A shrinking Cooperative Extension not good news for our industry

Cooperative Extension is our bridge between research and what’s practical “down on the farm.” Or in the case of the Green Industry, what works for our growing, living landscapes.

Many of us have gotten to know and rely upon the experience and advice of extension specialists. We value the helpful and impartial service they provide.

An article today on onlineathens.com (available here) warns that Georgia could be losing yet more extension personnel due to mandated budget cuts at the University of Georgia. The University is being forced to chop 4% ($16.3 million) from its fiscal 2011 budget that began this past July 1.

Agriculture dean Scott Angle is protesting the cuts to the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. He says the state’s ag research stations and the Cooperative Extension Service already have absorbed budget cuts of 20% in the last two years. The number of county extension agents in the state has dropped from 400 to 300 since 2008.

Other states, looking to save money, have been chopping away at Cooperative Extension these past several years, as well. This is not good. Extension specialists make a big difference in keeping our environment productive in terms of food and fiber, and advising our Green Industry on best practices and greener ways of providing our services.

Those of you in Georgia may want to contact the Georgia Green Industry Association (GGIA) to see what you can do to save your Cooperative Extension from shrinking anymore.

The rest of us must continue to support our extension personnel and the work they do. — Ron Hall

Sharpen your irrigation skills as the era of cheap water approaches

The significance of the results of a recent survey by Black & Veatch should be obvious to anyone in the business of installing or maintaining irrigation systems. The price of water is going go up, up, up so the need for irrigation that doesn’t waste water (i.e. money) is growing, growing, growing.

In other words, the era of cheap water may be coming to an abrupt end.

Black & Veatch’s 50 Largest Cities Water and Wastewater Rate Survey indicates the average annual increase in typical residential water bills is approximately 5.3% from 2001 through 2009, while the increase in typical residential sewer bills is approximately 5.5%.

“This survey is a tool for managers of water infrastructure to see how their rates compare with national trends,” said John Kersten, Associate Vice President and Water Industry Lead in Black & Veatch’s management consulting division. “The primary source of income for these utilities to pay for operating, maintaining, expanding and updating their infrastructure is through water and sewer rate collections, which must be continuously adjusted to address rising costs.”

A key finding of the survey is that water and wastewater bills for residential use across the country have increased at a steady rate since 2001 – when Black & Veatch began producing the survey.

This trend correlates with findings from The 2009 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, published by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), showing approximately $2.2 trillion of investment is needed to improve vital infrastructure over the next five years. Overall, America’s grade is a cumulative “D” as noted by the ASCE.

Black & Veatch’s analysis cites five key issues that influence rates and sheds more detail around the value of water and wastewater services and the solutions needed to address these two areas of vital infrastructure:

— Commodity price increases. Primarily in electricity, chemicals and natural gas costs. A leading contributor to operating and maintenance costs of water and wastewater facilities - highlighting the important inter-relationship or nexus of water and energy.

— Lower consumption and high fixed cost. In general, demand or a consumer’s usage is declining while many utility costs, such as debt service, are fixed. Since most pricing structures include volume-based charges, revenues are declining while costs are not.

— Benefits. Pension obligations and health care benefits are prompting an increase in labor costs.

— Influence of wastewater legal action. Significant capital programs are being implemented in most major cities to comply with legal; action related to http://www.bv.com/About_Us/Default.aspxwastewater system performance.

— Aging infrastructure. Updating and replacing aging infrastructure are significant costs for most water and sewer utilities, as noted in the ASCE report available at: www.asce.org.

Black & Veatch Corporation is a leading global engineering, consulting and construction company specializing in infrastructure development in energy, water, telecommunications, federal, management consulting and environmental markets.

Arlington National Cemetery prettied up by trowel-wielding kids

ARLINGTON, VA — The Professional Landcare Network (PLANET) held its 14th annual Renewal and Remembrance event at Arlington National Cemetery here Monday. More than 300 Green Industry professionals showed up with spreaders, sprayers, aerators and other equipment to work in 90-F.-plus heat to improve the grounds at the huge cemetery.

