Townsend Stressing Organic Lawn Care in Community
By Hiroko Sato, The Sun, Lowell, Mass.
Jun. 5–TOWNSEND — One teaspoonful of “healthy soil” typically contains 600 million bacteria.
But when chemical fertilizers and pesticides are used, the number of bacteria that are beneficial for trees and plants dramatically drops, says Townsend Conservation Commissioner Michele Cannon.
The chemicals don’t just kill all the good stuff in soil. They get on the bottom of your shoes, then into your living-room rugs and can affect the health of your children, according to Karen Angelo, spokesperson for UMass Lowell’s Toxics Use Reduction Institute (TURI).
As a way to help combat this problem, Townsend began using organic fertilizers for town fields and parks, and wants to show residents how to do the same at home.
“Don’t treat your soil like dirt,” Cannon says.
The state Legislature and TURI have named the Townsend Conservation Commission a champion of toxic-use reduction for its effort to promote organic lawn care. The commission will receive the award at the Statehouse on Tuesday, along with four other community organizations and five corporations from across the state.
Townsend’s initiative to reduce chemical landscaping began two years ago. The town stopped using chemicals near places frequented by children, such as the library.
Various research points to harmful effects of conventional pesticides and fertilizers, and the Conservation Commission wants to protect the environment those effects, said commission Chairman Karen Chapman.
Commissioner Jennifer Pettit added that many residents get their drinking water from wells on their property.
“It can only be good for the environment and good for the drinking water to reduce the chemical use,” Pettit said.
The commission held its first how-to workshop on organic lawn care in April 2007. After receiving a $3,500 grant from TURI last August, the commission held workshops in March, April and May.
Workshops are designed to show how to use compost and organic fertilizers.
Cannon, a member of Ecological Landscaping Association, said she sometimes speaks about the topic in the area, and tries to stress the importance of not interfering with the microscopic “critters” that interact the roots of plants to nourish them.
Like physicians promoting prevention, Cannon said organic landscapers stress the importance of “do no harm,” a message that TURI has tried to get across since the institute’s inception about 20 years ago, Angelo said.
TURI helps industries and community groups reduce toxic-chemical use through grants, which are up to $15,000 each.
The biggest challenge of promoting toxin-use reduction, Angelo said, is to prove to people that alternative products and methods work. The Conservation Commission’s work is recognized because it has effectively demonstrated the methods.
Pettit, the owner of a gardening business who has experience with organic landscaping, said more communities are requiring their municipal properties to be treated organically, and that’s a good thing.
TURI is accepting proposals for projects to take place between August and next June. The deadline for proposal submission is June 30. For more information, visit http://www.turi.org/community.
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