Adopting a new aesthetic for public places, the city of Charlottesville has created “no mow” zones near creeks and streams in five city parks. In April, the city also organized volunteers to plant 250 trees in the no-mow zones. The new policy, city officials acknowledge, will result in a shaggier, more unkempt look along the streams. But it also will help keep the waters clean.

As reported by “The Hook“:

“It’s a relatively cost-effective way to deal with storm water run-off,” notes the city’s environmental administrator Crystal Riddervold, who explains that vegetation filters pollutants that otherwise might run into streams.

The practice may spread. City code requires residents to keep residential grass shorter than 18 inches. But there’s an exemption. You can petition the city to declare your yard a riparian zone. No one has pursued that option… yet. The way I figure it, all it will take is one lazy husband tired of mowing the lawn to petition the city successfully, and the idea will spread like wildfire.