In what’s become a trend at the event, many brought their families to help, children too. I’m estimating about 50 or 60 young people (some of them very young) got an opportunity to watch the changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then plant perennials in the nearby Children’s Garden.

The children, under the guidance of adult volunteers, lined up, fitted with aprons, gloves and with trowels in hand, and planted one perennial each, enlarging a garden some of them had worked in the season before.

Here are some images of the youngsters in action. We hope you enjoy seeing them as we did watching them planting the flowers. — Ron Hall

When invasive species get loose they often turn into monsters

The offices of Landscape Management magazine in Cleveland are just blocks from Lake Erie.

There’s a monster at our doorstep, our lakefront. It threatens incredible harm. This monster is an invasive species, the Asian carp, and the only thing keeping it from damaging the ecology of our Great Lakes and its multi-billion dollar sports fishery is an electrified fence in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal.

If (when?) this fish makes its way around the barriers and into Lake Michigan it will be only a matter of time before it will spread to the other great lakes putting native species such as lake trout, walleye, whitefish bass and white perch (to name a few) in peril. The Asian carp is a voracious feeder and gobbles up much of the same food as these fish. The only difference being that the Asian carp can grow to 100 lbs. Anybody ever see a 100 lb. walleye?

Wherever the carp establishes itself the populations of native fish decrease. And the Asian carp has been establishing itself in many of our Midwestern river systems ever since escaping from southern farm ponds into the Mississippi River during the disastrous Midwestern floods of the early 1990s. Apparently catfish farmers had put them in their ponds to eat algae and other scum that, apparently, the carp are pretty good at doing.

The plant world has its share of invasive monsters, as well. One of the worst, the giant hogweed, is on the loose. It's horrific in a different sense than the carp. The giant hogweed's sap can cause severe, long lasting swelling and blistering to humans and animals. If sap gets into your eyes it can cause temporary and sometimes permanent blindness.

This problem plant can grow to a height of eight to 15 feet. Native to the Caucasus, it’s believed giant hogweed was brought into the United States and Canada as an ornamental, but it does particularly well where the soil has been disturbed, such as along railroads, abandoned construction sites and vacant, weedy fields. If conditions are right, it can dominate an area.

To date, giant hogweed has been reported in several eastern Canada provinces and from Maine to Michigan and as far south as Virginia in the United States.

Once established invasive species are often impossible to eradicate. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent controlling them, and many hundreds of millions more will be spent as the battle against harmful invasive species is literally never ending.

Click here for a good description of giant hogweed.

Embark's YouTube message strikes the right tone

Hurricane season is here. Landscape and tree-care companies get lots of cleanup work after a major hurricane. Some of the owners of these companies have told us they have enough to do without the hot dirty work of cleanup, fixup and hurricane debris removal, which some have described as “blood money.”

Houston-based Embark Tree and Landscape’s short (1:45 minute) YouTube video takes a positive and proactive approach to the possibility of hurricanes, advising viewers of what they should be considering in terms of tree care before the next hurricane arrives……and it will eventually, of course. This is a nice example of the social media being used effectively.

Click here to see the Embark YouTube video.

We can only hope we're like Larry

(Image by Owen Baker, staff photographer The Daily Breeze)





Larry Marty, a great-great-grandfather who lives in Torrence, CA, is pretty amazing. The guy is 91 and goes to work four days a week as a landscaper, working in his grandson’s company.

I read about Larry in an article written by Dennis McCarthy in the July 9 issue of the Daily Breeze (actually dailybreeze.com).

"Granddad's the first one to arrive in the morning, the only one on time, and he always takes the hardest jobs," says Mike DeVestern, one of Marty's eight grandchildren quoted in the article.

