{"id":36018,"date":"2022-04-25T13:46:27","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T17:46:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/?p=36018"},"modified":"2022-04-25T17:35:21","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T21:35:21","slug":"maryland-to-dedicate-this-years-sunflower-planting-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2022\/04\/25\/maryland-to-dedicate-this-years-sunflower-planting-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Maryland to Dedicate This Year\u2019s Sunflower Planting for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Annual Planting for Wildlife Takes on Special Meaning<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 388px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/1919\/45769646461_8ba64a0e25.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of sunflowers in bloom\" width=\"378\" height=\"252\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: &#8220;Sunflowers After Storm at McKee Beshers&#8221; by Bob Julia, submitted to the 2018 <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/Pages\/photocontest.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Maryland DNR Photo Contest<\/a><\/p><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announces that it will dedicate its sunflower plantings to the people of Ukraine this spring. Each year, the department plants about 130 acres of sunflowers on 15 <a href=\"https:\/\/dnr.maryland.gov\/wildlife\/Pages\/publiclands\/home.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wildlife management areas<\/a> across 18 Maryland counties. Sunflowers are the national flower of Ukraine, which remains besieged by the Russian military. <\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2018\/07\/01\/behind-the-beauty\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">primary purpose<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> of DNR\u2019s plantings is to provide a source of food for mourning doves, cardinals, chickadees, blue jays, finches and other wildlife species, after the plants mature and dry. Pollinating insects like bees and butterflies also benefit from the abundant nectar and pollen that sunflowers produce. This year the plantings will serve a dual purpose by expressing solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Displaying the large yellow flower has become an important way for many people around the world to express unity and support for Ukrainians who have suffered the war\u2019s destruction and bravely resisted Vladimir Putiin\u2019s aggression against them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Annual Planting for Wildlife Takes on Special Meaning The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announces that it will dedicate its sunflower plantings to the people of Ukraine this spring. Each year, the department plants about 130 acres of sunflowers on 15 wildlife management areas across 18 Maryland counties. Sunflowers are the national flower of<a href=\"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/2022\/04\/25\/maryland-to-dedicate-this-years-sunflower-planting-for-ukraine\/\">&nbsp;&nbsp;Read the Rest&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":146,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[957,23,13],"tags":[3493,3494,5247],"class_list":["post-36018","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appnews","category-land","category-wildlife","tag-mckee-beshers-wildlife-management-area","tag-sunflowers","tag-wildlife-management-areas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36018","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/146"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36018"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36021,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36018\/revisions\/36021"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/dnr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}