Abstract
Landscapes are living things. In one important sense, they are never finished. Growth, natural succession, weathering, change of use or ownership or neighbors—all keep landscapes evolving. Except in successfully restored native landscapes, the best of which maintain themselves (though not in a steady state), maintenance is not optional. Maintenance is the way an evolving landscape keeps pace with evolving human demands.
Ask rice fields and gardens for the truth; learn from hedges and walls.
—Zen Master Dogen, AD 1250
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Notes
- 1.
C. Milesi et al., “A Strategy for Mapping and Modeling the Ecological Effects of US Lawns,” conference paper, International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Tempe AZ, 14–16 Mar 2005. The other estimates are cited in Milesi.
- 2.
Research by University of Wisconsin landscape architecture professor Darrel Morrison, reported in John Berger, Restoring the Earth: How Americans Are Working to Renew Our Damaged Environment (New York: Knopf, 1985), 124.
- 3.
Gwendolyn Bounds, “Organic Lawn Care: It’s Not for Wimps,” Wall Street Jour-nal, 7 Oct 2006, P5. Bounds’s estimate of the total horticulture-care industry is $9 billion greater than a 1999 estimate used in this book’s first edition.
- 4.
Owen Dell and Melanie Yanke, Recent Writings, brochure published by Dell’s County Land-scape & Design, 2004, www.owendell.com/. Dell has been active in promoting a sus-tainability pledge among southern California landscape professionals. For a firm known for full implementation of fossil-free work methods, see www.terranovalandscaping.com/what-is-fossil-free-landscaping/.
- 5.
Helen H. Whiffen, “Landscape Maintenance Takes Energy: Use It Wisely,” Energy Effi-ciency and Environmental News (University of Florida Extension), Feb 1993. Still one of the best attempts to summarize landscape maintenance energy consumption—there should be more studies like this for each bioregion.
- 6.
For example, the Outdoor Power Equipment Institute commissioned a study showing that lawns captured “four times more carbon from the air than is produced by the engine of today’s typical lawnmower.” Ranajit (Ron) Sahu, “Technical Assessment of the Carbon Sequestration Po-tential of Managed Turfgrass in the United States,” http://opei.org/content/uploads/2014/02/TurfGrassSahu.pdf. OPEI and various turf promotion groups have quoted this report widely (http://opei.org/new-study-shows-responsibly-managed-lawns-reduce-carbon-footprint/). With due respect to a consultant who has done good work for environmental activist associations as well as industry, OPEI’s summary glosses over the obvious question of how much lawn area or mower operation time is compared to estimated sequestration to arrive at the “four times more” assertion. OPEI’s article also uses bare soil as a basis for comparison (obscuring the fact that other vegetative cover may be far more effective than lawns at sequestration—see note 7 below). Dr. Sahu himself, quoted in the OPEI piece, calls well-maintained lawns only “a decent foot soldier in our quest to reduce our carbon footprint,” suggesting that there are better weapons. Whether OPEI intended it or not, “X times more than an unspecified alternative” and “great because better than nothing” are both classic green-wash memes. A related document is http://opei.org/value-of-lawns-fact-sheet/, which in turn refers to a publication by CAST (Council for Agricul-tural Science and Technology), “Water Quality and Quantity Issues for Turfgrasses in Urban Land-scapes.” CAST is an agricultural lobbying organization and, while stating the goal of “science-based” policy, leans heavily toward emphasizing “innovation,” including genetic engineering of crops, while downplaying concerns about turf and turf-care chemicals. All of these reports should be considered, as some of their assertions are at least partially valid, but should be analyzed with care and critical thinking.
- 7.
US total for 2014, from US Environmental Protection Agency, “U.S. Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report: 1990–2014,” www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/us-greenhouse-gas-inventory-report-1990-2014.
- 8.
Wesley Groesbeck and Jan Striefel, The Resource Guide to Sustainable Landscapes and Gardens, 2nd ed. (Salt Lake City UT: Environmental Resources, 1995), 39.
- 9.
Briggs and Stratton 6.5 OHV Intek. Its design also made it impossible to change the sparkplug without inter-ference from an air-filter cover, a throttle cable, and the engine housing. Design flaws like these afflict most manufacturers occasionally; sustainability makes quality engineering imperative. Briggs and Stratton (as noted in Principle 7) has actively opposed pollution and efficiency regulations for two-stroke machines.
- 10.
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, publication 1329, n.d. For spreading gypsy moth, and potentially for other major pests, the USDA has the authority to level significant civil penalties.
- 11.
Fred Lambert, “Tesla Model 3: Perfect Production Execution Means Around 80,000 Vehicles in 2017,” Electrek, 27 Feb 2017, https://electrek.co/2017/02/27/tesla-model-3-perfect-execution-production-2017/.
- 12.
Jethro Mullen, “Elon Musk: Tesla Will Reveal Semi-Truck ‘Beast’ Next Month,” CNN Tech, 14 Sep 2017, http://money.cnn.com/2017/09/13/technology/tesla-semi-truck-october-elon-musk/index.html.
- 13.