Stop what you’re doing and click here to read about Larry. This man is inspiring. — Ron Hall

Perennial peanuts being readied for Florida landscapes, including replacing turfgrass

Here's a news release from the University of Florida where researchers are developing varieties of perennial peanuts to be used as landscape groundcovers or low-input lawns replacing turfgrass.

UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences has released two rhizoma perennial peanuts for ornamental use, Arblick and Ecoturf. They are formally announced in the current issue of Journal of Plant Registrations.

Both grow low to the ground and produce dense green foliage with small yellow-orange flowers, said Ann Blount, an associate professor with UF’s North Florida Research and Education Center in Marianna.

The plants were released into the public domain, so anyone may buy, sell or grow them.

Ken Quesenberry, a retired UF agronomist who’s studied the crop for years, points out that some plants marketed as perennial peanut do not grow from communal root systems, called rhizomes.

Those root systems help the plant withstand heavy foot traffic and allow them to bounce back from winter frost. Sometimes called pintoi perennial peanut, the non-rhizoma plants are suitable for South Florida but aren’t as cold-tolerant as rhizoma varieties, he said.

Researchers didn’t breed the plants—instead, they collected wild specimens in South America in the 1950s, Blount said. For decades afterward, UF agronomists Tito French and Gordon Prine studied these and other perennial peanuts as potential livestock forages and hay crops; in recent years they began providing samples to commercial sod producers.

UF is evaluating almost 40 rhizoma perennial peanuts, some of them suited to ornamental use, he said. Researchers hope to identify shade-tolerant varieties, which would expand the crop’s potential for home lawns.

Quesenberry said it’s anyone’s guess whether perennial peanut will ever rival turfgrass in popularity. But the legume will probably get attention in communities with water restrictions, he said.

The perennial peanut is adapted to subtropical and warm temperate climates. In the northern hemisphere, this would include locations below 32o north latitude (Florida-Georgia state line) having a long, warm growing season.

Those of you in Florida wanting to know more about using rhizomal perennial peanuts in the urban landscape can check out a guide from the University of Florida authored by Robert E. Rouse, Elan M. Miavitz, and Fritz M. Roka. Click here for the Guide.

Images courtesy the University of Florida

'Denialism' too often trumps science

SAN ANTONIO — Michael Spector, a reporter and author of the book “Denialism,” expressed his concern about the public’s fear of science including vaccinations and genetically engineered food and their role in society today at the American Seed Trade Association’s 127^th Annual Convention here.

“People are anxious about the future and they don’t understand who is right and who is wrong,” Spector said. “Nothing in the world is without risk and this is something that American agriculture doesn’t address.

“There is risk. When we get in a car, 50,000 of us are going to die just this year. That doesn’t stop us from driving. Whatever our actions are, there are pluses and minuses that must be weighed.”

Spector said genetically engineered food has been planted for 20 plus years on numerous hectares.

“Another word for genetically modified food is ‘food,’” he noted. “Everything has been enhanced thru time—keeping the good and getting rid of the bad. Genetically engineered food is just a more precise way of doing that.”

Agriculture and the seed industry have products with benefits that are truly remarkable, he pointed out.

“The seed industry has the tools that almost no other industry has,” Spector told convention attendees, who are gathered June 26-30 to discuss and learn about seed industry issues. “There are tremendous achievements such as engineering foods to have fewer fats and healthier oils, in a nation that is so addicted to food, is outstanding.”

Spector explained that there are plants that have been modified with vitamins that would help many people in developing countries around the world, but they are rejected based on fears.

“This is a way to feed people who need to eat food,” Spector stated. “But, opposition is so severe and so fierce that it stops plants from going into the ground. Vitamin A rice is one example. There is a severe deficiency of Vitamin A, but opposition has put a stop to planting the Vitamin A enhanced rice. Products and developments such as these would save millions of human lives.”

While reporting and writing about scientific issues, Spector observed that people cling to what they believe is reason to deny or run away from something.

“Like every technology, things can be used for good or bad,” he said. “Technology moves us forward, not backward.”

