Planting wildflowers: New project hopes to add some beauty to Bootheel Golf Course while benefitting local wildlife

SIKESTON — Once a beautiful shade of green with manicured grass, the Bootheel Golf Course has been virtually unused since 2014. A new project hopes to add some beauty to the land while also benefitting local wildlife.

Quail Forever Missouri Farm Bill Biologist Kelsey DeZalia said the project began over a year ago when Corteva Agriscience in New Madrid, Missouri, approached her about projects that would help them fulfill a grant. DeZalia had just the project — planting wildflowers native to Missouri at the Bootheel Golf Course. They were awarded the grant and then went to work, but it isn’t a quick process.

“We’ve been spraying throughout the summer and fall and we are just getting around to planting it,” DeZalia said Thursday.

A youngster scatters native seed at the Bootheel Golf Course during an educational outreach event Feb. 27.Submitted photo

A youngster scatters native seed at the Bootheel Golf Course during an educational outreach event Feb. 27.Submitted photo

DeZalia said the project calls for wildflowers to be planted on approximately 15 acres directly behind the Bootheel Golf Course clubhouse.

“We’re establishing the wildflowers and that will help the pollinators and some small game,” DeZalia said. “There is a big push on the monarchs and bees right now so it will help that.”

The project will also benefit the City as the area will not have to be mowed as often. DeZalia said the first year will require typically just about one or two high mowings.

An educational event was held last weekend at the Bootheel Golf Course. Here, youngsters goes through one of three educational stations.Submitted photo

An educational event was held last weekend at the Bootheel Golf Course. Here, youngsters goes through one of three educational stations.Submitted photo

“I live in Miner but I utilize the park a lot,” DeZalia said. “I’m excited for just the aesthetics to come up.”

However, the wildflowers won’t be seen immediately.

“This year they might not see the grand, spectacular show,” DeZalia said. “These things take time and patience. The second and third year should see a lot better wildflower success here. I ask everybody to be patient with it and I believe we’ll see the reward of it.”

An educational event was held last weekend at the Bootheel Golf Course with 45 people in attendance ranging in age from a 2-year-old to a grandfather who brought his grandkids.Submitted photo

An educational event was held last weekend at the Bootheel Golf Course with 45 people in attendance ranging in age from a 2-year-old to a grandfather who brought his grandkids.Submitted photo

While the aesthetics will certainly add some beauty to the property, DeZalia hopes it adds some interest as well.

“They way we see it, as Quail Forever, we are dedicated to putting quality habitat on the ground but we also make education and outreach a priority,” DeZalia said. “This area is utilized by people we might not get in contact with originally but I also saw an opportunity when it comes to the wildlife because a mowed lawn is pretty much an ecological desert.”

As part of an educational outreach, DeZalia held an educational event last weekend with 45 people in attendance ranging in age from a 2-year-old to a grandfather who brought his grandkids.

Those who attended rotated through three different educational stations and at the end were able to go out and broadcast some native seed on their own.

DeZalia said she hopes when the wildflowers make their appearance that it will attract attention and curiosity, including some that want that type of habitat in their yard.

“Then they either come see me or the local MDC-PLC and ask how do I establish a pollinator plot in my back yard,” DeZalia said. “Then we start filling those little niches as they come.”

While DeZalia is admittedly not a patient person, she will wait patiently along with the rest of the community to see the fruits of her labor.

“I’m pretty excited about this,” DeZalia said. “It’s been over a year in the making and a lot of different partners went into it. Some national sponsors and then the local ones like BMU, Corteva, Quail Forever and the local chapter of Quail Forever, Bootheel Bobwhites, MDC and Home Oil. It was a really cool collaboration and I’m hoping it leads to other projects and betterment of the community and the wildlife around.”