We’ve recently seen another round of piling on in the war of words that pits lawmakers, regulators and environmentalists against those who supposedly have little regard for our nation’s land and waterways. If you’re a golf course superintendent, landscape contractor or manufacturer of fertilizers and pesticides, you know on which side of the debate we’ve been painted.
New York lawmakers earlier this month passed a law that beginning in 2012 will make it illegal for retailers in the state to stock fresh supplies of lawn fertilizers containing phosphorus. In pushing through the legislation, the New York pols cited reports that link phosphorus draining into New York lakes and rivers with algae that degrades Heggarddrinking water and reduces oxygen supplies for fish.
In Florida earlier this year, Pinellas County commissioners voted to ban sales of fertilizer with nitrogen or phosphates between June and September—or any time when major storms or flooding hit. Actually applying fertilizer with those ingredients was banned starting this summer.
The latest provisions follow similar bans in other states where lawmakers and environmentalists claim increased phosphorus loading into surface water and the resulting accelerated eutrophication have diminished water quality.
"We all have a moral responsibility to take care of the earth, to take care of what's given to us," one of the Florida commissioners said following the vote to ban the sale of certain fertilizers.
Statements like that imply that those of us in the green industry do not feel the same responsibility and stir a knee-jerk reaction. Our first impulse is to rush to our defense armed with intellectual ammunition from esteemed scientists such as Dr. Karl Danneberger, the turfgrass professor at Ohio State University, who says “phosphorus gets a bad rap.”
But, as Dr. Danneberger also pointed out in an article for a leading trade magazine last year, ”It’s easy to say special-interest groups, radicals and politicians looking for votes have marginalized or ignored the science. … Unfortunately, science alone doesn’t carry the day when there are emotionally charged and politically sensitive issues.”
At LebanonTurf we obviously understand the nutritional value of phosphorus to meet the needs of our customers, but we have removed it from the vast majority of our fertilizer products. We also have fully embraced the movement toward biological nutrition delivered through beneficial bacteria as an attractive option – and an effective complement to traditional products – for many of today's end-users.
I’ve concluded there’s no use debating an emotional issue. We’re swimming upstream if we think environmentalists are going to slow their pressure tactics or that lawmakers are going to stop their political correctness long enough to carefully weigh the science.
What those of us whose businesses are affected by these issues need to focus on instead is the same thing golf course superintendents in Minnesota did after the original fertilizer bans were instituted eight years ago. By embracing the legislation as an opportunity to demonstrate their environmental stewardship, and by working with the regulators, the Minnesota GCSA has been credited with progressive management practices. Its members are now viewed as partners in solving water-quality problems.
We should know the facts about the benefits of turfgrasses as natural providers for our ecosystem, including their ability to protect the quality of groundwater and surface water. But we should keep in mind that science isn’t always the most compelling argument. That’s why I think it’s critical that we also develop working relationships with state regulators and lawmakers. Invite them to your course or to your plant. Have a conversation about environmental stewardship and let them see the commitment to a healthy planet – and to the needs of our industry – in your eyes.
As a landscaper in Florida’s Pinellas County was quoted recently, “You can be angry, or you can be prepared.”
About the author
Dave Heegard is general manager of LebanonTurf, a division of Lebanon Seaboard, which manufactures one of the industry’s broadest selections of both synthetic and biologically based fertilizers and weed control products for golf courses, sports fields and consumer landscapes.
