Case Studies/Success Stories Reducing Lawns

Nancy,

In the process of testing lawn varieties in Townsville, Australia. Some interesting results thus far I would be happy to elaborate on, looking into:
- green waste generation
- fertilizer requirement
- carbon sequestration potential
- water requirements
- dormancy periods
- maintenance requirement
- dry season resilience
Species selection is critical and we are developing a barriers/benefits list for replacing water/maintenance hungry species (is the default as they grow fast - great for distributers) with more appropriate lawns.
Jas

Jason Lange
Water Cycle Team Leader - currently on sabbatical
Townsville City Council
Canada

Nancy, we have piloted a program called Neighborhood Green in Frederick County, MD and have had considerable success in implementing lawn-to-forest conversion. You can find out more by visiting www.FrederickCountyMd.gov/NGreen. There is a summary of one of our success stories featured here: http://frederickcountymd.gov/documents/6616/6617/6628/oes_ghc_ng_07%2023%2012%20FINAL_201208141547351523.pdf. Baltimore County, MD has also had great success with their Residential Reforestation program. You can read more about that program here (Restoring Green Infrastructure pg 99): http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=0CEUQFjAD&url=http%3A%2F%2Fconservationfund.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2012%2F10%2FSustainable-Chesapeake-Chapter-3-Restoring-GI-Reforestation-BaltimoreCounty.pdf&ei=HdZeUYLsNOvy0wHovoCQAw&usg=AFQjCNH95ihij65DzoWJxP36-r4SIGS7nQ&bvm=bv.44770516,d.dmQ.


Heather Montgomery
Community Restoration Coordinator
Frederick County Office of Sustainability & Environmental Resources
United States

Nancy - try almost any water district in southernmost CA - irvine ranch, indian wells, twenty nine palms, coachella valley. That area has been particularly successful with native plantings vice sod lawns - code requirements in many places. There are a lot of on line resources. Irvine ranch and coachella valley have speakers bureaus - there should be a human to talk to.

jms

joe sabel
United States