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Funded Project |
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Funding Program:
IPM Partnership Grants |
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Project Title:
Organic Landscaping: Homeowners' Outreach |
Project Directors (PDs):
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Lead State: CT Lead Organization: NOFA-CT |
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Cooperating State(s):
Massachusetts |
| Undesignated Funding: $19,979 |
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Start Date: May-01-2010 End Date: Apr-30-2011 |
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Pests Involved: grubs, ticks, mosquitoes, poison ivy |
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Site/Commodity: lawn, landscape, yard, residential |
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Area of Emphasis: organic, residential, education, curriculum |
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Summary:
The greatest risk of pesticide exposure to the general population occurs where people live, work, and play. Landscaping pesticides used by homeowners on ornamental plants, lawns, and yards, carry the risk of negative impact on human health, particularly children's health, and the
environment. In the Northeast, where up to 70% of homeowners use pesticides outdoors, lawn care pesticides have been found in groundwater, surface water, and private wells. Both MA and CT have passed laws severely restricting pesticide use on school property. The NOFA Organic Land Care Program trains and accredits professionals in organic landscaping methods that promote IPM strategies and we now have nearly 500 accredited professionals working in 19 states. The organic methods we teach focus on building healthy soil, proper plant selection, and cultivating habitats that prevent pests. They avoid hazardous materials, prohibit invasive plants, minimize energy waste by avoiding synthetic fertilizer and pesticides, increase biodiversity, protect water resources and use local materials whenever possible. Our professionals have established that over the long term organic management techniques offer the same cultural benefits, such as beauty, functionality, and cost effectiveness as methods based on synthetic chemicals, but at a much lower environmental and health cost. This past year we initiated a new project to extend our organic landscaping educational services beyond professionals to homeowners and property managers. Our homeowners' outreach project currently involves community workshops, website improvements, marketing, and seasonal landscaping articles that provide information on IPM and ecological strategies for home landscaping. We are now proposing to build on this homeowners' outreach work by developing three new outreach tools: a science-based "how-to" IPM and ecological landscaping guide for the homeowner; a full-color introductory brochure template customizable to locale; and an attractive educational display booth to use at the many outreach venues we table during the year. The overall goal of our homeowners' outreach project is to convert 100 acres per year from chemical management to ecologically minded, IPM. Objectives: 1) Create a science-based, state-of-the art organic and IPM landscaping how-to guide for homeowners, a priority area for the 2007 Community IPM working group, using reviewers from several states and scientific disciplines. The roughly 30-page guide will describe the health and environmental benefits, materials, methods and expected outcomes of organic lawn care and landscaping in the Northeast. Distribute 17,000 copies of the guide annually. Our homeowner's outreach project, of which this guide is a part, has a goal of converting 100 acres per year from chemically intensive to ecologically minded, IPM landscaping (as measured by homeowner surveys). 2) Create a full-color brochure template promoting the general environmental and health benefits of organic landscaping, and short tips to get started. The template will be customizable to locale, with information on local environmental groups and local accredited organic landscapers. Distribute 8000 copies in four locales; customize to event locations. 3) Create an attractive, portable, modular, educational display booth for use at fairs, trade shows, conferences, workshops, and events throughout the Northeast. Suitable for both professional and lay audiences. Both the guide and brochure will be distributed at the booth and enhance the table's one-on-one interactions. Use this booth at 15 venues throughout the Northeast and be viewed by 15,000 people annually. Proposal |
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Final Report: |
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Outcomes Outcomes The NEIPM grant funds have enabled CT NOFA to implement the project IPM Strategies for Home Landscaping: Outreach, which has produced critical educational tools for the introduction of IPM and organic practices in land care to homeowners and concerned citizens. As the public demands more information on how to care for their lawns and yards safely and effectively without pesticides, the demand has steadily increased for low-cost and basic information on IPM and organic land care. Libraries are ordering our publications and hosting homeowner workshops on organic lawn care. CT NOFA received a $5000 private donation to assist with the publication of the Introduction to Organic Lawn and Yards booklet, greatly reducing the cost of printing and the discount is passed on to the consumer. In addition, CT NOFA is in the middle of the 3rd, one-year grant from the Quinnipiac River Fund which covers the cost of 11 homeowner workshops introducing the subjects of organic lawns and yards. Outreach to attendees is enriched when they can take home the 53-page booklet for further review after the workshop, and share free brochures with friends, family and neighbors about their ability to improve water quality and environmental conditions in their own yards. |
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Impacts Impacts CT NOFA reaches thousands of people each year by tabling at events, public speaking engagements, holding workshops and through the ctnofa.org and organiclandcare.net websites and social media. The booklet and brochure are being promoted in all of these ways, as well as at meetings of the Connecticut Association of Conservation and Inland Wetland Commissions and the Connecticut Watershed Network. The educational display booth is a very effective tool for educating the public about IPM and organic land care at large events. The NOFA Organic Land Care Program, a program of CT NOFA, has trained 1200 organic land care professionals over the past 10 years. This group is responsible for providing IPM and organic methods to their local landscaping clientele in over 20 states. By providing this demographic with neatly-packaged educational information for their clients and community members, they become effective public educators capable of providing thousands of homeowners with information about how to care for their land without pesticides using IPM methods. Some of our AOLCPs have purchased boxes of the Introduction to Organic Lawn and Yards, each containing 80 booklets, in order to promote organic land care and their businesses. According to the latest homeowner survey results from organiclandcare.net, 105 individuals are managing 1841 acres of land. Of those 1123 or 61 percent report managing their land organically, 607 or 33 percent describe their practices as transitioning from conventional to organic and just 92 or 5 percent are using conventional practices with pesticides. They all report coming to the website to learn more about organic practices, many request more workshops and information. We have found that marketing and education need to be an ongoing effort and we are in it for the long term since we have seen so much growth in public interest in (and scientific reasons for) more ecological ways of managing the landscape. |
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