Many people fertilize their lawn to keep it lush and green. Excessive fertilizer use, however, causes environmental harm that goes beyond one’s backyard. Nitrogen, a chemical found in fertilizer, helps plants grow. But if plants can’t absorb it all, the chemical leaks from the ground to the Sound.
This leaves educators, resource managers, municipalities, and environmental groups wondering how to encourage community residents to care for their yards in ways that reduce impacts on the environment.
A new interactive tool can help. Researchers from the University of Connecticut, Clark University, and the University of Maryland released the Lawn Fertilizer Outreach Targeting Tool this winter.
The interdisciplinary tool uses data both from a homeowner survey on lawn fertilizer behavior and the University of Connecticut’s “N-Sink” tool. “N-Sink” shows hotspots in the regional landscape that are at the highest risk of sending nitrogen pollution to the Sound. This helps landowners connect the lawn fertilizer usage on their land to pollution in coastal waters, as pollution varies by landscape type. The survey was supported by the Long Island Sound Research Grant program.
Together, these datasets combine with high resolution geospatial and property boundary data to form an outreach targeting tool that shows both where predicted nitrogen pollution due to lawn fertilizer is highest and where households are more likely to change their fertilizer habits. The tool aims to help educators target and focus on effective programs to encourage fertilizer reduction while maintaining healthy lawn care. Looking at providing information for achieving pollution reduction goals, the map focuses on coastal Connecticut and New York.
The outreach map shows by color where pollution would likely be reduced under a targeted community program. For example, households residing in newer and larger homes are more likely to fertilize and apply more frequently. Exurban areas also tend to contribute to more nitrogen due to lawn fertilizer, because large-lot parcels in these areas tend to have larger lawns. Specific to single family homes, the map shows neighborhood-level trends in fertilizer use.
Interested groups can use the tool as a guide to develop materials, target areas, and develop behavior-change campaigns with the greatest capacity to reduce excess nitrogen loads to Long Island Sound.
Nitrogen is an essential element for life on Earth, but only in the right balance. When lawns get too much fertilizer, the extra nitrogen ends up in waterways that lead to the Sound, like streams and storm drains.
Once in the Sound, large quantities of the chemical may help stimulate the growth of harmful algal blooms along the Sound’s surface. These blooms block sunlight from deeper water and harm the ecosystem, and some can produce toxins that can be harmful to people and animals, including kids and pets who may live by the water.
The project partners view the tool as a unique and innovative way to restructure how we care for the Sound.
“You never know what conversation will come from a tool like this, which is part of the beauty of it,” said David Dickson, a senior extension educator at the University of Connecticut (UConn) Extension program and director of the UConn Center for Land Use and Education Research (CLEAR). “Tools like this bring people together who end up making new initiatives out of them. That’s the whole goal, to get conversation started.”
Check out the tool’s interactive story map here to see how your neighborhood contributes to the Sound’s health.
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