SAN DIEGO — The above average rain this Winter has brought abundant color to San Diego with a lot of wildflowers.
You may have also noticed the wildflowers along our freeways, but the color didn't end up there by chance. It started decades ago.
CBS 8's Shawn Styles spoke with Stephen Alvarez, a Senior Landscape Architect with Caltrans, about the origin of the "Freeway Flowers."
"Lady Bird Johnson had a program and pushed for a program that started in 1985," he said.
Lady Bird Johnson was the First Lady to President Johnson from 1963 to 1969. She was an early environmentalist who wanted to beautify highways across the U.S.
"A portion of any highway built that had federal funds on it, a percentage of that was allocated for seeding. What you see on the highways today may not all be wildflowers that are native. They may be wildflowers just not necessarily from the area," said Alvarez.
The idea in the day was wildflowers that were drought tolerant. Since 1995, Caltrans has continued with a focus on natives.
"All our seeding is native, which includes a lot of beautiful flowering natives. California Poppies, Golden Fields, San Diego Sunflowers and many others we use today," Alvarez said.
Anytime there is soil disruption, seeds are spread.
"Caltrans is taking up that effort, and it was kind of a necessity to seed areas because of erosion and our construction activities."
Alvarez pointed out there are plenty of non-native flowers along the highways. One that can spread easily is the Wild Chrysanthemum: It is yellow in color and has a light green stalk.
He also pointed out that while the native wildflowers are beautiful to look at while driving down the road, they are also working against erosion.
"I get satisfaction in the beauty; I also know they are doing a functional purpose by holding the earth together protecting our waterways too.
Caltrans says the wildflowers are there for our enjoyment while we drive by, so don't stop along the freeway to go look at them.
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