This blog will provide brief updates, news, and notices of events for the multistate project "Implementing Best Management Practices (BMPs) to Reduce Runoff and Lawn Fertilizer Use"; sponsored by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation's Chesapeake Bay Stewardship Fund. The project will investigate two BMPs: use of a lawn seed mixture containing a newly-commercialized nitrogen-fixing legume called
microclover; and incorporation of compost during soil preparation. These practices can be used by builders, landscaping professionals, and homeowners to improve infiltration and reduce nitrogen fertilizer use in lawns in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The
project includes a showcase residential development where the
effectiveness of project BMPs
will be demonstrated to the building and
development communities. Additional satellite sites in MD, PA and VA are
included to demonstrate the “watershed-wide” utility of the BMPs, and
to provide targeted regional outreach opportunities to decision makers,
practitioners, and educators who work directly with homeowners. It is
expected that this project will initiate a shift
in lawn culture from a high-nitrogen grass monoculture on runoff-prone soils to a more diverse plant community growing in a healthy soil that
requires little, if any nitrogen fertilizer.
