How 'green' is your grass?

Sustainable Riverdale

By Mary Bandziukas

A healthy lawn can be much more than just a pretty picture. A lush lawn can absorb carbon dioxide related to global warming; allow rainwater to soak into the ground and reduce pollution in surrounding waterways. It can also keep your property and whole neighborhood cooler than if it were paved.

That being said, fertilizers and pesticides are often washed off poorly managed lawns by rain or overwatering, and end up polluting local waterways. And lawns don't provide much in the way of food or shelter for local wildlife, like birds.

There are easy ways to make the most of your lawn's environmental potential.

A lawn absorbs carbon dioxide. But if you are using synthetic fertilizers, remember they are manufactured from petroleum, which generates a load of carbon dioxide. Your lawn can do better than no net gain. You can switch to organic fertilizers, which are not made from petroleum.

A healthy lawn will soak up rainwater, but unfortunately many lawns are nearly as impervious as concrete. Our hilly terrain makes it especially easy for rainwater to head downhill to the Hudson and Harlem rivers, carrying with it the fertilizers and pest and weed killers that you have applied so diligently.

Canada Geese seem to love broad lawns, but most wildlife does not. Grass plants are not desirable food or shelter for our native wildlife. If grass is doused with pesticides and herbicides, it is downright toxic.

According to Grassroots Environmental Education, the majority of wildlife poisonings reported to the Environmental Protection Agency each year are due to application of lawn pesticides and herbicides. An estimated seven million wild birds are also killed. Human health may be compromised, too. Safe, organic alternatives are sensible and widely available.

Much of our open space is covered in lawn. How we manage it matters to our health, our wildlife and our rivers.

Mary Bandziukas, a Queens resident, has a master's degree in urban planning with a focus on the environment. She has been a consultant with the Riverdale Nature Preservancy for the past decade.

Sustainable Riverdale appears in the third issue of the month. It is the work of the Riverdale Nature Preservancy, done in conjunction with The Riverdale Press and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Have an issue you'd like to see addressed? E-mail newsroom@riverdalepress. com, and put Sustainable Riverdale in the subject line, or write to The Riverdale Press, 6155 Broadway, Bronx, NY 10471.

This is part of the May 15, 2008 online edition of The Riverdale Press.

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