction - the project is almost 60 years old.

Location: Tricity, PL

Apparently we're closer to a One World gubmint than I realized.

[Trainwreck20]

It was the federal Highway Beautification Act of 1965, spearheaded by LBJ on behalf of his wife. Texas adopted in to the program in 1972. It dealt almost entirely with billboards and a few other unsightly things along the highways.

In 1987, [Lady Brid Johnson] pushed Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas to amend the Surface Transportation and Uniform Relocation Assistance Act to require a quarter of every one percent of federal funds spent on landscaping roadsides be used for planting native wildflowers.

The Texas Department of Transportation has been protecting roadside wildflowers for much longer. Department rules delay all mowing until after the wildflowers bloom in late spring or early summer, a policy that goes back to 1934.

For what it is worth, the 1987 Act was revised to native species, not just wildflowers, as it was found that a combination of native species had a more beneficial effect.

Closer to home (for me) was the Town Lake Beautification Committee that was led by Lady Bird, starting in the early 70s.

[elnina]

Just drove 281 to Mexico a couple days ago and the scenic was stunning. So many vibrant colors ... like a colorful carpet on both sides of the road.