Grinnell Production Site

About the Program
Bayer's Grinnell Production Site is located approximately 50 miles from Des Moines, Iowa. The team is re-introducing and augmenting native grasses and forbs to restore over 11 acres of prairie habitat on-site. The native prairie area is intended to create a natural buffer against soil erosion and nutrient loading of streams and to help water infiltrate soil so it can be later used by crops. The prairie is also used to promote awareness of the benefits of native flora and fauna with employees and with the larger community. Bayer is enhancing a large area of grassland specifically as a dedicated pollinator habitat for bees and monarch butterflies by harvesting and planting milkweed. The team also participates in monarch rearing (at individual homes during COVID-19) and educational events during Earth Day and the Children's Water Festival.

Practices and Impacts

• The team has worked to restore 11.6 acres of native grassland. Their efforts to increase the milkweed plant population by harvesting and replanting mature milkweed seeds has been largely successful, and the team has noticed an increase in individual common milkweed plants scattered across more of the prairie over the past two years. These efforts have now changed due to common milkweed becoming a problem for neighboring farms, so other native milkweeds are being introduced into the prairie area.
• The team developed a landscaped area in 2022 in an unused gravel based courtyard into a native plant area that will provide the seeds for the prairie grassland. These species include five native milkweeds, four of which have already produced seed pods and been distributed into the prairie grassland.
• The team also participated in the Iowa Children's Water Festival with a booth to promote and educate about native pollinator importance the need for habitat. They include a variety of different activities that students could learn about the life cycles and parts of pollinators.