Auugst 22, 2012 — "All water runs to the ocean," said Leslie Hinz, an assistant code enforcement officer, administrative assistant and local plumbing inspector for the town who serves on the Lawns to Lobsters Committee. On Thursday, the committee sent out more than 400 letters to residents living along the Cape Neddick and York rivers, asking them to voluntarily adopt best management practices for lawn care and including tips on landscaping and ways to minimize fertilizer application.
Red lobsters are sprouting up on area lawns.
Those who have the 6-inch by 6-inch Lawns to Lobsters signs on their lawns have taken the pledge to curb pesticide use in an effort to protect area rivers and the ocean.
"All water runs to the ocean," said Leslie Hinz, an assistant code enforcement officer, administrative assistant and local plumbing inspector for the town who serves on the Lawns to Lobsters Committee.
On Thursday, the committee sent out more than 400 letters to residents living along the Cape Neddick and York rivers, asking them to voluntarily adopt best management practices for lawn care and including tips on landscaping and ways to minimize fertilizer application.
Those who agree to take the Lawns to Lobsters pledge get a decal and a sign for their lawn. The suggested donation is $5. The sign, designed by committee member Linda Scotland, features a red lobster holding up a shovel to promote "fewer chemicals, cleaner water."
While the letters went to residents living along the water, the campaign and pesticide control "affect the whole town," said Town Planner Christine Grimando, who also serves on the committee.
Using donated funds, the committee has also printed 500 brochures to distribute to residents. The brochure offers tips on soil testing, grass height, clover as a form of weed control and nitrogen fixer, and rain gardens, barrels and vegetative buffers as ways to keep water on lawns, instead of allowing it to flow down storm drains and eventually to the ocean.
Scotland, who also serves on the Cape Neddick River Association, made the initial pitch to start the group in York, according to Grimando. The Lawns to Lobsters Committee first met in December as a self-formed group, later becoming an ad hoc committee of the Conservation Commission, she said.
York's Lawns to Lobsters is based on the Lawns for Lobsters program developed in 2009 with the Kennebunkport Conservation Commission. While the program has spread statewide, York made it its own, Grimando said.
First came a name change. The local group decided Lawns to Lobsters sounded more dynamic than Lawns for Lobsters, according to Grimando.
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