Editorial

National Park Service appreciates virtues of buffalo grass

Saturday, October 6, 2007

While most of us envision lush, green Kentucky bluegrass when we think about our lawns, the National Park Service appreciates something many Nebraskans don't.

Our weather was made for buffalo grass.

Not just Nebraska's, but much of the rest of the country as well.

A story Friday pointed out that buffalo grass is America's only native turf grass, it needs less water, and holds up under foot traffic.

Good traits to have when you're routinely trampled by bison, or tourists, for that matter.

The National Park Service ordered up about 36 tons, 18,000 square feet, of buffalo grass sod from Todd Valley Farms of Mead, to be laid around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

The sod, and shipping in refrigerated trucks, to keep it healthy, will cost $14,000.

"They wanted something that uses low water, is environmentally friendly and native to the United States," company sportsman Nick Radford said.

It's not the first time buffalo grass has been sold to Washington; it was previously installed along Independence Avenue, and at an outdoor amphitheater.

Buffalo grass isn't for everyone. It turns brown and hibernates during droughts, goes dormant earlier in the fall and turns green later in the spring. But in water-short Southwest Nebraska, those traits should be viewed as an advantage rather than a shortcoming.

Like our nation's capital, more of us should try installing buffalo grass -- next spring, when the weather warms up sufficiently.

And, especially if we can get the neighbors to go along with us.

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