Lawn-be-gone? Not anytime soon
It consumes millions of gallons of fuel and fertilizer and pesticide, it all but demands weekly harvesting and it draws its irrigation from the public drinking supply.
Click Here to Add Comment
Subject: Lawn-be-gone? Not anytime soon.................
Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 12:38:49 -0400
From: Stephen Tvedten <steve@getipm.com>
Organization: Get Set Inc. (www.getipm.com)
To: Paul Helliker <phelliker@cdpr.ca.gov>
Director, State of
California, Department of Pesticide Regulation
cc: Christine Whitman whitman.christine@epa.gov
Dear Mr. Helliker, I thought you might like to read the following article dated: Tuesday, May 29, 2001 - 01:49 p.m. Pacific Time entitled: Lawn-be-gone? Not anytime soon - By Eric Sorensen - Seattle Times science reporter.
It's that time of year when legions of homeowners assume the role of small-scale farmers.
Their crop grows fast and covers some 25 million acres nationwide - more than oats, barley, rice, peanuts and beans combined.
It consumes millions of gallons of fuel and fertilizer and pesticide, it all but demands weekly harvesting and it draws its irrigation from the public drinking supply.
We're talking about the lawn: a symbol of American affluence and contentment, and the brunt of growing concern about mower noise and fumes, pesticide and fertilizer pollution, and wanton overwatering. This summer, officials are particularly concerned that lawns will strain a drought-squeezed water supply.
Seattle Public Utilities (SPU), which serves 1.3 million customers in Seattle and the lawn-rich suburbs, last week saw conservation efforts hit the 10 percent goal. But officials asked residents to continue to reduce lawn watering, and water only between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m., when cooler temperatures minimize evaporation.
California's North Marin Water District has a "cash-for-grass" program that actually pays people to tear out their lawns. SPU and King County have developed "natural lawn care" suggestions for using less water, pesticide and fertilizer.
"We're not saying don't grow a lawn," said Nota Lucas, manager of SPU's landscape-conservation program. "We're saying follow these six steps and have a better, healthier lawn that is better for the environment."
The program takes encouragement from a survey showing nearly one-third of the area's lawn owners removed part of their greenswards in the past five years. But the idea of a lawn has a firm hold on the American consciousness.
"Today, grassy yards are so familiar and so common that it is difficult for Americans to imagine an alternative residential landscape without them," said Virginia Scott Jenkins in "The Lawn: A History of an American Obsession."
Jenkins documents how the notion of a front lawn was planted in the United States by wealthy 18th-century citizens eager to re-create the aristocratic French and English landscape. It went middle class with the invention of the lawn mower, the explosive growth of suburbs, and federally funded advances in turf science. Turf and lawn maintenance is now a $25 billion industry.
Grass does have a lot going for it. It's a soft, low-friction surface for sports and for toddlers learning to walk. It fights erosion, filters runoff, cools its surroundings, controls dust and makes for good picnics.
A lawn can be nice to look at, but that can cause problems, depending on your aesthetic.
A fast-acting, water-soluble fertilizer in the spring can encourage a burst of growth in the leaves but also draws nutrient reserves from the roots that will be needed during a drought, said David McDonald, a resource-conservation planner for SPU and author of "Ecologically Sound Lawn Care for the Pacific Northwest," a study on which the natural-lawn program is based.
"It's kind of like giving your lawn a sugar fix," McDonald said.
The fertilizer can leach past the root zone and into streams and lakes, where it can cause algae blooms.
Nearly half the people responding to a 1999 SPU survey said it's important their lawn be green. But the number of people feeling that way dropped 16 percent between surveys in 1994 and 1999. And nearly three-fourths said they would be willing to have a "natural" lawn with a lighter green color, a few weeds and cut a little higher than usual.
Pesticides also can be a problem. A 1999 study by the U.S. Geological Survey found nearly two dozen pesticides in King County streams, with concentrations of five pesticides exceeding federal limits set to protect aquatic life.
Using sales records of area home and garden stores, the researchers showed how the most frequently purchased pesticides--the herbicides 2,4-D and MCPP and insecticide Diazinon--were also the most frequently found in area streams. They were detected in all 12 sample sites.
