Iowa DOT News

AMES, Iowa – July 7, 2014 – Iowa’s roadsides provide many benefits, including the harvesting of hay. Each year, land owners and others can apply for a permit to harvest hay from highway roadsides. Safety is the main reason the Iowa Department of Transportation requires permits to access or perform any type of work in the state highway roadsides. To enhance safety, everyone working along a state highway is required to wear a fluorescent green safety vest and provide traffic control in certain instances.

Although land owners and others can obtain permits any time, mowing or haying roadsides is not allowed until July 15. This allows for the protection of bird habitat during the nesting season. The Iowa DOT has set two periods for harvesting grass within the state-maintained highway roadsides. Only one cutting per year is allowed so grasses can recover before winter. 

• July 15-Sept. 1: For cool-season grasses and forage legumes (e.g., smooth brome, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, alfalfa, bird’s-foot trefoil)
• July 15-Aug. 15: For areas containing warm-season native grasses (e.g., switchgrass, big bluestem, little bluestem, Indian grass, sideoats grama, Canada wildrye)

Iowa DOT Form 810050 – Harvesting and Mowing Permit Application – is available from any of the DOT employees listed below or online at https://forms.iowadot.gov/FormsMgt/External/810050.pdf. The application covers three types of operations: (1) mowing only; (2) harvesting hay; or (3) harvesting plant material other than hay

To process your application, contact the DOT employee serving your area.  

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Iowa DOT contact:  Bob Younie at 515-239-1589 or [email protected]