What Would Rachel Say?

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There are lots of good reasons to choose alternatives to turf for residential landscaping but if you decide you must have lawn, here are some references to help you create healthy lawns that are safe places for children, pets and wildlife.

The Chemical-Free Lawn : The Newest Varieties and Techniques to Grow Lush, Hardy Grass (No Pesticides, No Herbicides, No Chemical Fertilizers) by Warren Schultz. A step-by-step program for growing a low-maintenance lawn without chemicals. Includes nitty-gritty details, mowing and watering guidelines, charts, and checklists. Illustrations identify grasses, insects and weeds.

Handbook of Successful Ecological Lawn Care , Paul D. Sachs.  Written for professionals but a useful handbook for anyone serious about growing healthy turf without pesticides. The secret is understanding cultural practices that contribute to natural fertility. Sachs explains why " Mow High " is the best way to solve the majority of weed and insect problems.

The Organic Lawn Care Manual (Paperback)
by Paul Tukey  Safe Lawns, Magazine: People, Places and Plants....

www.greendecade.org/greencap .html

http://www.greendecade.org /greenCap_lawns.html

http://home.comcast.net/ %7Elittle.sarah/wpaclawnguide .htm

http://www.livinglawn.org /documents/steps.pdf

Court Orders Tyson to Suspend Ads For Antibiotic-Free Chicken

By Annys Shin, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 2, 2008; D01

Poultry giant Tyson Foods has 14 days to dismantle a national multimillion dollar ad campaign centered on the claim that its chickens are raised without antibiotics, a federal appeals court in Richmond ruled yesterday.

Tyson, based in Springdale, Ark., will have to remove posters and brochures from 8,500 grocery stores nationwide.

Read: Tyson Foods ordered to suspend its ads touting antibiotic-free chickens.

Correction to This Article
May 2 Business article incorrectly said many public health experts think that antibiotic use in poultry, swine and cattle contributes to the rise of antibiotic-resistant viruses in humans. Many public health experts think that using antibiotics in food animals contributes to a rise in antibiotic-resistant bacteria in humans.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water has made available for comment a public review draft of the National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change. This draft document represents the National Water Program's initial effort to identify potential impacts of climate change for clean water and drinking water programs and define actions to respond to these impacts. A March 28, 2008, memorandum signed by the Assistant Administrator for Water requests comments on the draft strategy.

• Request for Comments  Benjamin H. Grumbles  March 28, 2008 (PDF, 1 p, 65K)
• PUBLIC REVIEW DRAFT National Water Program Strategy: Response to Climate Change  March 2008 (PDF, 115 pp, 564K)

Please submit comments to the following e-mail address: Water_Climate_Change@epa.gov by May 27, 2008. You also can mail your comments to the following address:

Attention: National Water Program Draft Climate Change Strategy
U.S. EPA, Office of Water
1200 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Mail Code: 4101M, Washington, DC 20460

On Thursday, May 8, from 2:30 to 4:30 pm EDT, the Office of Water will host a Webcast to discuss and answer questions about this draft Strategy. The Webcast will highlight the impacts of a changing climate on water resources and water programs, as well as identify some of the key actions EPA is proposing in the Strategy to respond to these impacts. Register for this Webcast.

A March 1, 2007, memorandum signed by the Assistant Administrator for Water describes the general principles to guide the National Water Program in responding to climate change, proposes the development of a National Water Program strategy on climate change, and announces the formation of a National Water Program Climate Change Workgroup.

• Climate Change and the National Water Program  Benjamin H. Grumbles  March 1, 2007 (PDF, 5 pp, 93K)

• EPA's Office of Water
• EPA's Climate Change Site

Full Committee hearing entitled,  Oversight on EPA Toxic Chemical Policies.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Groups, GAO Fault EPA's Risk Assessment Process

The Environmental Protection Agency's decision to add a new layer of external review when updating its toxic chemicals registry drew a sharp rebuke from environmental and consumer groups last week. The groups' protest letters charged that the new process will add extensive delays to the already backlogged assessment program, and will give industry, the Defense and Energy departments more ways to delay important public health protections. Updates to the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), the widely-used database that contains information on toxic chemicals and their health effects, have already slowed to a trickle in recent years.

The new procedure, announced April 10, also gave the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) greater control of interagency review of the assessments. "We are very concerned that the new process will introduce delays, derail assessments, and institutionalize the growing influence of federal agencies . . . that are among the biggest contributors to toxic Superfund sites," the letter, whose signers included the Center for Science in the Public Interest, stated. A new Government Accountability Office report found that a majority of the 540 chemicals in the database have outdated assessments, and that the agency has only completed four of a planned 32 assessments in the past two years. The agency's "low level of productivity jeopardizes the viability of the IRIS database," the report stated. The GAO also noted that the new procedure lacks transparency, since the OMB shields the interagency and outside reviews from public scrutiny.

• Pick it up
• Pack it out
• When you see somebody throw it on the ground, give a shout ...