By Mike Orso
The harsh 2025-26 winter so far has rigorously tested the effectiveness of a McHenry County program with farmers designed to prevent snow drifting, the need for seemingly endless plowing, salting and excessive wear and tear of county roads.
The Living Snow Fence Program, started five years ago by the McHenry County Division of Transportation (MCDOT), mostly utilizes what many area farmers currently grow to create natural barriers for moving snow.
“We’re basically working with the farmers in McHenry County using their agricultural crop as the living snow fence,” said Bob Hensel, MCDOT’s maintenance supervisor. “We implemented it just because of the open areas that we have within McHenry County. We get a lot of blowing and drifting snow.”
Participating farmers leave multiple rows of corn in strips or other natural barriers that they have planted and grown parallel to several county roads. The strips of standing corn, planted the previous spring, help manage snow by trapping it, reducing the need for repeated road treatment and continuous snow removal.
“I’ve lived and traveled on Kishwaukee Valley Road my whole life and it blows something terrible all the time,” said Woodstock farmer Chris McKee, one of the first county farmers to voluntarily participate in the MCDOT Living Snow Fence Program. “I don’t think I’ve ever gotten stuck, but close. That whole road drifts from one end to the other.”
Over the years of repeatedly dealing with blowing and drifting snow, MCDOT has identified, on a road-by-road basis, where blowing and drifting snow makes it hazardous for motorists.
“We sat down and made a map up and just highlighted the sections of roads that we thought an artificial or a living snow fence would provide a better protection of roadway to make it easier to travel,” said MCDOT’s Hensel. “I would say on average, Greenwood Road is probably top 3 in blowing and drifting snow. Way down in the southwest corner, Harmony Road gets quite a bit. Then, right in the middle, Kishwaukee Valley Road.”
After brainstorming ideas to keep these and some other county roads free of snow drifts, MCDOT decided to implement the Living Snow Fence Program.
“As we started looking at it back in 2019 we also took a look at the cost,” said Ernest Varga, MCDOT design engineer, who notes that the county still does install conventional snow fences in some areas. “The concept was, if we could get continual areas with a living snow fence, we don’t have to put in that manpower, we don’t have to maintain that material, we don’t have to be racing the clock. It has proved to be very helpful.”
Cities, towns, villages, townships, the county and the state of Illinois have different jurisdictions when it comes to road maintenance responsibilities. As far as roads under county control, officials believe snow fences that utilize standing corn and even hay bales and silage (livestock feed) bags have proven to be effective to slow and reduce drifting snow. McHenry County will pay farmers $2,000 per acre at the end of each year’s contract for maintaining a living snow fence.
“You can see the difference not only throughout a snowstorm but after a snowstorm on how well that standing crop collects the snowfall and does not allow it on the road,” said Hensel. “By doing that, it saves us time, money, wear and tear on equipment and just overall lowers our cost on winter operations.”
Ernest Varga notes every time an MCDOT snowplow driver drops a snowplow blade, it accelerates the erosion on lane striping and deterioration of pavement.
“It’s not just the cost saving now, there’s also future cost savings,” he said. “Every time we run a plow with blade down on the pavement, we’re wearing that pavement out that much quicker.”
For winter 2025-26, McHenry County has worked with farmers and other landowners to maintain living snow fences in over 20 different farm fields throughout the county.
“I bet we have roughly 12 to 15 miles of living snow fence this year,” said Hensel. “This is the highest year with participation that we’ve had.”
The contract payment to farmers offsets the loss of standing crops to weather and wildlife but allows the harvest of what remains after March 1.
“I would love to see it in every field,” said McKee, who also serves as president of the McHenry County Farm Bureau (MCFB). “I think if you did have more participation, you’d really see the meaningful economic advantage of it, with less road salt, less plow time.”
MCDOT’s Hensel credits MCFB with helping to successfully implement the program.
“They have been a great asset and assisting us, kind of pointing us in the right direction on who to talk to and even just bouncing ideas off of them and getting some feedback on maybe what we’re doing right and wrong,” he said. They have been a great partner in this. It has been a good relationship.”
The McHenry County Division of Transportation (MCDOT) has been busy with snow removal this winter. From left to right during a break in the action near a plow also equipped with salt brine tanks are Hans Varga, MCDOT Public Information Officer, Bob Hensel MCDOT Maintenance Supervisor, and Ernest Varga, MCDOT Design Engineer.
Here, an MCDOT snow plow can raise its blade as it leaves an area of a county road unprotected and into one protected by living snow fences of multiple rows of corn left in strips by participating McHenry County farmers. (Photo by MCDOT)
Woodstock farmer Chris McKee represents one of several county farmers that leave part of their corn crop in the field to help minimize snow drifts on McHenry County roads. “You hit those living snow fences and it’s bare pavement,” said McKee. “It works way better than the plastic snow fences they put up.”
“When we started the program, the common rule was, look, predominant winds are from the north and the west, so we looked at northside, westside only,” said Ernest Varga, MCDOT design engineer. “However, what has now come up is, we do get southern and eastern (winds). So, now we look at all sides of the roads” when it comes to locating snow fences on McHenry County roads. (Photo by MCDOT)