Take a drive among the wildflowers; Manager Noles beautifies the Village with a burst of brilliantly colored flowers
Todd Noles, Hot Springs Village POA Common Property, Forest, and Wildlife Manager, has an ambitious plan. Todd intends to seed much of DeSoto Boulevard roadside with wildflowers. This task is not an easy or quick one. It requires Todd to walk the length of DeSoto Boulevard’s sloping roadside and hand sow the flower seeds.
You may have noticed Noles has already begun the task with the pretty Black-eyed Susans blooming on large stretches of DeSoto roadside. Unfortunately, these flowers are fading fast as their season is from May to October. But look out for next spring when their blooms will be greater and better than ever.
Additionally, Todd planted a mix of purple Coneflower and Indian Blanket. This initial planting is only the beginning of the Forest Manager’s plans to beautify the drive down this major Hot Springs Village thoroughfare.
Wildflowers for erosion prevention
In addition to making our Village a more beautiful place, the wildflowers help to prevent erosion. Perennial wildflowers serve as a notable option for the deterrent of soil loss on sloped areas. They have a deep, hardy root system and keep coming back year after year. No mowing is required.
In 2019, Entergy donated $1,500 toward the purchase of wildflowers for erosion prevention. In addition to the funds donated by Entergy, First Electric donated pollinator plant seeds.
Wildflowers afford ecological benefits
Noles also seeded Butterfly Milkweed along the bottom of our lake dams where the dams seep. According to Todd, Butterfly Milkweed thrives in a damp environment. The website, Monarch Joint Venture says, “Monarchs cannot survive without milkweed; their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants, and Monarch butterflies need milkweed to lay their eggs. With shifting land management practices, we have lost much milkweed from the landscape.”
National Geographic says the Monarch butterflies “teeter on the edge of an extinction tipping point—in which their numbers drop too low for the species to recover.”
Wildflowers have a positive effect on our ecosystem. Creatures such as the Monarch Butterflies, Bumble Bees, and Honey Bees’ very existence is dependent on plants such as these.
This is only the beginning
Next year Noles has plans to do another wildflower seeding and wants to expand the varieties of flowers for a more significant infusion of color along the DeSoto corridor. He will be requesting additional funds from the power companies for this project.
ARDOT Operation Wildflower
Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department (ARDOT) also has a wildflower program. The PDF below identifies 24 different varieties of Arkansas wildflowers. This PDF is part of a free brochure available from ARDOT. For more information on Operation Wildflower, please click the red link at the beginning of this paragraph.
wildflowrs-of-the-arkansas-roadways* * *
This story is typical of many Hot Springs Village employees who work hard and take pride in their work. Todd Noles leads by example and exemplifies these two concepts.
Hot Springs Village employees are much appreciated, and we are blessed to have them. We will all be sure to remember these hard-working folks the next time we take a drive among the wildflowers.
* * *
One way to show your appreciation to the Hot Springs Village POA employees is to donate to the Village Employee Benefit Fund. This fund provides an end-of-year gift to Village employees and also helps them in times of emergency. This organization is independent of the POA. Click here to visit the Village Employees Benefit Fund website. Thank you for your generosity!
Just for fun, below is a YouTube video of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt singing Wildflowers. Enjoy!
Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt – Wildflowers
* * *
By Cheryl Dowden, October 3, 2020
Thank you for reading. Be sure to bookmark this website. Click here to visit the Hot Springs Village People Facebook Group. Click here to visit Hot Springs Village Community forums.
Mary McNamer
10/03/2020 — 11:03 am
Thanks for including this great song! One of my faves!
HSVP C
10/03/2020 — 11:26 am
Mary McNamer, you are welcome! One of my favorites, too.
Melinda
10/03/2020 — 12:29 pm
What an interesting and informative article. Kudos to Todd and his team (which I think is just him!!)…. with our thanks and appreciation for a job well done.
Mary Ann Mueller
10/03/2020 — 3:05 pm
It is such a pleasure to drive on the roads and see all the wildflowers blooming so much better than looking at weeds. What a great improvement in the Village. Thanks to Todd and his crew👍👍
Mary Jo Kurten
10/04/2020 — 7:32 am
What an exciting project. I love it! Thank you Todd Noles!
Tom Blakeman
10/04/2020 — 8:57 am
The wildflowers are nice and certainly a good thing to be doing. But there’s larger problem that is not being addressed. That problem is lack of control of power company tree trimming and cleanup.
To their credit the power companies come in regularly and trim vegetation and trees so preserve power lines and protect service. What they don’t do is clean up their mess afterwards or, if they do, the result is a half assed job.
Example: A few weeks ago they trimmed trees along Barcelona Road between DeSoto Blvd and Cortez Rd. Today there are many areas with now dead cuttings, limbs and debris laying about and looking ugly. In some areas they just slashed the tops off of trees and left a big spike sticking up. This kind of negligence is ALSO A FIRE HAZARD.
I’ve been complaining about this problem for the last two years or so to Board members and staff. While there has been some response (I got one long pacification letter from Jason Temple) and a few issues were cleaned up it is obvious that POA continues to simply ignore the problem and let the power companies have free access and no accountability to do things properly.
kathy e aubry
10/04/2020 — 9:36 am
I applaud you for this project! I lived in Austin over 10 years in the late 80’s and 90’s, and worked for KLBJ radio, owned by the LBJ family at the time. I saw first hand the amazing results of Lady Bird’s Wildflower Research Center as our office/station was surrounded by the Texas wildflowers, throughout the Austin area up and down the highway medians, it was beautiful. You bring back some wonderful memories on my daily walks, enjoying the beauty of our wildflowers here. Thank you for all your hard work, keep it up.
Julie Hardardt
10/04/2020 — 2:32 pm
Love the wildflowers along DeSoto Blvd. It’s so nice to see some color and can’t wait to see what other flowers are planted along the way. One spot that can use some wildflowers is where the large power lines cross over Lake DeSoto. Especially on the north side where it is just a bare patch of dirt and weeds that doesn’t look that nice.
Kym Gallagher
10/05/2020 — 11:37 am
Thanks, Todd Noles, for a job well done!! The wildflowers have been spectacular this fall! I applaud your efforts and would be willing to help you sow seeds next Spring.
Jean Evans
04/24/2021 — 11:03 am
Thank you, Todd. I love wildflowers and yours are beautiful. I love our beautiful earth and we are stewards in keeping it beautiful and protected. And thanks to Cheryl for this article.
HSVP C
04/24/2021 — 12:51 pm
My pleasure, Jean. I really enjoy positive articles. – Cheryl Dowden