He defined “denialism” as embracing fiction instead of the reality of every day.

“We embrace it because the alternative makes us angry,” Spector explained.

Businesses in the agricultural world that want to get their products accepted need to do a better job, he said.

“For too long, scientists, agricultural people, pharmacists and government have believed if science is on your side then that’s enough,” Spector said. “That’s not the case. Look at vaccinations. Why is half of the United States not vaccinating their children for woofing cough? Eventually polio could come back. Why? Because it is in other parts of the world and we have airplanes. This could happen if we don’t start doing a better job.

“We could pretend this isn’t a problem but that is disgraceful and it’s fooling people. We need to move away from embracing fear to embracing reality.”

Spector believes that in order for people to embrace reality, the scientific and agricultural communities need to start talking.

“Pharmaceutical companies are terrible about this,” he said. “They are in such a defensive crouch; they don’t want to talk about anything. Others will talk and those who talk and communicate get their story across.”

Agriculture has an amazing story, but people don’t understand it, Spector mentioned. He encouraged convention attendees and others in the agricultural community to start talking.

“Get out there and talk about what you are doing and what your products do,” he said. “We have a semantic problem and we need to address it. Reach out and talk to kids. Talk to everyone.

“Talk about what would happen if there wasn’t farming. Talk about what the world would look like without roads, without automobiles. I know what that world is like, because I spend a lot of time in Africa. When tomatoes grow, they go bad because farmers can’t get them to the market.”

For a billion people to go to bed hungry every night in this world and for us to try to prevent that situation from changing is an enduring shame, he said.

“We’ve got the science and we can change this, but it will never happen or be accepted if we don’t talk about it,” Spector explained. “We have to be willing to acknowledge and talk about the theoretical risks. It’s scary. There are downsides and we need to be willing to talk about them. I believe the benefits far outweigh the downsides.”

“I went to fancy farmers market a couple weeks ago in New York and there was guy selling milk,” Spector told. “But it wasn’t just regular milk; he was selling raw milk. One of the greatest advances we’ve had in this country was to pasteurize milk. To go to a fancy market and buy fancy milk and have some guy selling me raw milk is wrong. I hope you will do your part and help stop this.” — New Release from the ASTA

Study says natural pesticides can do more harm than synthetics

Arsenic is a natural element and a deadly one if ingested. Lead, which is certainly natural, can do incredible harm, especially to youngsters. Even common table salt, which almost all of us have on our dinner tables, can result in death if taken in excess.

Many people (too many?) see the word natural as connoting safe and benign, whether for humans or the environment. I don’t know why this is so. Indeed, if you consult your Mirriam-Webster you will see that the neither word safe or benign appear in the 15 or so definitions of the word natural.

But the perception that natural is safer than synthetic or is better for the environment, especially in terms of chemical plant protection products, figures large in the rational of many in the activist community, especially in Canada where a well-organized, well-funded coalition of activist groups are on a mission — and to this point successful one — to take common chemical turf/landscape pest control products out of the hands of homeowners and even professionals that have (from all appearances) used them to good effect for decades.

OK, so what is this leading to?

A recent study by University of Guelph researchers claims that natural pesticides could cause more environmental damage than conventional chemicals.

"These data bring into caution the widely held assumption that organic pesticides are more environmentally benign than synthetic ones," said a synopsis of the paper published in the most recent edition of PLoS ONE, an online magazine that publishes medical and scientific research.

For a recent article in the consumer press about the study click here.

To access the results of the study published in PLoS ONE, click here.

If you already know all you need to know about chemical plant protection products (whether natural or manmade), and nothing you can read will ever add to your vast knowledge or change your opinion on the subject we apologize for wasting your time. Sincerely. — Ron Hall

Do these irrigation/landscape tech salaries sound right to you?

I’m not sure how accurate these averages or how they were obtained, but here goes anyway. My guess is that they’re greatest value lies in showing that the wages for landscape and irrigation employees differ significantly by region.

