The Maine Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Resources has received the grant to fund its project, Yardscaping: Minimizing Reliance on Pesticides by Example Using Demonstration, Outreach and Integrated Pest Management Training. The Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program is meant to support research and education that reduces potential risks posed by pesticide use.
This project will feature demonstration sites in Portland and Brunswick. The project in Portland, which will be replicable, is targeted toward helping homeowners and landscape contractors select the best variety of turf and use fewer lawn pesticides to maintain the turf. It will accomplish this by using real-life exhibits to demonstrate what lawn variety will grow best on their home soil type. This project contributes to EPA’s Lawn and the Environment Initiative, which was started in 2004 by EPA headquarters and the Center for Resource Management, a nonprofit in Utah.
The Brunswick demonstration site will feature low-input practices on high-use public athletic turf. This demonstration site will be particularly beneficial to municipal-park and public-space managers.