Sustainability proponents and lazy teenagers alike will be excited to learn No Mow May is returning to Riverside — today.
Following a brief discussion at their March 21 village board meeting, Riverside trustees agreed to temporarily suspend issuing citations to residents who let their lawns grow taller than eight inches. The suspension began immediately and will last through Mother’s Day on May 12.
Riverside first adopted No Mow May last year, when it held a test run during the first two weeks of the month. The trend, which has grown in the U.S. since 2020, aims to encourage biodiversity by allowing flowering plants to bloom so they can feed pollinators, like bees, which newly emerge each spring.
“There’s declines in native bee populations in Illinois,” said landscape advisory commissioner David Tarverdi, who spoke to trustees about the importance of No Mow May. Pollinators are “important for more than 150 different food crops and pretty much all the fruit grain crops in North America and, frankly, in the world,” he said.
At the meeting, Tarverdi also highlighted the landscape advisory commission’s other efforts to support pollinators in the village.
“The Riverside LAC has been educating residents as requested by the board about the importance of pollinators, and we’ve been promoting native plants, especially spring bloomers,” he said. “This is a part of a long-term plan encouraging the use of native spring blooming plants to support native pollinators. The LAC is investing in over 100 native plants, including wild blue phlox, Virginia bluebells and butterfly weed, from funds allocated by the board to be distributed to residents to support bloomers and pollinators.”
According to a village memo, the landscape advisory commission originally proposed suspending enforcement of the lawn height ordinance for the entire month of May this year. However, “April is probably better than May” for residents to not mow their lawns because of Riverside’s climate and this year’s “unseasonably warm weather,” Tarverdi said at the meeting. As a result, the village board agreed to start the initiative early, suspending the ordinance’s enforcement immediately at the meeting.
“It’s a good effort all around, and I very much appreciate the education and the free spring ephemerals that are being distributed to our residents,” trustee Aberdeen Marsh-Ozga said.
“I’m in favor of it as well, and my kids are super in favor of it so that they don’t have to mow the lawn for a while,” trustee Elizabeth Kos said.