You might say "Duh, that’s a no-brainer. " Fair enough but I thought you might find these salary averages interesting anyway.

The numbers come from the website indeed.com/salary. I selected for the following market for no other reason than they’re in different parts of the country. Visit the website you can probably find the salaries for your metropolitan market, as well.

Landscape tech —Las Vegas $20,000; Atlanta $24,000; Boston $25,000

Irrigation tech — Las Vegas $27,000: Atlanta $32,000: Boston $33,000

Lead groundskeeper — Las Vegas $36,000: Atlanta $43,000: Boston $45,000

Nursery manager — Las Vegas $34,000: Atlanta $40,000: Boston $42,000

Grounds worker — Las Vegas $21,000: Atlanta $25,000: Boston $26,000

Landscape laborer — Las Vegas $19,000: Atlanta $23,000: Boston $24,000

You'll find a more authoritative breakdown of industry salaries in the next Landscape Management magazine State of the Industry Report. Be on the lookout for it.

Source: indeed.com/salary — Ron Hall

Former PLCAA leader Jim Brooks dies

We were saddened today to learn of the death of James Richard Brooks, 69. A note from Tom Delaney of the Professional Land Care Network informed us that Jim died Monday, May 3 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at the Embracing Hospice facility in Cumming, GA.

Those of you that have been in the lawn care business for more than few years probably remember Jim Brooks very well. A tall, handsome man with a deep resonant voice, Jim served as executive director of the Professional Lawn Care Association (PLCAA) in the 1980s, leading the Association during the period of its greatest growth. In total, Jim worked in the turfgrass industry for 17 years.

An excellent speaker and an accomplished amateur actor, Jim stayed very active after leaving PLCAA playing tennis, performing with local theater and devoting hours in services to the elderly in his community of Marietta, GA.

Jim received his undergraduate and masters degrees from the University of Kansas where he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity. He is survived by his wife of 45 years, Marilyn, and by two brothers, two sons and two grandchildren.

We remember Jim fondly and send our belated condolences to his family — Ron Hall

NY State Go Green program seeking to change an industry?

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is announcing a “Be Green Organic Yards NY” program that will reward businesses that do not use synthetic pesticide and other materials prohibited by organic conditions in an agreement that the DEC is crafting.

The reward?

It’s the right to use the “Be Green” service mark and to be listed as a green service provider on its website. The thinking is that consumers will access the website and hire lawn care or landscape service providers who agree to use products allowed by the program.

The program was just announced and it looks like the DEC has a lot of work to do before it is ready for launch, although apparently it intends to begin offering training for the program this fall.

There’s something about a state agency promoting a program whose aim is to bend an industry, in this case the lawn care industry, to its particular mindset that I find disturbing. It looks to me like bureaucrats looking for something else to meddle with.

But I’m not in the lawn care business in New York, and nobody from any government agency ever calls seeking my opinion, so I’ll leave it up to each and every one of you to decide for yourself if this Go Green program is a good idea.

Check out the details of the program on the DEC website by clicking here and shout out what you think. — Ron Hall

Landscaper comes up with colorful gay pride creation

KEY WEST, FL — Landscapers can be very creative as evidenced by John Mumford who teamed with artist Rick Worth and a handful of helpers to “landscape” Mount Trashmore here. They didn’t use plants, pavers or any of the other traditional landscape materials; they used buckets of paint, 87 gallons to be exact.

If you’re curious about what they came up with to kick off PrideFest, which starts June 9, click on CBS4.com here and see their colorful 120-ft. by 60-ft. creation. — Ron Hall

American Veterans' Lawn Care now on active duty

OK, what's the proper protocol? Do we salute our lawn care provider first and pay later, or pay them first and then salute?

The new American Veterans’ Lawn Care Service, based in Tyler, TX, sounds like a pretty neat idea. From the little bit we could learn about it, it appears to be both a professional lawn care company and also a program to help military veterans needing a job.

