BayScaping helps you grow green lawns that keep Casco Bay blue
You can have an immediate, positive impact on the health of our coastal waters if you stop using fertilizers and pesticides. Our BayScaping program works with Casco Bay communities to keep lawn chemicals from polluting the Bay.
Pesticides are getting into Casco Bay
Stormwater testing by Friends of Casco Bay found that rain picks up pesticides as it runs off into Casco Bay. Our goal was simply to determine “presence” or “absence” of pesticides in the runoff. Lab analysis of the jars of rainwater we collected, between 2001 and 2009, identified 10 different pesticides at 13 coastal communities from South Portland to Brunswick.
We have detected pesticides in stormwater running into Casco Bay.
Our lawn fertilizers are over-fertilizing the Bay.
We also tested for and found excess nitrogen and phosphorous, key components of fertilizer, all around the Bay. These nutrients can pollute drinking water wells, and when washed downstream can cause algal blooms, degrade marine water quality, and create conditions that worsen coastal acidification.
We created our BayScaping Program as a public education campaign to stop pollution from lawn care practices. BayScaping reaches out to homeowners to encourage them to reduce their use of pesticides and fertilizers.
Download our BayScaping documents and follow these tips:
Many Maine homeowners still use pesticides and fertilizers. We became involved in “grassroots efforts” with local communities that are developing ordinances to restrict or ban lawn chemicals. Our data on pesticides and nitrogen runoff have been requested by communities such as South Portland, Portland, Harpswell, and Falmouth.
Maine is one of only seven states and the District of Columbia that allow local governments—using home rule—to restrict the use of pesticides.
Friends of Casco Bay’s data and BayScaping information helped South Portland enact an ordinance in 2016 that restricts the use of synthetic pesticides on public and private properties. Executive Director Cathy Ramsdell served on a 2018 citizen’s task force that led to the passage of a similar ordinance in Portland.
Grow Healthy South Portland, including their Landcare Management Ordinance, which covers both pesticide and fertilizer use, and soil quality requirements for new development.
Keep pets off any lawn, park, or school grounds where you think pesticides have been used.*
Become a Water Reporter. Our volunteer observing network tracks the spread of algal blooms around Casco Bay. We use that information to alert the State to changes in our coastal waters.
Cover photo: Photograph by Kevin Morris • Aerial support provided by LightHawk
*A study at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine found that exposure to lawn pesticides, specifically those applied by professional lawn care companies, raised the risk of canine malignant lymphoma by as much as 70%.
A study at the Department of Veterinary Clinical Sciences at Purdue University concluded certain garden and lawn chemicals are linked to canine bladder cancer, including common herbicides containing 2,4-D, MCPP, and/or Dicamba (all pesticides that Friends of Casco Bay detected in stormwater flowing into Casco Bay).
As this very odd year comes to a close, let’s celebrate the large and small ways our community helped us protect the health of Casco Bay in 2020. Here are our top ten for the year: 1.) On December 2, the Maine Climate Council released its four-year Climate Action Plan, “Maine Won’t Wait.” We… Read more
Casco Bay received an early holiday gift: the City of South Portland passed an ordinance to restrict the use of fertilizers in order to encourage soil health and reduce nitrogen pollution into our coastal waters. Friends of Casco Bay applauds South Portland for taking this first-in-Maine step to protect our… Read more
BayScaping helps you grow green yards that keep Casco Bay blue. By being a BayScaper, you can help keep pesticides and fertilizers from polluting the Bay. While there is snow on the ground when you really want to be digging in the garden, you can spend some carefree hours creating… Read more