Westchester Announces Bold Pesticide Reduction Project
Partnership to educate homeowners and landscapers on alternative lawn treatments
Yes, it’s possible to have a beautiful lawn without using pesticides – and that’s exactly why Westchester County has teamed up with Grassroots Environmental Education to offer alternatives to homeowners, landscapers and businesses.
County Executive Andrew Spano on October 28th announced a new initiative -- the Grassroots Healthy Lawn Program -- that will help protect the health of Westchester County residents by reducing their exposure to aesthetic pesticides, particularly those used on lawns. The program is being conducted by Grassroots Environmental Education, a non-profit educational organization, and is being funded entirely from private sources.
“Pesticides can affect our health and contaminate our water supply – it’s as simple as that,” said Spano. “The goal of the Grassroots Healthy Lawn Program is to reduce the use of pesticides by offering healthier alternatives for keeping lawns green. The fact that we can do all this at no cost to the taxpayer makes this an ideal program, and one I’m proud to support.”
The Grassroots Healthy Lawn Program is designed to dramatically reduce pesticide use on private property by reshaping the market forces of supply and demand, which fuel the addiction to lawn pesticides. In a strategic, multi-pronged effort, the program will assist local landscapers in establishing and sustaining non-toxic alternative lawn care programs which they can offer to their customers, work with local merchants to encourage them to carry and promote a full line of non-toxic lawn and garden products, and educate the public about the inherent dangers of pesticides and the safe alternatives now available to them.
“Westchester County has done a great job of bringing the issue of pesticide use to the public,” said Grassroots Executive Director Patti Wood, “but unless people have viable and successful alternatives available to them in the marketplace, public education alone won’t bring about meaningful change. Spano stressed the need for such a program noting that a recent report by the Department of Environmental Conservation ranks Westchester second of all the counties in the state when you measure pounds or gallons of pesticides used by landscapers, businesses and homeowners.
As part of the county’s new effort, staff members from Grassroots will be making presentations this fall to civic and community groups across the county. A new educational video about non-toxic lawn care will be distributed at no cost to lawn care professionals throughout the county, and an industry-wide trade show featuring non-toxic lawn care products is scheduled to be held in January.
The county has taken critical steps to reduce pesticide use on county land and to ensure advance notification to property owners when pesticide use will occur on adjoining property.
For more information about the Grassroots Healthy Lawn Program website: www.ghlp.org.
Press release, October 28, 2004 www.westchestergov.com