In addition to being a point of pride for employees and a roadside interest for passersby, The Gallup Organization’s native meadow is a learning laboratory for kids from its on-site child care facility.

Gallup to Receive Obd’s 2008 Green Leaf

Editor’s Note: The Gallup Organization will receive the 2008 Green Leaf at the May 21 meeting of Omaha by Design’s Advisory Committee. The Green Leaf recognizes an individual, organization or business that has worked to preserve and enhance the metropolitan area’s natural setting and public park system. It is part of a trio of awards established by Omaha by Design in 2007 to emphasize the goals of the Urban Design Element, a planning tool designed to improve the quality of development in Omaha while protecting and enhancing the city’s natural environment..

The killdeer, a medium-sized shorebird, has a home at The Gallup Organization. So do butterflies, bees and the occasional fox. All can be found in the front yard of Gallup’s riverfront campus, a 20-acre field that once served as a haphazard dumping ground for gravel, asphalt and other construction debris.

It’s been five years since the corporate leaders at Gallup built their new Omaha facility and invested in an employee’s idea – one that called for creating a native meadow on close to one-third of the entire 59-acre campus.

Compared to using turf, a field planted with wildflowers and native grasses would result in water and labor savings, reasoned Bruce Rieckman, a member of Gallup’s three-person grounds crew. More importantly, it would give the extremely poor soil a chance to recapture the health of its prairie past. “We began by digging chunks of brick and other debris out of the soil - it took days,” Rieckman said.

That fall, the crew planted a crop of winter wheat to keep the freshly worked soil in place. The following spring after no-tilling the wheat crop, the field received two applications of Roundup to take down its varied collection of weeds. The goal was to give the first plantings of wildflowers and native grasses a level chance at taking root for future success.

It worked.

Rieckman, who grew up on a farm near Murdock, Neb., selected a mixture of 22 wildflower species and four native grasses. The wildflower selections included annuals as well as perennials. Several of the species - the Purple Prairie Clover and the Showy Partridge Pea, among others - are legumes, which are known for their ability to fix nitrogen on their roots for eventual release into the soil.

Today, the Gallup native meadow is its own thriving ecosystem. Rieckman’s crew walks it several times during the summer, cutting out weeds and volunteer cottonwood trees. The end result was met with such enthusiasm that an additional 10.5 acres of Gallup property on the other side of 6th Street was planted with native grasses. To Rieckman’s surprise, wildflowers have begun to appear there as well, thanks to the birds that fly back and forth between the two plots.

In addition to being a point of pride for employees and a roadside interest for passersby, the native meadow is a learning laboratory for kids from Gallup’s on-site child care facility. “We take them out in groups and help them identify wildflowers,” Rieckman said. “Each year looks different, depending upon the type of winter we had.”

The majestic yellow blossom of the Lanceleaf Coreopsis should begin making its appearance with the other wildflowers in the coming months, followed by the graceful blades of Little Bluestem and the other native grasses.

“It all comes down to planning, patience and the willingness to keep at it,” Rieckman said. “I like to think of this project as taking the land back to the way it was. We’re giving it a well-deserved rest.”

For more information about The Gallup Organization, visit www.gallup.com.

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