Lock Your Lawn
The stuff in our lawns can have a big impact on nutrient pollution, a leading cause of poor water quality and those smelly, blue-green algae blooms that overtake ponds, lakes, streams, rivers and even oceans in the summertime. Nutrient-rich fertilizers and pet waste are good for the lawn, but these shouldn’t be allowed to escape when it rains. The EPA estimates that half of your expensive fertilizers could be swept away if your lawn isn’t “locked down,” but you can do this by altering the landscape so that water – and your fertilizer – doesn’t wash away so easily.
Viewer Tip: You can “lock your lawn” by re-landscaping it in ways that trap rainwater and filter sediment, nutrients, pesticides and other pollutants before they reach creeks and streets.
- Dig a grassed swale along the edge of your property. A grassed swale is basically a shallow ditch that catches rainwater.
- Grow filter strips of dense grasses along the edge of your property, especially if you live next to a stream, to filter the water before it runs off.
- Plant buffer strips of shrubs and trees along the edge of a stream. This practice works well in rural areas where there’s enough land to grow them effectively.
There are many steps you can take to protect habitat and water quality along stream banks and lakeshores.
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(Sources: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System: Vegetated Filter Strip.” Accessed Online May 22, 2012. http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/menuofbmps/index.cfm?action=factsheet_results&view=specific&bmp=76&minmeasure=5; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System: Riparian/Forested Buffer.” Accessed Online May 22, 2012. http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/menuofbmps/index.cfm?action=factsheet_results&view=specific&bmp=8; U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System: Grassed Swales.” Accessed Online May 22, 2012. http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/menuofbmps/index.cfm?action=factsheet_results&view=specific&bmp=75)