Information in this section is primarily from the United Soybean Board, a major bio-based product marketing and research fund (www.unitedsoybean.org/). Other agricultural crops can also be used for bio-based products. The United Soybean website and publications cite a large number of federal studies (DOE and USDA, primarily) for statistics quoted here. For details, see the board’s website, and its pamphlet The Soy Products Guide: A Listing of Soy Industrial Products.
- 14.
See “Land Under Pressure: Global Impacts of the EU Bioeconomy,” a thirty-six-page report by Friends of the Earth Europe. It focuses on EU policies and economics but includes global information; the arguments apply to the United States as well. Available at www.foeeurope.org/sites/default/files/resource_use/2016/land-under-pressure-report-global-impacts-eu-bioeconomy.pdf; appendices (called “annexes”) are available through a link in the main document.
- 15.
Information on the Aberdeen paint standards, and on Environmentally Preferable Purchasing programs, is from US EPA publication EPA742-R-99-005, “Painting the Town Green: Aberdeen Proving Ground’s Paint Pilot Project.” See www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-05/documents/paint.pdf. The estimate of painted square footage is a rough one, based on 14 million square feet of building floor space, and assuming an average ten-foot wall height, painted inside and out. It is intended only to give a sense of scale to the overall savings quoted.
- 16.
Groesbeck and Striefel, Resource Guide, 39.
- 17.
Bounds, “Organic Lawn Care.”
- 18.
City of Boulder (CO) Environmental Affairs office pamphlet Take Control with Integrated Pest Manage-ment, Aug 2001. Pamphlet cites “Natural and Environmental Resources Report, Jan/Feb 1995” as the source of the statistics quoted—author and publisher unknown.
- 19.
BASMAA (Bay Area Stormwater Management Agencies Association), from its executive director, Geoff Brosseau. Similar results have been found for many other regions.
- 20.
Candace Pearson, “Grounds Maintenance Implicated in Butterfly Extinctions,” EBN, Aug 2013, 15. The US Fish and Wildlife Service’s website refuses to display the original article as of April 2017; information extinction?
- 21.
This concept, similar to Xeriscape zoning, was developed by Phil Boise, Ag Ecology Consulting, Gaviota CA, and published as a working paper by the National Foundation for IPM Education. Boise calls his system “PHAER Zones,” for Pesticide Hazard and Exposure Reduction. More details may be available by doing an Internet search using this phrase.
- 22.
Diatoms are tiny algae, whose beautiful silica-based skeletons are minutely sharp. These nonpoisonous shells, in what is called diatomaceous earth, are applied as pest deterrent around plants.
- 23.
Arthur C. Costonis, “Tree Injection: Perspective, Macro-Injection/Micro-Injection,” Journal of Arboriculture 7, no. 10 (Oct 1981): 275–77; Deborah G. McCullough et al., “Evaluation of Trunk Injections for Control of Emerald Ash Borer,” publication of US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station, available online at www.nrs.fs.fed.us/pubs/jrnl/2005/nc_2005_mccullough_001.pdf; Daniel A. Herms et al., “Insecticide Options for Protecting Ash Trees from Emerald Ash Borer,” North Central IPM Center Bulletin, 2nd ed.
- 24.
See, for example, Janet Hartin, Dennis Pittenger, and J. Michael Henry, “Best Management Practices to Reduce Production of Organic Materials in Landscape Plantings,” Jun 2001, California Integrated Waste Management Board publication 443-01-022, www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Documents/905/44301022.pdf.
- 25.
Gessner G. Hawley, The Condensed Chemical Dictionary, 10th ed. (New York: Van Nostrand Rein-hold, 1981), entry for Phosphate Rock, 809.
- 26.
Janet Hartin and Ali Harivandi, “Reusing Turfgrass Clippings to Improve Turfgrass Health and Per-formance in Central and Northern California,” Jun 2001, California Integrated Waste Management Board publication, www.calrecycle.ca.gov/Publications/Documents/Organics/44301021.pdf.
- 27.
Groesbeck and Striefel, Resource Guide, 39.
- 28.
Russell Beatty, “Prescribed Grazing,” LAM, Mar 2005, 50.
- 29.
James Urban, “Battery Park City’s Invisible Landscape,” LAM, Feb 2004.
- 30.
The stables are reportedly to be moved, an example of the extra complexity involved in on-site or near-site sourcing of materials.
- 31.
James Urban, “Organic Maintenance: Mainstream at Last?” LAM, Mar 2004.
- 32.
Candace Pearson, “EPA Region 8 Building Fares Well Under Performance-Based Con-tract,” EBN, Sep 2013, 18.
- 33.
Information on current practice with maintenance plans is from interviews with Leslie Sauer of Andropogon or summarized from Jo Kellum, “The Legacy of Design,” LAM, Sep 1999, 108. Kellum refers to the difficulty of maintenance coordination as being similar to herding cats.
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© 2018 Kim Sorvig and J. William Thompson
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Sorvig, K., Thompson, J.W. (2018). Maintain to Sustain. In: Sustainable Landscape Construction. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-811-4_11
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