Its Facebook page describes it’s a non-profit organization consisting of American military veterans “that will shape up or maintain your yard, pool and surroundings with military precision and pride!”

Vietnam veteran St. Mark Holmes created the company and, according this recent report on KLTV in Tyler, TX, he is hiring other veterans to take care of lawns in East Texas.

From the images on the company’s Facebook page, it looks like these guys mean business when it comes to lawn care. — LM Editors

Plant some vegetables for your clients — they'll love it!

I take a pair of kitchen scissors and cut fresh leaf lettuce from a large clay planter in our backyard whenever the wife or I want a salad for lunch or dinner. I planted the lettuce seed, a combination of green and red-leaved varieties, in potting soil left over from the previous season. The package of seed cost me $1.19, and has provided us with a near-continuous supply of tender, fresh lettuce for more than a month and has been incredibly easy to tend. Two weeks ago I planted the remainder of the leftover seed in a hanging basket, which will provide us with several nice large salads when the other lettuce is finished.

I planted several short rows of peas in early April, again from a single package costing $1.19. Those plants are almost ready to yield what appears to a bounty of plumb, juicy snow peas, meaning we’ll eat the pods and all. In addition, our recently planted half dozen pepper plants (all different varieties), four egg plants, four broccoli plants, five celery plants and half dozen tomato plants (again different varieties) promise similar fresh vegetables.

Our yard is very small, 50 ft. by 50 ft., with a shaded, themed cement patio surrounded on three sides by a flower garden (a garden that earned Vicky first place in the city garden contest in 2008). You can correctly infer from that that we’re hardly vegetable farmers. Even so, each year we prepare a planter or two of leaf lettuce and clear several sunny little corners on the property for other vegetable plants and await the bounty, which is usually enough by mid to late summer to share with neighbors as well as supply our needs until frost arrives again.

The point of this blog is not to crow about what a wonderful landscape we have (it’s modest by almost any measure) or what gifted gardeners we’ve become (we have our share of disasters) but to suggest that some of your clients might very much appreciate a tiny little gesture such as planting them a nice decorative container of leaf lettuce, grape tomatoes or another of their favorite vegetables.

That small, kind gesture might just land you a customer (and a friend) for life, considering the state of the economy and growing concerns over the source of our food, including the distances that it is shipped. — Ron Hall

Readers Digest gives a nice shoutout to Cleveland lawn care pro

Phil Fogarty, owner of Crowley’s Weed Man, Euclid, OH, got a great shoutout from Readers Digest in its June issue. The magazine praised Fogarty for his efforts for many years on behalf of the Professional Landcare Network’s annual Renewal & Remembrance Arlington National Cemetery greenup.

Said the magazine (access the article here), Fogarty and 400 other volunteers travel to Virginia at their own expense and donate $250,000 worth of labor, equipment, and materials to lime lawns, yank weeds, feed flowers, and plant trees. Their work helps support the year-round efforts of Arlington’s staff to maintain the cemetery’s 624 acres. Says Fogarty, “It’s our gift to America.”

He also helped launch Project Evergreen's GreenCare for Troops, a nationwide program that supplies free lawn care to military families while a loved one is deployed overseas. Since 2006, the program has provided more than 9,000 households with more than 2,500 green-thumbed volunteers. “Tending a lawn is nothing compared with what these families go through,” says Fogarty. “But it’s a way to let them know we care,” said Fogarty in the magazine article — LM Staff

Wisconsin schoolboy entrepreneur lands government mowing contract

Who says a tiny mowing/maintenance operation can’t compete against the big guys?

Not 17-year-old Marty Walleser, founder and sole employee of M’s Lawn Care. Marty, who obtained the proper insurance for his company and calculated his costs and time in sizing up the task before outbiding a dozen other companies to win a government contract to mow 34 sites in LaCrosse, WI.

Marty expects to earn $10,000 from his summer mowing job. You can read about how he priced the job and landed the contract by accessing the article in the LaCrosse Tribune or by clicking here. — The LM Editors

Revving up those mowers and making music

Finally a movie about us landscapers. And a darn good one too, we've read.

