Rest Area I-69

The MDOT (Michigan Department of Transportation), Genesee County Sheriff’s Department work team and Extension Master Gardener partnership at the I69 Swartz Creek Rest Area provides a visually pleasing welcome to over 650,000 visitors each year and as a certified Monarch Waystation, the Rest Area provides food and habitat for pollinators. Plants such as Milkweed, Joe Pye Weed, Bee Balm, Coneflowers and Echinacea draw a multitude of pollinators to the site. To educate the visitors, the EMG’s and MDOT created a display poster. This poster shows a picture of each flower and its common name, cultivar, and species scientific name so that visitors can easily identify plants. In addition, EMG’s place a plant sign that contains name, cultivar, and scientific name next to each plant. The I69 rest area partnership project began in 2000. This site received honors such as: a Garden Tour Site; selected for the Governor’s Tour; one of the Rest Areas selected as a best practice shared at the National Safety Rest Area Conference; MDOT Simply Super Service award; Fox News broadcasted a news program from this site featuring the MDOT and Extension Master Gardeners work to support pollinators, and I69 was one of the projects featured in the first State of Michigan Extension Master Gardener annual report.

Where: EB between Sheridan & Morrish

When: 9:00 - 2:00, Mondays & Friday - May through October

Contact: Marie Luck Allard (mariekallard@gmail.com)