Call to balance green yards, clean waters
Carefully tended lawns and gardens are as much a part of the local landscape as the rivers, marshes, and bays that draw newcomers to the communities north of Boston.
But the care lavished on the lawns and gardens often takes a toll on the waterways, a situation that a coalition of environmental groups is now banding together to stop.
They want to promote more environmentally friendly alternatives to chemically cured gardens and heavily fertilized and watered lawns. Through a program called Greenscapes North Shore, they hope to get towns and organizations to help teach residents that they can have beautiful landscaping without damaging the marshes and rivers around them.
"We aim to cover the full North Shore with this program," said Emily Levin, the restoration program manager for the Ipswich River Watershed Association. "It's a core issue for us."
The IRWA is teaming up with Salem Sound Coastwatch and Eight Towns & the Bay to develop and promote the Greenscapes North Shore program, adopting a model that has been in place on the South Shore for the past three years.
The South Shore program, which was outlined for local residents in a recent presentation at the Danversport Yacht Club, spends about $67,000 annuall y on outreach, education, and public relations.
The centerpiece of the South Shore effort is a 20-page reference guide, mailed to homeowners, that details how to have attractive lawns and gardens that don't take a toll on the environment, according to Wendy Garpow, with the North and South Rivers Watershed Association, one of the pioneers of the Greenscapes program on the South Shore.
Lawn fertilizers, weed killers, pesticides, and reckless irrigation pollute marshes and rivers, Garpow told the roughly 100 local officials, landscape professionals, and environmental organization members attending the meeting.
Native plants, organic herbicides, and more careful watering practices are some of the solutions spelled out in the South Shore reference guide, which is circulated to about 70,000 residents in 13 communities.
"We're not radicals," Garpow told the crowd. "Our goal is just to change people's behavior so that it has a positive impact on our water quality and quantity."
The area north of Boston needs the Greenscapes program every bit as badly as the South Shore, Garpow said. She pointed to the Ipswich River, whose upper reaches run dry some summers because of the demands placed on it by surrounding communities.
"The Ipswich River is the poster child for water conservation," Garpow said. "And a lot of the chemicals used on our lawns and gardens are not absorbed by the plants we use them on. They end up running off into the watershed and polluting the marshes and rivers."
Various water conservation measures and lawn chemical alternatives are among the solutions spelled out in the Greenscapes reference guide, Garpow said.
A local version of the guide may soon be available in the communities covered by the three North Shore organizations.
First, they must raise money, which was the central theme at the yacht club presentation. On the South Shore, half of the program's cost comes from the towns, Garpow said. When local officials show their support, it's easier to appeal for state and federal funding for the rest, Garpow said.
"As concerned citizens of your municipalities, I ask that you work with these three groups and appeal to the leaders of your communities," she said.
Local officials at the meeting said they would do their part. Douglas W. Petersen, a Democratic state representative whose district covers Marblehead and Swampscott and part of Lynn, said he thought state money might be available for Greenscapes North Shore, either through a budget line item he'd be willing to propose or earmarking the funds in existing environmental conservation programs.
"Yes, I think there is a role for the state here," he said later. "They are talking $67,000 for the whole thing" on the South Shore, he noted. "That's a drop in the bucket when you're talking about a $22 billion state budget."
Local officials at the meeting were equally optimistic and promised to take the message back to their governments. Kevin Cornacchio, chairman of the Salem Conservation Commission, said he would recommend that the City Council contribute to the program, and expected the rest of his board would agree. Steven Kenney, the director of public works in Hamilton, said his community would also likely support the program.
"We've been interested in this sort of thing for quite a while," he said. "We've been very involved with landscaping in our area and have a lot of grass-roots support."
It won't cost a lot for local government, Levin said. The three groups are looking for an initial $1,500 commitment from each community in the target area, which initially would range roughly from Boston to Salisbury along the coast and inland along the Ipswich River.
Over the winter, the three groups will work on raising money and putting together the reference guide and mailing lists. Then another contribution would be sought from each community to pay for producing and mailing the guide, with the amount requested based on the size of the community, Levin said.
While the mailer appears to take up most of the program's initial expenses, radio and newspaper advertisements, website maintenance and other outreach efforts will also be required if the local program is to work as well as it has on the South Shore, Levin said.
"On the South Shore the message is seeping through to people, and that's the kind of consistency that we'd love to achieve," she said.
"On the North Shore we're proud of our landscaping and we're proud of our natural resources; there's no reason we should have one of these threatening the other."
More information about the Greenscapes program is available at greenscapes.org. 