And if you've ever worked on a mowing crew you know that there's fertile ground for humor, most of it supplied unintentionally by the guys you're working with, right?

The movie is “Mow Crew,” a comedy with lots of original music directed by young filmmaker Taylor Toole. The film is about a young man working on the mowing crew of a landscape company on Martha’s Vineyard. Toole is a Vineyard native. The movie is loosely based on Toole’s adolescent experiences working on a real-life mowing crew for Tea Lane Nursery, an established island nursery and landscape business.

In the movie, the lead character, Eric Campbell, and his girlfriend, Sage, both of them talented musicians, have some tough decisions to make as the summer draws to a close, including whether to stay on the island or take off for Los Angeles where they’ve been promised a record deal.

Adding to the storyline and providing much of the comedy is the ongoing “landscaping war” between Campbell’s mowing crew (with a disaster-prone crew member) and a rival outfit decked out in pink polos and khaki trousers. (Pink polos, puh-leeeze!)

Shot on Martha’s Vineyard in just three weeks in the summer of 2008, the film shows the Vineyard for what it is — both its loveliness and some of its warts, says a review by the island press.

Keep an eye out for it in your city. After all, when was the last time a professional cutter was cast as the lead character in a movie?

Finally, if you've seen the movie, let us know what you thought of it. — LM Editors

Why did these landscapers have to die?

Here are two more tragic reasons why we must provide ongoing safety training if we own or manage a landscape, tree or lawn service business — “ongoing,” because we all tend to forget or let sloppiness slip back into our routines if we don’t get regular reminders.

Two recent and very similar mowing-related fatalities involved young men, probably much like the young men with wives and children working for many of us. Both accidents were preventable had the unfortunate victims recognized (or been trained to recognize) specific mowing hazards.

On the afternoon of May 12 a 33-year-old Detroit man died when his commercial riding mower slid down a steep slope, overturned and trapped him in a small creek at an apartment complex in Shelby Township, MI. The mishap was only discovered when a passerby noticed the undercarriage of the mower sticking above the water.

Just three days later, the 29-year-old operator of a commercial mower died in an eerily similar accident on Brush Creek near Kansas City, MO.

Each year sees about 200 landscape workers killed on the job, says the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Dept. of Labor. The number of accidents and fatalities, as you might expect, is greatest from May through September.

The most common event resulting in landscape services worker fatalities was transportation incidents. About 33% of all landscape worker fatalities were due to transportation incidents in comparison with 43% for all U.S. industry.

Landscape services workers were more likely to die due to falls to lower level, struck by falling objects, and electrocutions (22%, 17%, and 9.8%, respectively).

Landscape services workers were engaged in a range of activities at the time of the occupational fatalities. Using tools or machinery during tree trimming or removal activities was particularly hazardous. Fatalities during tree trimming or removal activities were caused by falls from heights, being struck by falling objects and electrocutions.

Most landscape services worker fatalities occurred on private property with the largest proportion at private residences.

Safety Guidelines

* Understand and comply with all OSHA regulations that apply to the landscape services operations and tasks.

* Develop, implement and enforce a comprehensive safety program that includes written rules and safe work procedures. A joint health and safety committee with employees & supervisors should be considered.

* Conduct an initial and daily jobsite survey before beginning work to identify all hazards and implement appropriate controls.

* Provide specific training for hazards such as power lines and other sources of electricity, tree trimming and felling, falls from heights, roadway vehicle operations, and hand and portable power tools use.

* Train operators of off-road machinery and other specialized equipment to follow manufacturers’ recommended procedures for safe operation, service, and maintenance.

* Monitor workers during periods of high heat stress/strain and remind workers of the signs of heat-related illness and the need to consume sufficient water during hot conditions.

