By Gerald Winegrad

Americans have an obsession with well-manicured green lawns — the bigger and greener the better. With the arrival of spring, that obsession is in full bloom. Individuals and lawn care firms are as busy as bees fertilizing and assuring lawns are kept green and free of pesky insects, especially mosquitoes. Lawn mowers are loudly shaving blades of grass with weed whackers and leaf blowers adding to the cacophonous noise drowning out the sound of singing birds.

This focus is ubiquitous, occurring around private homes, offices, shopping centers, churches, and golf courses, where turf is de rigueur and extends to huge acreage around government buildings, schools, in parks, and in almost all public spaces. It seems as if there is one great competition to achieve the greenest, best-groomed lawn outdoing all others.

I confess, I like my living space around me to be green. In retrospect, if I were born again, I would not have a lawn. Instead, I would opt for a much more natural landscape with native trees, shrubs, and flowers performing their natural functions. This would benefit wildlife — especially pollinators — improve air and water quality, eliminate chemical usage, and prevent excessive stormwater runoff and even help lessen global warming. It also would free me from mowing the lawn and other such duties.

It is striking to learn that 1.2 million acres of turf grass grows in Maryland, about 19% of the state’s land mass. One million of those acres are lawns around single-family homes. This is more acreage than in use for any single agricultural crop including corn or soybeans. About 36% of Anne Arundel County is covered by lawns and turf grass. Also, a large area of turf is owned by the county. All Maryland counties provide maintenance for an estimated 80,000 acres of turf grass.This pursuit comes at a great environmental cost. About 19 million pounds of pesticides are used on Chesapeake Bay watershed lawns to kill crab grass, weeds, and insects. These toxic chemicals reach our waters through runoff and affect the health of plants and animals that are not the targets, and people, too. Don’t be fooled: No pesticide is safe as they are all designed to kill something. Alarmingly, fewer than 10% of landowners use technical information to assure proper pesticide usage.

A rigorous scientific review found that the world’s insects are hurtling down the path to extinction, threatening a “catastrophic collapse of nature’s ecosystems.” More than 40% of insect species are declining radically including 53% of butterfly and 46% of bee species; some are critical pollinators responsible for 35% of the world’s food crops. More than 3,500 species of native bees sustain these crop yields. Three-fourths of the world’s flowering plants also depend on pollinators. Pesticides are clearly implicated in these radical declines of insects as well as other pollinators including moths, birds, and bats.

About 215 million pounds of bay-choking nitrogen fertilizer are applied to grass each year on the 3.8 million acres of bay-wide turf, 86 million pounds of it by Marylanders. What is not absorbed by the soil or plants eventually reaches our creeks and eventually the Chesapeake through stormwater runoff, either by sheet flow or into the nearest storm drain. Nitrogen is the major bay pollutant causing dead zones, loss of bay grasses, flesh-eating diseases, and declines in our aquatic critters. It also can seep into and contaminate groundwater and present a problem for folks on well water. Lawn owners are estimated to use 10 times more fertilizer per acre than farmers use on food crops.

Untreated stormwater is the major source of bacteriological and algal-borne toxins that infect humans, dogs, and fish. Stormwater contributes most of the nutrients and sediment entering our county waterways and the sources are diverse but include lawns, which are a big part of the problem.

There also are significant air emissions from gas-powered lawn equipment. The Environmental Protection Agency determined that gas lawn mowers emit eight times more nitrogen oxides, 3,300 times more hydrocarbons, 5,000 times more carbon monoxide, and more than twice the CO2 per hour of operation than electric lawn mowers. The EPA estimates that hour for hour, gasoline-powered lawn mowers produce 11 times as much pollution as a new car. This is why I use an electric mower.

The best solution is to convert lawns and turf to natural landscaping, especially by planting trees, shrubs, and flowers to attract pollinators. Next best is to eliminate fertilizer and pesticide use. My good friend Steve Barry has done this on his large lot in Davidsonville’s Harbor Hills. Steve founded the Watershed Stewards Academy. See what can be done in his six-minute video: https://youtu.be/Vldvv3YolPw. This conversion can also resolve stormwater flooding and help with carbon sequestration.

Environmental strategies

1. If you cannot eliminate fertilizers and pesticides, minimize their use and never use phosphorus unless for a new lawn or bald spots; it’s the law.
2. In lieu of pesticides, use natural pest and weed controls and Integrated Pest Management and physically remove weeds.
3. If you must retain a lawn care company, be sure to have a soil test done to see if you need to apply nitrogen and how much. Try not to use nitrogen fertilizer but if you must, minimize its use and use only organic slow release nitrogen.
4. Use only an electric or battery-powered lawn mower. Mow high, leaving lawn clippings to shade out weeds and conserve moisture. Also, sharpen your lawn mower blade regularly.
5. If you must water, do so in the early morning using a sprinkler and avoid runoff.
6. Install rain barrels to capture the first flush of rain and allow its slow release. This will stem erosion, reduce stormwater, and save water.
7. Plant native trees and shrubs that are highly water-absorbent to beautify your lawn. They will attract pollinators. Join Replant Anne Arundel (aawsa.org/replantannearundel).

If you really want to make a difference, become a watershed steward through the county Watershed Stewards Academy or ask one to help doing the right thing in lawn care. See: http://aawsa.org/bay-friendly-landscaping You can become a Master Gardener through the University of Maryland Extension Service, where you learn sustainable horticultural practices that assure healthy gardens and landscapes: See: https://extension.umd.edu/mastergardener/about-maryland-master-gardener-program

You also can have your home or business landscape certified as Bay-Wise through a Master Gardener and post it with a commendatory sign. To learn how: https://extension.umd.edu/baywise/program-certification.

Will an educated public be able to turn the tide to counter a tripling in the amount of turf grass in the watershed in the past three decades? Let us all work to restore our natural world.

Gerald Winegrad represented the greater Annapolis area in the General Assembly for 16 years. Contact him at gwwabc@comcast.net.