Canada has more than a million kilometres of rural roads. Although vital corridors for travel and commerce, roads fragment habitats, disrupt animal movement and lead to millions of wildlife deaths from collisions.

Yet roadways shouldn’t be written off as ecological wastelands. Many jurisdictions mandate that a certain amount of land on either side of a road be maintained as a hazard-free “clear zone.” In the right-of-way area between the clear zone and the fence line, plants can grow, but tree encroachment has to be prevented and plants kept below a certain height for driver safety.

As it happens, these roadsides share some of the same characteristics as the natural open habitats, such as meadows and prairies, preferred by pollinators. Many species of bees, flower flies and butterflies tend to be most active in unforested areas, especially during the summer, when forests provide them with relatively few flowers to forage from.

This means that rights-of-way might be able to provide suitable habitat for pollinators — an especially desirable goal, given that habitat loss is a primary threat to pollinators worldwide.

However, controlling roadside plant growth typically involves spraying herbicides and mowing. These........

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