Free Tailgate Training Documents in English and Spanish

* OSHA PLANET Alliance Safety & Health Topics Page www.osha.gov/SLTC/landscaping/index.html

* California State Compensation Insurance Fund Bi-lingual Training www.scif.com/safety/safetymeeting/SafetyMtgTopics.asp

* Farm Safety Association Inc. (Canada) www.fsai.on.ca/manuals/manual-landtips.pdf

* Kansas State University Research and Extension and College of Agriculture,
www.oznet.ksu.edu/library/Landscaping_Equipment_Safety.htm

* Ohio State Univ. College of Food, Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, Landscape Worker Bi-lingual Training ohioline.osu.edu/aex-fact/192/index.html

* Oregon Health and Science University, Center for Research on Occupational and Environmental Toxicology www.croetweb.com/links.cfm?subtopicID=547

* PLANET Safety Tip Sheets www.landcarenetwork.org/cms/programs/safety.html

— The LM Editors

Beyond Logic

As landscape professionals, you may be faced with questions regarding pesticides and the effectiveness of the tools you use every day. It’s important to be aware of “what you’re up against” when it comes to the information your customers may be getting from groups who oppose the use of pesticides.

Last month, the 28th National Pesticide Forum, “Greening the Community,” was held by Beyond Pesticides in Cleveland. During the opening session, “Pesticides 101,” Caroline Cox, a Beyond Pesticides board member and research director for the Center for Environmental Health in Oakland, Calif., outlined the “10 Reasons Not To Use Pesticides,” renaming her session to clarify her message.

Here are a few of the points this organization is spreading to your current and potential customers.

• Pesticides don’t solve pest problems. “If pesticides really solved pest problems, we wouldn’t use them repeatedly,” Cox explained. “Every year in the U.S., a billion pesticides are used. The amount isn’t going down.”

• Pesticides are hazardous to human health. Three hundred million pounds of cancer-causing pesticides and 150 million pounds of pesticides that cause reproduction problems like miscarriages or birth defects are used annually, Cox told the group.

• Pesticides cause special problems for children. “For their size, children drink more water and eat more food than adults do,” she said. “Their play exposes them to pesticides. They do somersaults on the lawn and they sprawl out on the carpet to read a book. All of these things increase their exposure to pesticides.”
  “Kids are also growing and developing,” she added. “If they are exposed to pesticides when they are at a critical stage of growth or development and their growth changes, this is something have to live with for life. For instance, some common pesticides appear to affect the developing brain so a child’s brain will be different when they grow up."

• Pesticides contaminate water and air. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Monitoring Program found 57 pesticides in public drinking water samples in 2009, and the U.S. Geological Survey found pesticides in 90% to 100% of rivers and streams they tested in 2006. After stating these facts Cox concluded that “pesticides used on lawn and roadsides do end up in urban streams and rivers.”

• Pesticides are hazardous to fish and birds. “We share planet with other living things and they pay the price as a result of our pesticide use,” Cox said, adding that 100 million pounds of pesticides per year fill fish, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

• Pesticide health and safety testing is conducted by pesticide manufacturers. “The government does not test pesticides – they ask companies that make them to test them,” Cox said. “If you profit from a product and test it isn’t there a built in conflict of interest?”

• Pesticides are hazardous to pets. “A good way to talk to people about pesticides is talk to them about pets,” Cox offered the group, adding that the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reported more than 30,000 pesticide poisoned pets in a single year (2005). She also pointed specifically to the use of lawn care herbicides as a reason for the increased risk of pet cancer.

• Pesticides have too many secrets. Pesticide ingredients are divided into active and inert, Cox explained, “so you wouldn’t know exactly what chemicals were used on your block because a good percentage of them could be inert and not listed on the label.”

Do yourself — and your industry — a favor and become educated about the true benefits of pesticides and be prepared to speak knowledgeably when faced with questions regarding their harmful effects. - Nicole Wisniewski

You can reach Wisniewski, editor-in-chief of Landscape Management magazine, at nwisniewski@questex.com.