‘No mow May’ debate grows as more Quebec municipalities adopt campaign

Some municipalities now wait until the end of May to cut the grass, as 'no mow May' is an attempt to help bees and other pollinators. Does it work?

Dandelions are blanketing parks and properties across Vaudreuil-Soulanges as several municipalities have adopted the “No mow May” campaign.

Notre-Dame-de-L’ile-Perrot Mayor Danie Deschenes said her council unanimously supported the campaign, which was created to protect bees and other pollinators, five years ago.

The communities of L’Ile Perrot, Saint-Lazare, Saint-Zotique, Les Cedres, Saint-Polycarpe and Sainte-Justine-de-Newton are also taking part.

“It’s more than 70 per cent of municipalities in the area who do that now,” she said. “It’s probably because we do have a lot of agricultural areas.”

Agriculture depends on pollinators, which feed on wildflowers such as dandelions. Deschenes said they will not mow the grass until the flowers have gone to seed, likely before the end of the month.

“I can’t wait for them to be done and over with, like everybody else,” she said. “But it’s not a thing that we should be cutting just because it doesn’t look good enough.”

Deschenes said children’s playing areas are mowed to ensure safety, and residents are free to mow their lawns if they choose to do so.

“We understand that it’s a choice, and we also understand that scientifically, it’s being challenged,” she added, referring to the growing debate about whether No Mow May, a campaign which was founded in England, is effective in Quebec.

Plant ecologist Christie Lovat, a professor at McGill University, said that because dandelions aren’t native to Quebec, there are questions about whether they support indigenous pollinators.

“Dandelions in their natural environment in Europe are an important food source for native Eurasian pollinators,” she said. “Over here, the type of pollen they produce actually tends to be a little bit nutritionally unbalanced.”

Lovat said bumblebees especially need a nutritional boost after winter hibernation. She said one of the best sources is wild violets, a native species that sprouts up in lawns in May. Tree pollen is another rich source of food.

Grass, Lovat said, has very little nutritional value.

“Beetles are our most numerous pollinators. And then we have the hoverflies, butterflies, moths,” she said. “All of these can also benefit from the dandelions.”

Ultimately, the more biodiversity you can support in your lawn, the better.

“It is still beneficial to not mow your lawn in early spring,`she said, ”especially in urban areas where there might not be as many native wildflowers or native trees to provide other pollen sources.”