After many suggestions, here is SBB‘s revised Model Lawn Fertilizer Ordinance, as presented to the Freeholders and NJ Legislature.
Save Barnegat Bay has listened carefully to suggestions regarding our Model Fertilizer Ordinance for a year.
The result is a revised version (dated 10 June 2009) that incorporates numerous suggested simplifications and improvements, including:
1 – A global exemption for lawn care professionals provided they are certified by the State of New Jersey in BMPs.
2 – An inclusion of phosphorus in addition to nitrogen.
3 – An elimination of the previous “tier” system, which was unduly complicated.
4 – An elimination of the limit on total nitrogen. (The limit on the
percentage of water soluble nitrogen remains.)
Read the Revised Ordinance here.
Save Barnegat Bay’s Model Nitrogen Lawn Care Ordinance has been read and endorsed by some of the leading estuarine scientists in the nation and in the world:
– Ivan Valiela, Senior Research Scientist, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole Massachusetts.
– J. Frederick Grassle, Founder and first Director, Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies, Rutgers University
– Michael J. Kennish, Professor, Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies, Rutgers University
– John Tiedemann, Dean, Urban Coastal Institute, Monmouth University
– Kent Mountford, Ecologist and Environmental Historian
– Norbert P. Psuty, Professor Emeritus, Institute for Marine and Coastal Studies, Rutgers University
Save Barnegat Bay has written a Draft Science Defense of this ordinance, which explains its strengths on the basis of extensive research into the science of nitrogen loading to estuaries. Scientists who have ideas as to how to strengthen this document, or who wish to discuss it, are requested to contact Save Barnegat Bay.
