Our yards and what it does for us...

EPA tries to get Chesapeake Bay cleanup back on track
By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 7, 2010; 10:29 PM

The Chesapeake Bay does not like your lawn.

That green grass is probably coated with pesticides and fertilizers and studded with pet poop. All that washes off in the rain and causes environmental problems downstream in the Chesapeake.

Now, the humble suburban lawn is a test case for the Obama administration, which is trying to overhaul the long-failed effort to clean up the bay.

Its vision calls for unprecedented - and perhaps uncomfortable - changes on land. Farmers will cut back on fertilizer. Taxpayers will shell out to improve sewer plants and filter storm runoff.

And your lawn might need to be replaced by rain gardens or shaggy fields of native plants.

What's missing is a detailed plan - and an assurance that residents will choose a distant estuary over the beloved patch of green outside their door.

"The well-manicured, beautiful, dark-green, over-fertilized lawn can be part of the problem," said Randy Bartlett, a public works official in Fairfax County. He said that in addition to paying more fees, residents might see new rules or incentive programs designed to make them view their lawn differently. "It's kind of like with the seat belts. It took us a while to get used to it."

The Chesapeake's main problems are a pair of pollutants, nitrogen and phosphorus, that wash downstream in manure, treated sewage and fertilizer. In the bay, these feed unnatural algae blooms that rob the water of dissolved oxygen, creating underwater "dead zones."

These problems have not been resolved, despite a 27-year cleanup effort that has cost billions of dollars, but the EPA says it is determined to put the cleanup on course.

This fall, it scolded several states for not doing enough to curtail the pollution they send downstream. For those states, including Virginia and Pennsylvania, the Environmental Protection Agency threatened unprecedented punishments: It would force costly sewer-plant upgrades or limit new development in some areas.

Oliver Houck, a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, said that the EPA has made the Chesapeake a national laboratory. He said that other bodies of water, including the Gulf of Mexico, have similar dead zones but that the problem hasn't been tackled with the same ambition.

"You win this thing, you're winning it for the country," Houck said.

As minuscule as lawns seem, they add up. This year, the Chesapeake Stormwater Network, an advocacy group, found that turf grass was the largest "crop" in the Chesapeake watershed, more widespread than any crop grown on farms.

So part of the new save-the-bay effort, officials and environmentalists say, should be a re-imagining of the lawn.

Rainwater that falls onto lawns often washes off laden with nitrogen and phosphorus. It runs into storm sewers, mixing with runoff from parking lots and roads.

"Everything that is laying on . . . grass or sidewalk or parking lot, whether that be dirt or fertilizer or trash," comes downstream, said Brent Bolin of the Anacostia Watershed Society.

This is an urban area's wash water, and it accounts for 8 percent of the nitrogen and 15 percent of the phosphorus entering the Chesapeake. Those totals have continued to grow, despite the cleanup's efforts, because development has increased parking lots, roads and lawns.

The EPA's plans to clean up this runoff include re-imagining what a storm sewer is. Instead of using pipes, the agency envisions that states and counties will have to install grassy ditches and restore natural streams in place of concrete channels. The idea is to slow down runoff and let it seep into dirt and roots.

For homeowners, the main effect of these efforts will be increased fees. It's not clear how much fees will increase: The EPA says cost increases will be "marginal." But in Fairfax, Bartlett estimated building them might bring fees up to $250 to $600 a household per year, up from $70 now.

Environmentalists also say lawns should change. A more bay-friendly choice, they say, would be to remove grass and replace it with native plants that need no fertilizer and less watering.

Or, they say, homeowners could replace some of their grass with a "rain garden," which catches the water in a depression and lets it soak into the roots of trees and shrubs.

"I mean, look at how beautiful it is," said Jane Good, who paid about $7,000 to install a rain garden behind her Bethesda home. Montgomery County provided guidance and a rebate that paid less than half of the cost. "You look at this, and you don't think that it has a special purpose."

'A giant, huge hole'
Not everybody is as pleased, though, to have a rain garden behind their house.

In Gainesville, the Hopewell's Landing subdivision was built with rain gardens throughout one section. Resident Kenneth Padgett said the one near his house is a pit as deep as six feet, with very steep sides.

"I thought it was a great thing until they started putting them in," Padgett said. The idea was introduced, he said, in "a pamphlet with a beautiful picture. When it was implemented, it was a giant huge hole in the ground."