Diazinon is believed to throw off a salmon's sense of smell, which it uses to detect predators. Sales of this pesticide will be phased out, "which means you see it prominently displayed at Home Depot and other places," said Bill Dunbar, a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency's regional office. "Every time I go to Home Depot, I see people carrying bags of that stuff out and I just shake my head."
Oddly, many homeowners don't even know when they're applying pesticides to their lawns. Four out of five in the SPU survey said they don't use pesticides, but then a third said they use weed-and-feed products, which contain 2,4-D.
Thirty percent said they had removed part of their lawn in the past five years, but that's not to say there is a trend. Thirty-five percent said they had done so in the 1994 survey.
Doug Fender, executive director of Turfgrass Producers International, a trade group, downplays any movement toward grass-free yards.
"My gut, and that's all it is, is it's a fad, not a thrust," he said. "People love their grass."
Gwen Stahnke, extension turf specialist at Washington State University-Puyallup, questioned whether it's fair to pit lawns against gardens.
"The way I look at it is: the right plant in the right place," she said. "I don't care whether that's turf. I don't care whether that's trees and shrubs."
Younger families seem to prefer lawns for kids, while older people prefer gardens, said Brian Livingston, project manager for the Gray Barn Landscaping Company in Redmond.
"But I can't say I've noticed any dramatic changes in either of these," he said.
There are differences between the ways Seattle residents and their suburban neighbors treat their yards. Suburban residents are more likely to say a green lawn is important and to use pesticides, according to the SPU survey.
Seattle residents are more likely to leave grass clippings, which can provide one-fourth of a lawn's fertilizer needs. They're also more likely to remove some of their lawn and replace it with a garden.
Philip Dickey put in gardens in his front lawn on Woodlawn Avenue North in Wallingford about 10 years ago, then worked on the parking strip. A neighbor three houses down followed suit, then that neighbor's neighbor, then the Dutch colonial across the street. Now nine homes are involved. From a distance, their streetscape looks like many colored Chiclets.
The gardens require less water, a consideration in summer months, when outdoor watering is the chief culprit for rising water use. SPU customers go from using an average 150 million gallons of water a day to 220 million in the summer.
But the Wallingford gardens don't necessarily require less time.
"People shouldn't think that if they remove their lawn and put a garden in that that's a no-maintenance situation," said Dickey, staff scientist for the Washington Toxic Coalition. "There is definitely maintenance, but it's fun maintenance. And I find it to be less repetitive and mind-numbing than mowing the lawn."
Eric Sorensen can be reached at 206-464-8253 or esorensen@seattletimes.com.
Au naturel
Seattle Public Utilities recommends the following six steps toward a "natural" lawn:
o Mow high - 2 inches for most lawns, about 1 inch for bentgrass - and leave the clippings on the lawn.
o Fertilize moderately, in May and September, with "natural organic" or "slow-release" fertilizers that break down gradually. The fall application is most important. Use no more than 4 pounds of active nitrogen a year in a balanced fertilizer, 3 pounds if you leave clippings behind.
o Water deeply and infrequently. About 1 inch a week, measured in tuna tins, is right in July and August. Don't water if it's going to rain. Consider letting the lawn go brown in the summer.
o Improve poor lawns with aeration and overseeding.
o Think twice before using "weed-and-feed" or other pesticides. Read labels carefully.
o Consider alternatives to lawns.
For more information, call the natural lawn-care line at 1-888-860-LAWN or visit www.ci.seattle.wa.us/util/rescons.
Copyright © 2001 The Seattle Times Company
Well Mr. Helliker, I think the real problem is obvious and can be cured with a campaign that is entitled: "POISONS-be-gone". However, for this to happen anytime soon, you will have to "legally" allow us to consider the use of safe and far more effective (unregistered) alternatives to your "registered" pesticide POISONS.
Respectfully, Stephen L. Tvedten
If you would like to be included in our mailing list for continuing information on pesticides, Email Us. with "subscribe" in the subject line.