Show-Me Yards plans April 27, Field Day

The economic impact of water pollution is widespread. From the cost of treating area drinking water to the health of area lakes and rivers and the tourism industry they support, the bottom line is ... the bottom line.

As population increases in southwest Missouri, water re-sources are increasingly affected. The transformation of pasture land to residential lawns is "a real water quality threat to the James River," said Diana Sheridan, executive director of the James River Basin Partner-ship.

With the change in land us-age, more fertilizer chemicals, particularly phosphorus, are ending up in local streams, ri-vers and lakes, Sheridan said. The evidence is often visible in excess algae growth.

Farmers typically use as little fertilizer as possible because of the cost of fertilizing large acreages. Individual homeowners, on the other hand, often overfertilize because the cost of fertilizer for smaller tracts of land is relatively cheap.

How to achieve a healthy lawn and keep unwanted chemicals out of Missouri's water table is the goal of Show-Me Yards & Neighborhoods, which will present its free Lawn Care Field Day on April 27 at Na-thanael Greene Park. Attendees can learn about lawn care practices and their environmental impact through small workshops and informative discussions, according to Barbara Lucks, project coordinator.

Five different stations at the event will address topics ranging from equipment, irrigation and soil test demonstrations to various mulching and composting techniques.

Presenters will explain ways to more efficiently mow and water yards. There also will be a soil test demonstration and training for lawn owners on how to interpret the results, Lucks said.

Loring Bullard, director of the Water-shed Committee of the Ozarks, said soil testing is the best way to determine which fertilizer a lawn requires. It also can help determine how much is enough.

"If one bag is all you need, then it doesn't do you any good to apply three bags," he added.

Individual lawn owners implementing Show-Me Yards & Neighborhoods practices are recognized with Show-Me Yard signs.

"The steering committee has developed a checklist of different practices and the value of each of those," Bullard said. By doing things like getting a soil test or sharpening lawn mower blades, participants earn inches. When they get 36 inches, they're awarded a "yard" sign to put in their lawn. The first winners were acknowledged on Earth Day, April 20, at the Discovery Center.

Show-Me Yards & Neighborhoods also has a certification program for professionals in the lawn care and landscaping industry.

More than 50 companies, institutions and organizations have completed the certification program. Lucks said several of the practices that Show-Me Yards & Neighborhoods stresses were already being used by many lawn care professionals.

These companies advocate looking "at each individual lawn on its own merits, test it (and) treat it for what it needs," Lucks said.

Their involvement in the project also helps spread the word about responsible lawn care through their regular business contacts, she added.

Richard Murphy Jr., auxiliary grounds foreman at Southwest Missouri State University, was a member of one of those participating organizations. He said his crews have both changed the use of some lawn chemicals and eliminated others altogether based on information gained from the workshops.

As a project of Springfield/Greene County's Choose Environmental Excel-lence, Show-Me Yards & Neighborhoods specifically addresses non-point source pollution, Lucks said.

This non-point source pollution often originates as fertilizer applied to lawns that later makes its way into groundwater sources as runoff, she added. In contrast, point source pollution is that generated by larger industrial concerns like industrial plants or sewage treatment plants, she added.

The conservative use of a $3,500 mini-grant from the Department of Natural Resources helped launch Show-Me Yards & Neighborhoods in the fall of 2000 and "has carried us this far," Lucks said. A second grant from DNR is pending, she added.