planet manners: Massachusetts & beyond: Join The Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Competition Today

----- Forwarded message ----
From: Rob Moir, Ocean River Institute <rob@oceanriver.org>
Date: Fri, Jun 18, 2021, 8:01 PM
Subject: The Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Competition Starts Today
To:

Volume 205, June 18, 2021

The Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Competition

Announcing a challenge to restore the ecological function of our grass lawns with healthy soils and a myriad of life in the rhizosphere beneath the turf.

Natural lawns build soil, draw carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, stop harmful algal blooms, restore local water cycles to slow sea level rise, better protect homes from extreme weather events, and provide flowers for 93 species of Massachusetts bees.

Act. Take the pledge to go natural.

The Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Competition Virtual Forum

Monday, June 28th, 5:00pm

Tuesday, June 29th, 7:00pm

Wednesday, June 30th, 12:00pm

Attend an interactive forum to learn about an exciting competition to reduce nutrient pollution from lawns, build healthy soils, restore local water cycles, flowers for 93 species of bees, and tackle climate change.

The "Natural Lawn Care for Healthy Soils Competition" will be a friendly contest in which group teams, watershed teams and town teams across Massachusetts go head to head.

Ocean River Institute Summer Interns Susanna Buckley, Jacklyn Norris and Adibah Shaikh will explain what it takes to have a winning team. You may join one of their teams or form your own team.

In the spirit of high school football, we will keep score of players divided by households, the percent of towns and watersheds pledging to ditch fertilizer, or make the switch to slow-release fertilizer, all the while combating climate change by going natural with established lawns.

Teams may be outside of Massachusetts. We'll display your scores, too.

Please R.S.V.P. info@oceanriver.org for a link to the forum.

If you are interested in forming a green team but cannot attend a forum, we'd be happy to help you get it together. Write to us at info@oceanriver.org.

To victorious lawns go the worms.

Join a Natural Lawns Team

Let your lawn be. The grass will strengthen symbiotic relationships below, pull down more carbon dioxide for photosynthesis, and push out as root exudate carbohydrates (liquid carbon) to build soil.

Grass can create an inch of soil a year, about 150 tons of soil per acre of lawn. With every ton of liquid carbon added to the ground, grass pulls from the atmosphere more than 4 tons of carbon dioxide. For the average Massachusetts yard (about 14,871 square feet) that could be a reduction of 138 tons of CO2 that is no longer smothering us as carbon in the atmosphere.

Fight climate change with grass lawns, naturally. Save money while making life better for robins, rabbits and wildlife.

Join a Natural Lawns Watershed Team

Winning watershed teams are those with the highest percentage of households pledging natural lawns, to not put quick release fertilizer or harsh chemicals on established lawns.

Taunton River Watershed Team

Neponset River Watershed Team

Charles River Watershed Team

Sudbury, Concord, Assabet Rivers Team

Nashua River Team

Join a Natural Lawns Town Team

Winning town teams are those with the highest percentage of households pledging natural lawns, to not put quick release fertilizer or harsh chemicals on established lawns.

Wellesley Team (8,449 households)

Needham Team (10,801 households)

Lincoln Sudbury Team (9,095 households)

Acton Boxborough Team (11,061 households)

Concord Carlisle Team (8,511 households)

Milton (8,875 households)

Quincy (41,187 households)

Form your own Natural Green Lawn Team