Among those worried about the EPA's new crackdown is the National Association of Home Builders. Association officials fear that the new rules could discourage redevelopment of older sites because costly new rules would require installing rain-catching features as part of the renovations.

"Those requirements are going to be very, very aggressive, very, very costly, and a stretch for anybody to try to meet," said Glynn Rountree of the association. As costs and restrictions mount, he predicted, residents are "going to reassess how much the Chesapeake Bay is worth to them."

EPA officials say that the change will not be that drastic and that homeowners who don't make large-scale renovations probably won't have to change anything about their lawns.

"We cannot envision anybody telling homeowners to tear up their lawns or replant our lawns with something," said J. Charles Fox, the EPA's bay cleanup czar.

Possible rule changes
Residents could still see a series of smaller rule changes affecting lawns and lawn care. In some places, they already are.

In Annapolis, authorities have outlawed most use of fertilizer containing phosphorus on lawns. Virginia and Maryland officials said they could imagine other jurisdictions adopting similar rules.

Joe Lerch of the Virginia Municipal League, which represents the state's local governments, said he wondered how laws such as that might be enforced.

"We're laying off teachers, you know, policemen, firemen," Lerch said. "And now you want to hire fertilizer cops?"

In Montgomery County, drainage rules enacted in 2007 apply when there are significant additions on small lots. Homeowners might need to install things that trap or filter rainwater before it flows off their property.

In Bethesda recently, home builder Brad Beeson pulled up outside a property his company, Bethesda Bungalows, had recently built. He said county regulations required the business to install 10 large "recharge chambers" underground. These are porous boxes that look like large milk crates. Water from the gutters flows underground and into these boxes, where it leaks slowly into the soil.

"He had to spend $50,000 to do this," Beeson said, referring to the homeowner. "And now he can't do his pool, and he can't do any kind of landscaping." Instead, he said, the homeowner had to opt for the cheapest kind of lawn: short, green grass.

 

Excellent. I think I'll get started right away. I wonder if the HOA/neighbors would mind?

 

AndyWalden,

Depending on your landscaping plan to make it more environmentally friendly, HOA guidelines will still apply which I am not sure what those are in regards to garden vs. lawn. Specially if it looks good . As far as your neighbors, again, if it is done by the book, they can only enjoy looking at a beautiful garden.

Let me know how it goes,

Additional help for native plants for our area can be found on this great website I just found. Lady Bird Johnson's Wildflower Center.

Information about Sustainable Landscaping

Loudoun County Master Gardeners

Best of luck and thank you for your interest. Us too, one day would like to have a lawn free home.

 

I think this instead of my front yard and all that mowing would be awesome personally

http://www.apporiver.org/projects/PastProjects/after_raingarden.jpg

 

I agree with you on this one....I just cannot fathom people spending 7,000 (more or less) to do what they want to do (if the govmint ever mandates us to do this). That would bankrupt a lot of folks or require them to take on more loans if they don't have the moohlah to do it. Crazy if you ask me.

 

I am hoping that we can also look at this and make better choices when it's time to work on our yards. The idea is that most will do a little or bigger gardening at their homes. We probably all know that our choices can have good or bad impact on the environment. If the $5 or $5000 we are going to spend can go to something that is not bad, if not good for it, why not make that choice? As I say this, I do think regardless of where we live, and if we have .8% impact on the Bay, or 50% impact it should not matter at the end of the day. 4 years ago we watered our lawn much more then last year. Last year we never watered it. This fall, we planted 13 native trees. What we spent on them was within our budget but the trees are small and it will take time for them to grow. I don't think we had to go out of our way to do what happens to be the right thing once we learned the importance of it. We will never know how much good impact we are doing on the environment but at least we know that it's better then doing the opposite.

Also, if the government starts giving a ticket to everyone that goes over 55 mph, and that is the legal speed limit, we may see them coming and enforcing us to change our landscapes. Many laws are out there that don't get enforced but it's good to have. Should we get right of the speed limit since many doesn't follow?

University of Delaware College of Agriculture and Natural Resources researchers promote native plants for suburban lawns

1:19 p.m., Oct. 4, 2010----University of Delaware entomologist Doug Tallamy has been conducting research studies on the interaction between native plant species and native wildlife since 2000. Author of Bringing Nature Home, which met with critical acclaim in The New York Times and other publications, Tallamy is well aware that most suburban homeowners plant few shrubs and trees, preferring instead vast expanses of grass.

