In an almost unprecedented court victory against the Environmental Protection Agency, a federal judge threw out the approval of a pesticide product that may be killing bees. The effort was spearheaded last May by the Natural Resources Defense Council, a national membership organization, as well as The Xerces Society, an organization that campaigns for bee survival. Both of these organizations are doing amaz ...

A former colleague of mine used to get very excited about a dense carbon warehouse known as biochar. An article posted today on the Organic Consumers web site brought up some interesting points. I'm wondering if anyone in the SafeLawns Foundation network has any experience with this? ...

I'm not one to overload this blog with political diatribe. I know that folks come here for lawn care information and sneaking in other stuff can be a turn-off to our members and followers. After watching the film Climate Refugees, however, I was paying particular attention to the recent climate conference in Copenhagen, where the world's leaders really missed the mark on doing anything of substance. This co ...

Here's a new-age idea that we've fantasized about for quite some time. The New York Times is reporting that a lab in Canada has developed a simple paper test that detects the presence of certain types of pesticides in food and environmental samples. When this product hits the market, it will help you determine if your juice or fruit is laced with toxins, or perhaps if the lawn in that house you just purchas ...

We caught this article from a Vermont Sunday paper. Written by a lovely woman who hosted our film at her facility in Burlington, it's full of great ideas. We're honored that she mentioned our film in the piece: http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20091227/LIVING09/91224016/I-Believe-Working-as-one-we-can-make-the-Earth-a-healthier-place-to-live ...

A whole bunch of folks have asked if it's OK to get out and clean up the lawn during this period of warm temperatures that we've had in the Northeast. The quick answer is absolutely — unless you literally sink into the ground as you walk because it's so wet. You want to avoid compaction of the soil, but otherwise get out there and clean up any remaining leaves and debris. ...

Two days after Christmas, it's pouring rain here in Maine, with skies so gray it feels like the dead of night here in the house even at nearly 10 a.m. Days like this, coming near year end, are great for reflection and relaxation. The Sunday papers are full of the year's Top 10 lists, which got me thinking about our own list here at SafeLawns. I want to give that some more thought, but in the meantime I went ...

Full of exaggerations, half truths, mis-truths, fear-mongering and flat-out lies, a new web site was launched this past week by the pro-pesticide lobby group known ridiculously as the Responsible Industry for a Sound Environment. Called DeBugtheMyths (dot) com, the site might as well have been called PesticideClouds, SmokeScreens, or SlickPropagandaForProfit. I wish we had the money they spent to put the si ...

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As reported here on Oct. 3, the EPA is finally making noise about exposing so-called "inert" ingredients in pesticides. Here's today's release. Read it closely; the EPA wants your comments. This is a great opportunity to overturn a decades-long travesty: CONTACT: Dale Kemery kemery.dale@epa.gov 202-564-7839 202-564-4355 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 22, 2009 EPA Seeks to Disclose Pesticide Inert Ingredient ...