www.landscapeirrigation.com September 2014 Landscape and Irrigation 23
tually extend to public lands beyond school grounds and playing
fields, and it's going to affect landscapers and their options for
weed control. The good news is that Kao-Kniffin and colleagues
are researching alternative means of effective weed management,
and are keen to share their findings with lawn care companies and
school facilities managers.
Kao-Kniffin has partnered with a pilot group of four school
districts to manage their playing fields, primarily soccer fields, and
to conduct original research there. "We're starting off small this
year; then, based on the results, we will expand into different areas
of New York, but also Maine and Massachusetts." She and her
team are talking with school facilities managers and eventually
lawn care professionals too, as many school districts are increas-
ingly contracting out field management to commercial lawn care
providers.
The chemical breakdown
Kao-Kniffin gets frequent inquiries from companies about
what pesticides are allowed to be used on school grounds. Even
schools that don't fret over aesthetics have to be able to control
clover, for example, because the risk of bee stings to children
poses a liability. Prior to the enactment of CSPFL in New York,
schools used glyphosate-based products, but that is not permitted
under the ban.
Kao-Kniffin studied the list of organic pesticides that are
approved by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) to
determine which of these were allowable under the CSPFL (for
example, 20 percent acetic acid is OMRI-approved but is consid-
ered a risk to children by CSPFL). She had to consider both the
active and inert ingredients to make sure they were EPA-classified
as minimum or reduced risk. The list of organic pesticides that met
all these criteria was very short.
She and fellow weed scientists from Cornell Turfgrass and
the Long Island Horticultural Research & Extension Center
(LIHREC) evaluated those minimum- and reduced-risk her-
bicides for use on turfgrass. They found that the most effective
herbicide was likely to be cost prohibitive for most schools. (Read
about this at http://tinyurl.com/pycg758).
"Until more effective organic herbicides are available at an
affordable cost, school grounds management in New York State
Top Right: The Child Safe Playing Fields Law (CSPFL) restricts the use of conventional pesticides from K-12 school grounds, playing fields, and daycare centers, both pub-
lic and private. Photo by Michelle Sutton. Bottom Right: Many other states are considering following New York's lead on limiting pesticide use on school grounds.
Photo by Michelle Sutton
"Some contractors go overboard with
adding fertilizers. This can result in
extensive phosphorus application, whereas
nitrogen should really be the focus when
it comes to turf density in most sites."
— Dr. Jenny Kao-Kniffin