But his latest research, conducted this summer with Jules Bruck, assistant professor of landscape design in the Department of Plant and Soil Sciences in UD's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, amazed even him. The duo analyzed the composition of 65 suburban yards in New Castle County and Chester County, Pa. They discovered that, on average, homeowners dedicated 92 percent of landscapable areas to lawn.

“I was surprised at how few plants there are in suburbia,” says Tallamy, chair of the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology. “The typical yard is a barren landscape that isn't part of the food web.”

What's worse, he says, is that most of what's planted in suburbia is non-native. In the local yards studied, 78 percent of the plants were alien species. Native plants are necessary to provide food and habitats for local wildlife.

Research shows that people are psychologically more comfortable with empty landscapes, says Tallamy. This mindset is tied into the fact that our earliest ancestors could easily spot predators and other dangers on open terrain.

But saber-toothed tigers aren't lurking outside the palladian windows of our McMansions. So, it's time, says Tallamy, to change the perception of what is an acceptable home landscape.

He doesn't recommend yards brimming with native plants just to be nice to the birds and the butterflies. With every research study he conducts, he's further convinced that healthy local ecosystems are important for people as well as for wildlife.

“Most native insects cannot, or will not, eat alien plants,” explains Tallamy. “When native plants disappear, so, too, do native insects. A land without insects sounds like a gardener's dream; doesn't it? But a land without insects is also a land without most higher forms of life.”

“We invariably take plants and the benefits they provide for granted,” he adds. “Who takes time to think that the oxygen in each breath we take has been produced exclusively by plants?”

Tallamy has enlisted Bruck's help to change attitudes about what constitutes an acceptable home landscape. The duo have begun writing a sequel to Bringing Nature Home that will be a guide to planting with natives in one's local habitat, whether that's the windswept, semi-arid Great Plains or the lush, hilly Piedmont Plateau.

The central question of the book is: How do you design a harmonious garden for people and other things?

“Take what you need and give the rest back to nature,” answers Bruck.

In her own yard, that means some grassy strips for loafing on Adirondack chairs or playing lawn games but also an abundance of native groundcovers, herbaceous perennials, shrubs and trees.

What it doesn't mean is messy, uncontrolled hedgerow, an impenetrable thicket of trees blocking all views or the absence of any lawn.

“No one will accept this new landscape paradigm if it doesn't have curb appeal,” she says.

This isn't theoretical musing but knowledge Bruck has gained from working with residential and commercial landscape clients. In addition to her academic position, she operates Evolution Landscape Design, a consulting firm that does work on Philadelphia's Main Line.

For the most part, people don't want wildflower meadows in their front yards on the moneyed Main Line. Or, here in the Delaware 'burbs, for that matter.

Bruck happens to like the look of home wildflower meadows -- and the fact that they support a variety of wildlife -- but also understands that they aren't right for everyone. Fortunately, there are plenty of other ways to promote biodiversity in the home landscape.

Tallamy believes that Bruck's real-world experience with landscape clients will be a valuable contribution to the sequel to Bringing Nature Home, which, though published three years ago, continues to keep Tallamy on the road with more than 100 public speaking engagements a year.

He acknowledges that his personal approach to his 10-acre yard in Oxford, Pa., is less about curb appeal and more about unabashedly fighting habitat loss.

For example, he's reluctant to pull out saplings, even in odd places, like the black cherry that sprouted right beside his back door.

The day that Tallamy intended to remove the sapling it had tiger swallowtail larvae all over it. Not surprisingly, that black cherry still flourishes there today.

Article by Margo McDonough
Photos by Danielle Quigley

 

Additional Info From Virginia Tech...​

Presenters: Brian Benham, Biological Systems Engineering; brbenham@vt.edu
Jim Pease, Agricultural and Applied Economics; peasej@vt.edu

Here is the link to an archived recording of the Virginia Cooperative Extension Webinar: The Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load and Virginia Watershed Implementation Plan, presented by Brian Benham and Jim Pease on November 4th.

Overview

• Chesapeake Bay and Bay Watershed statistics
• Efforts to clean up the Bay
• Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) definition and development
• Water quality in the Bay
• Pollutant sources and loads
• Tools used to develop the Bay TMDL
• Reducing pollutant loads to the Bay: Implementing the Bay TMDL