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Turf April 2022 Issue

Turf April 2022 Issue
Editor’s Letter: April 2022 Issue “It’s not that easy being green.” – Kermit The Frog Perhaps no one empathizes with Kermit right now better than lawn and landscape professionals. Everywhere one turns today there is new green legislation targeting the Green Industry—an irony lost on no one. Gas-powered equipment, neonicotinoids, and even amounts of turfgrass are increasingly being scrutinized for their effects on the environment. It’s a tough position to be in—especially for a group of professionals who love the outdoors so much, they chose it as their workplace. Yet even as work methods and profit sheets hang in the balance, most seem to agree we can do better. And there are those blazing a path for the rest to follow: such as McCoy Horticultural’s commitment to sustainable practices; the use of robotic mowers by Langton Group and others; Southern Landscape Pro’s recycling of yard waste into organic soil; and J.M. Baker Company’s use of a solar charging station co-developed by former University of Tennessee Turf Manager Matthew Layne to support robotic mowers. Then there are the equipment manufacturers, too, who are pushing out bigger and better battery-powered options in an effort to meet the more rigorous demands of commercial users. It’s a lot to take in and we currently stand in the crossroads. Turf’s first issue on Sustainability was an examination of best practices. Just one year later, this issue’s coverage feels more urgent. There’s likely a curve ahead and you can choose to be ahead of it, or behind ...

Irrigation Restrictions Coming As West Battles Historic Drought

drought
California and much of the western U.S. are entering a period of historic drought that experts say will stretch tight water supplies, increase wildfire risk, and bring new water-use restrictions — particularly for outdoor landscape use — as the summer unfolds. Westlands Water District, which serves farms and rural communities on the west side of Fresno and Kings counties in CA, already announced a ban on outdoor landscape irrigation on May 26. Many other areas may soon follow suit. Drought Conditions Westlands’ move came in reaction to an announcement by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which allocates water supply to the Central Valley Project (CVP), that it would be cutting its supply to municipal and industrial entities from 55% to 25%. Though the initial CVP water supply had been announced in February, conditions have degraded since then, according to the Bureau, with the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin currently at its driest since 1977. Between the April 1 and May 1 forecasts, there was a 685,000 acre-feet reduction in the projected natural flow to the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba, and American rivers. According to The Mercury News, Sierra Nevada snowpack was just 59% of normal on April 1 — after the second dry winter in a row — and hot weather in May melted much of the snowpack significantly faster than was projected. “Due to the worsening drought conditions, inflow to our reservoirs was less than we expected,” Mary Lee Knecht, a Bureau spokeswoman told the newspaper. “Conditions are so dry, the ...