St. Louis County Council is considering a bill that would reverse a law protecting native landscapes in unincorporated areas of our County. The ordinance, passed in 2024, revised the County Weed Control Code in order to support citizens planting intentional and managed native landscapes in place of turfgrass lawns. Apparently there have been complaints to Dennis Hancock (the bill sponsor) about “overgrown, unmowed lawns”. For more information, please read this article in the Post-Dispatch if you have a subscription, or read here.
This bill was up for final passage at the July 15th Council meeting. However, Councilperson Lisa Clancy was able to postpone the final reading to the July 22nd Council meeting. Also, Clancy has contacted Jean Ponzi about setting up a training program for County inspectors on native landscaping, in case uninformed inspectors are the “root” cause that brought this issue to Hancock’s attention.
Please contact your County Council Representative and explain that this is a serious step backwards for native landscaping in unincorporated areas of our county. (Lisa Clancy was the only Councilperson to vote against the bill to reverse the ordinance.) Here is a model letter you can use. If you’re uncertain about who your rep is, or how to contact them, you can find that information here.
Even better, show up at the Council meeting on Tuesday evening, July 22nd at 3:00 pm (updated meeting time) and sign up to speak:
St. Louis County Council Chamber
Lawrence K. Roos Building,
41 S. Central Ave., Clayton, MO As one of the largest Wild Ones chapters in the nation, we need to demonstrate to our elected officials that native landscaping is a growing and beneficial movement that many citizens support.
This bill was up for final passage at the July 15th Council meeting. However, Councilperson Lisa Clancy was able to postpone the final reading to the July 22nd Council meeting. Also, Clancy has contacted Jean Ponzi about setting up a training program for County inspectors on native landscaping, in case uninformed inspectors are the “root” cause that brought this issue to Hancock’s attention.
Please contact your County Council Representative and explain that this is a serious step backwards for native landscaping in unincorporated areas of our county. (Lisa Clancy was the only Councilperson to vote against the bill to reverse the ordinance.) Here is a model letter you can use. If you’re uncertain about who your rep is, or how to contact them, you can find that information here.
Even better, show up at the Council meeting on Tuesday evening, July 22nd at 3:00 pm (updated meeting time) and sign up to speak:
St. Louis County Council Chamber
Lawrence K. Roos Building,
41 S. Central Ave., Clayton, MO As one of the largest Wild Ones chapters in the nation, we need to demonstrate to our elected officials that native landscaping is a growing and beneficial movement that many citizens support.
Make your voice heard!!
Thank you for this notice. I was able to join a large group of nature enthusiasts at the meeting. Of the 17 commenters who spoke, 15 of them called for allowing native plants to be planted in yards!
I wrote this letter to the Post Dispatch, but if you’re not a subscriber, you may have trouble seeing it online.
“The use of our Missouri native plants is essential in controlling flooding in and around St. Louis County. In forest or on prairie before “development”, deep rooted native trees, shrubs, grasses, and wildflowers held the soil in place, and allowed storm water to soak into the water table.
When those deep-rooted trees, shrubs and wildflowers are removed from the land, replaced by buildings surrounded by mowed grass and paved areas, storm water no longer soaks into the ground, but runs off quickly into our streams and rivers, creating flooding.
An example of this is Hamilton Creek which runs along Glenco Road through Rockwoods Reservation, off Highway 109, north of Eureka, Mo. The creek runs south out of a watershed which picks up the runoff from Manchester Road and all the new subdivisions built around it since the 1960s. What used to be a gentle creek alongside a picnic area and a wildflower-filled lowland forest below the Green Rock Trail, has been gullied out by flooding from the runoff of the watershed above it. That creek flows southward into the Meramec River beside Eureka, which now floods every year
Please educate yourself about this issue. People leave the city to move to the country, but then pave and build to recreate city in the country. Pipe and drain construction diverts water quickly into our rivers. Maintaining deep rooted native trees, shrubs and wildflowers in our landscapes are the keys to slowing the flow of storm water, preserving soil and easing flooding.”
Ana Grace (Schactman)
(From the mid 1960’s to 2014, my darling mother, Pat Grace, took us to Rockwoods Reservation every Easter morning, no matter the weather. It might be 80 degrees or 8 with snow. We went to the same picnic area, across from the restrooms, next to the creek. We had a glorious breakfast, played in that same creek and walked the Greenrock Trail.)