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Residents living in the Chesapeake Bay area are having “watershed” moments as they learn more about how proper lawn care can keep their beloved waterway clean. The 64,000-square-mile watershed region around the Bay stretches from Cooperstown, N.Y. south to Norfolk, Va., and inland to eastern counties of West Virginia. With the health of the Bay a concern for many residents, The Chesapeake Bay Program and newly created Chesapeake Club are working to help residents creating a more inviting tourist environment and spare Maryland seafood that could otherwise be harmed by pesticide runoff.
“The Chesapeake Club is a new outreach initiative designed to engage a new audience about the bay – people not necessarily moved by environmental motives,” explains Chris Conner, communications director for The Chesapeake Bay Program, which has developed the Chesapeake Club campaign. “Surveys that we have conducted show that there’s a high level of concern – about 90 percent – regarding the health of the bay among residents in this region, but many people don’t know how to get involved in the Chesapeake Bay restoration efforts. What our advertising campaign is striving for is to reach people through their love of seafood and give them something they can do – like work with their lawn care company – that will lead to a healthier environment and a healthier Bay.”
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Kicking off the program with a series of paid television ads and a print ad campaign running in the Washington, D.C. metro area, The Chesapeake Club, is ecouraging viewers to wait until fall to fertilize their lawns or to find a lawn care company that offers the group’s new Chesapeake Club Standard lawn care regimen. Members of both the lawn care and restaurant industries in the region are asking viewers to “save the crabs – then eat ‘em!” Conner notes that about 6 percent of nitrogen load in the Bay comes from lawn fertilizers. In the Washington, D.C. area at the center of the watershed, that level is as high as 11 percent.
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A televised ad campaign for the new Chesapeake Club began last week with slogans such as, “preserve the raw bar,” and “save the crabs – then eat ‘em!” With the assumption that the path to lawn care behavior changes is through Bay-area residents’ stomachs, the commercials can be seen in the Washington, D.C. metro area, along with print ads in the Washington Post and Post Express, and poster ads throughout Union Station and on the blue and orange Metrorail lines. With so much coverage of the effort to lower fertilizer and pesticide input on lawns, thereby keeping the Chesapeake Bay clean and seafood-friendly, lawn care operators are likely to start receiving calls regarding the new program. In order to offer the new Chesapeake Club Standard lawn care regimen in association with the Club, contractors must sign up and agree to a handful of service must-dos, outlined at right in the main article. To learn more about the program, visit the www.chesapeakeclub.org, then sign up to participate by e-mailing chesapeakclub@aed.org for more information. Contractors who participate will have their company’s contact information listed on ChesapeakeClub.org and will be able to use educational fliers and leave-behinds as they being offering the program to their clients – not to mention clever lawn signs that read “No appetizers were harmed in the making of this lawn.” |
“For that reason, we’re focusing on the Washington Metro area for the first part of our marketing initiative,” Conner says. “There’s a high potential for significant nutrient pollution reduction by focusing on lawn care first. For residents, lawn care can still be a part of their existing lifestyle, but by educating them on timing and application levels, we can help manage the amount of potential runoff to the Chesapeake Bay.”
To reach the nutrient reduction goals set by the Chesapeake Bay Program, the new organization has developed the “Chesapeake Club Standard” lawn care regimen. “The Chesapeake Club Standard is based on lawn service criteria established jointly by a group of lawn care professionals and government environmental stewards,” the Club notes on its new Web site www.chesapeakeclub.org. Lawn care professionals who apply to offer the Standard service option must:
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Keep fertilizer off any impervious surfaces. This may involve sweeping granules back into the grass from sidewalks, driveways and other areas after application;
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Leave behind Chesapeake Club lawn care materials provided by the Chesapeake Bay Program and explain to the homeowner that he/she should follow the provided lawn care guidelines if they perform any lawn care on their own;
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Visit the Web site twice a year – once before June 15 to sign up, and once by Nov. 15 to fill out a short online form estimating the area of lawn being serviced under the Chesapeake Club brand; and
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Meet ALL the nitrogen and phosphorus application criteria listed in the table. These criteria require the lawn service to:
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Limit the total amount of nitrogen applied during the year (based on the type of grass);
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Apply fertilizer only after a specified date in the spring (based on the county, and the type of grass.)
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Apply fertilizer only before a specified date in the fall (based on the county, and the type of grass.)
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Only apply phosphorous to new lawns, or as deemed necessary through soil testing.
Bern Bonifant, president of Natural Lawns, Fairfax, Va., and Bay Country Natural Lawns, Merrifield, Va., is one of about two dozen lawn care operators (LCOs) who have already signed up to be part of the Chesapeake Club and offer the organization’s services. “This is really an interesting program in concept, and it’s a good idea that the Chesapeake Bay Program is really putting the funds into to make it work,” Bonifant says. “As a company, we already strive to use less chemicals on our clients’ lawns, so this fits in well with our philosophy and we’re positioning ourselves to take advantage of the program.”
Bonifant says Natural Lawns has already begun using the informational fliers provided by The Chesapeake Club to educate homeowners on the program and how it can help the Bay and the environment. Still, with the program in its early stages, Bonifant says there are some concerns that LCOs are faced with.
“The states of Virginia and Maryland already have measures in place to keep potential chemical runoff low, such as limitations on how much fertilizer lawn care companies can put down,” he explains. “The Chesapeake Club Standard further lowers those numbers, to the point where, as part of this program, we can apply no more than 2.5 pounds of fertilizer on turf-type tall fescue and bluegrass lawns annually. That’s giving the lawn the bare minimum it needs to stay healthy, remembering that not every year will be a good year. The program also eliminates the use of phosphorus fertilizers, except on newly seeded lawns.”
Altogether, Bonifant says that by lowering the nutrient input, lawns could become susceptible to low-nutrient diseases, such as red thread, dollar spot or rust, which would require the use of more fungicides. Similarly, there may be more need for weed control should less-fortified turf allow stronger weeds to creep into lawns. “Those are some of the concerns we’re looking at right now, but we’re still pushing ahead with the program because of its overall intended benefits,” Bonifant says. “We’re supportive of low- and no-chemical programs, and we also see this as an opportunity to educate homeowners who may be doing their own lawn care without understanding timing and application rates. The program is encouraging them to either wait until the fall to fertilize, or find a company like ours who’s offering the Chesapeake Club Standard to start them a proper lawn care program.”