CABQ crews use wildflowers to boost the metro ecosystem
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Have you noticed there are more flowers on the medians and streetscapes around the metro? The wildflowers aren’t just nice to look at, but they’re important.
City crews may be out picking some of the dead or dying flowers from the medians and streetscapes, but it’s not the end of the road for these flowers.
“We are harvesting for the next season, we harvest the seeds,” said Moe, a landscape specialist for the City of Albuquerque. “We dry out those, harvest them and use them for the next season.”
They do this in the fall as temperatures drop. City officials say harvesting these wildflowers is important, even life-saving, to the tiniest of residents.
“They serve for the pollination,” Moe said. “We have a lot of bees here.”
Have you noticed there are more flowers on the medians and streetscapes around the metro? The wildflowers aren't just nice to look at, but they're important.
With a lot of pollinating bees, they want to keep that population going by increasing pollination.
Once the flowers are picked, they are taken to a greenhouse – where they will stay until next season. Crews will be out there at various sites across the city until January.
“We harvest those flowers because we basically reuse those seeds for the next season and they multiply,” Moe said. “So what you see here, I cannot put a price on it but we save a lot of money with this too.”
City officials want to remind people to avoid throwing trash in these areas and to not pick any of the flowers.