Phyllis Fitzgerald, Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District

Phyllis Fitzgerald is a technical coordinator for the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District in Kentucky.

This week is a very busy one for the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District's Lawn Care for Cleaner Air program, which is gearing up for another year. I have been setting up workshops on low-maintenance landscaping for several libraries, as well as giving presentations for neighborhood associations promoting the use of alternatives to gasoline mowers. People are usually enthusiastic. We even received recognition from the U.S. EPA, and Lawn Care for Cleaner Air will be honored with a "Clean Air Excellence" award this spring.

Last night, I presented the Lawn Care for Cleaner Air program at the Wilder Park Neighborhood Association, a neighborhood near world-famous Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby. Watching facial expressions during presentations is crucial to communicating with audience members, and yesterday, the facial expressions told me they were excited. In fact, they asked if I would put together a longer workshop just for their neighborhood. I promised to do so if they could get 10 interested people to take the workshop. They called back this morning, very excited, and said they already had eight people signed up, and were sure they could get more.

I help pique people's interest in the program by explaining that operating a typical gasoline-powered lawnmower for one hour produces as much smog-forming compounds and carbon monoxide as driving about 200 miles in a late-model compact car. Other types of gasoline-powered lawn equipment are as bad or worse: leaf blowers, weed whackers, trimmers, and chain saws. None of these have built-in pollution control equipment, and all are heavy polluters.

I started wondering about lawns 16 years ago, when my kids were nearly grown and no longer used the "football field" in the front yard. I asked myself a question: "Why am I mowing that lawn when nobody uses it?" When I was growing up, we sat outside and snapped beans, told stories, ate watermelon, and played games. Then air conditioning came along, as did chemical lawn sprays, and we no longer made long clover chains or "little girls' curls" out of dandelion stems. We stayed inside with the air conditioning.

Sixteen years ago, I planted the flower garden I could never have previously because of the football games. It included ground cover, wildflowers, perennials, as well as paths outlined with creek rock from our family farm. The teenagers sat on the swing hidden by vegetation and "courted," and eventually the grandchildren played hide-and-seek among plants that were often as tall as they were. The yard came alive with critters of the human and non-human varieties.

When our agency director, Art Williams, suggested that we start a program to reduce the use of gasoline-powered appliances (he called it "No Mow Zone Means Low Ozone"), I thought: Duh! Louisville has a serious ozone problem in the summer; why didn't I think of that? With the help of many people in the agency, a program was born. The name changed, and soon we began presenting awards to homeowners and business people who use alternatives to gasoline mowing, such as electric and reel (push) mowers, which emit little or no pollutants, and re-landscaping for low maintenance.

We have now presented over 200 Lawn Care for Cleaner Air awards, and we partner with various agencies to conduct workshops on low-maintenance landscaping. Word is spreading that gasoline lawn maintenance is causing breathing difficulties and that we need to look for alternatives. We have a long way to go, but more and more people are aware of the health problems, paying attention to the alternatives, and joining this grassroots effort.

Does everyone feel the same way about this subject? Sadly, no. Many individuals with large lots feel they have to use a gas mower. In fact, tomorrow I will present the Lawn Care for Cleaner Air program to the state Turf and Landscape Management Short Course, a workshop for landscapers who typically use a lot of gasoline-powered equipment. This group is bound to be a tough audience, and may well be opposed to the program. Am I nervous? Sure am! But I have a trick or two up my sleeve, and pushing new ideas is my idea of a good time.

It is a great comfort to know that individuals and agencies from around the country have found out about Lawn Care for Cleaner Air from our website. They are asking "How did you do that?" and more importantly, "How can I do that?" The positive feedback is infectious, and creates the hope on which I thrive.

The opinions expressed in this diary are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Louisville Metro government or Air Pollution Control District.