Grasscycling: the time is right.

Travelers often comment that they can judge the "heart" of a city by the quality of its parks and public lands. Since these facilities are funded by the people for the people, the beauty, accessibility and usability of parks and public lands reveal how important quality-of-life issues are to the community. That assessment places a heavy burden on recreation and parks personnel. If travelers are looking at your facilities in this manner, how much more intensely are your community's citizens analyzing your performance, not to mention critical scrutiny practiced by planning boards, elected officials and funding agencies?

Park and recreation professionals have multiple functions to fulfill: to provide people with hours of enjoyment, to improve the quality of peoples' lives, to maintain facilities in an environmentally compatible manner. Yet you are asked to do this with ever tightening budgets and limited personnel resources. Always hovering at the edges of the day-to-day agenda is the underlying goal to establish your facility as a leader in environmental stewardship, as a role model for community and homeowner environmental practices.

There are some ways to further these worthwhile goals without stressing the already stretched budget or demanding more of hard-working personnel. Equipment manufacturers continue to develop machines to make maintenance tasks more efficient and environmentally friendly. Green industry organizations, with the assistance of industry manufacturers and suppliers, have developed programs to help inform the public on environmental matters.

Consider the area of recycling. America faces a landfill crisis. Old landfills are filling up fast, while communities reject new ones with the "not in my backyard" attitude. Tough new regulations slotted to go into effect by 1996 will establish new landfill standards. The costs of meeting these standards is estimated at $330 million. Because of all this, the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) predicts that 50 percent of today's landfills will be closed in five years. With America generating approximately 180 million tons of trash each year, and 75 percent of that trash going to landfills, the crunch is evident.

Studies have identified 17 to 20 percent of the material going to landfills as yard debris. In some regions, that volume balloons to 40 percent with autumn leaf collection. Many states have banned grass clippings and yard waste from landfills in an effort to extend the life of existing sites; other states are considering such bans. Scattered communities throughout the nation have established similar ordinances on their own, prior to state legislation.

The logical solution to grass clipping bans is simple. Allow grass clippings to recycle naturally, by leaving them on the lawn when mowing. The Professional Lawn Care Association of America (PLCAA) describes this process as "grasscycling," and has created the motto, "Today's Tuff; Tomorrow's Earth." PLCAA promotes grasscycling because it's "a simple and effective way to help conserve landfill capacity.,. and it results in a greener, healthier lawn."

With the assistance of John Deere, PLCAA developed the "Grasscycling Community Action Plan" in 1991. This step-by-step booklet can be used as a guide to help your community develop a grasscycling program. Who better to band with the lawn care industry to set an example in this sensible campaign than someone with acres and acres of highly visible, publicly used turf-- you, the parks and recreation facilities professionals.

Obviously it's easier to leave grass clippings on the lawn than it is to collect them. So why hasn't the public enthusiastically embraced this concept? Education is the key. The majority of the population-- including homeowners, elected officials, and most of the people you know--haven't any concept of the principles of grass growth. They may mow the lawn, or pay to have it done, but they've never made the effort to learn how grass grows, what it needs or why.

Basic horticulture tells us that the height of the grass blades that grow above ground determines the depth of the root system below ground. Each grass variety has a recommended mowing height. Generally, warm-season grasses like bermudagrass are maintained at one to two inches. The exception, St. Augustine, is mowed from two to three inches. Cool-season grasses such as bluegrass and perennial ryegrass are maintained at 2 1/2 to 31/2 inches.

Groundskeeping crews generally keep the grasses on the high side of these recommendations to encourage a deep root system. For turf health, they strive to remove no more than one-third of the grass blade at any one mowing. Closer mowing forces some of the root system to die back to compensate for the loss of top growth.

A look around any neighborhood proves that most homeowners don't understand this basic concept. The theory appears to be: if you let it grow really tail, then chop it off short, you won't have to mow again for quite a while. The theory may prove true, since such mowing practices create a shallow root system that's highly susceptible to stress by drought, disease or insects.

A second important principle about grass, and one which most of the public still questions, is that grass clippings don't cause thatch. That brown thatch layer at the top of the soil is composed mainly of dead grass roots and some of the tough, fibrous material that is sloughed off by the plant. Improper maintenance practices--frequent shallow watering, multiple applications of fast-release fertilizers, and the "scalping" described above-all weaken grass plants, causing a portion of the plant to wither and die, thus contributing to the thatch layer.

Some thatch is good. It serves as a blanket to moderate soil temperatures, to retain soil moisture and to act as a shock absorber to relieve ground compaction. Excess thatch, a layer greater than one-half inch, can form a barrier reducing the flow of water, nutrients and air to plant roots. When excess thatch has built up, it can be removed with thatcher attachments for mowing units, with a slicing machine or a core aerator.

Less frequent, but deep, waterings, slow-release fertilizers, aeration, and following the one-third rule when mowing all encourage deep rooting and grass health.

Research has shown that grass clippings are 85 percent water. They decompose quickly and, when left on the lawn, return 20 percent of their nitrogen content to the soil. With a full season of mowing, that's the equivalent of one application of a commercial fertilizer.

Understanding these basics will help convince the public that grass clippings can be left on the lawn. Observing the health of your facilities' turf areas, maintained following these principles, can be the deciding factor that wins their participation in a grasscycling program.

Because of some of the advances in outdoor power equipment, it's becoming easier for your crews to grasscycle effectively. The right equipment makes grasscycling easier. The smaller the particles of grass clippings, the more quickly they decompose and the less likely they are to remain on the grass surface in unsightly clumps. One method of keeping clippings small is to mow more often. This may be practical for the homeowner with a tiny lot, or on a small, highly visible property, but with the extensive areas of most parks and recreation facilities the cost would be prohibitive.

The logical alternative is to use the mower to further reduce the size of the cut portion of the grass blade. In order to make clippings as small as possible, the cut portions of the grass blades need to stay in the mowing chamber long enough to be cut and recut by the mower blades, reducing them to mulch. The small bits of clipped grass are then blown down inside the tuff canopy by the air movement created by the action of the mower blades.

Some of the recently introduced mower decks have special baffle designs to allow for this multiple cutting and to disperse the tiny clippings more uniformly, in effect performing a mulching process. Other mower decks can be adapted with special attachments to rechannel the clippings for mulching.

Because crews will face varying turf and weather conditions throughout the mowing season, it's important that several options be available to them. Mower decks should adjust quickly and easily to allow changes in the height of cut. During periods of warm temperatures combined with heavy rainfall, grass grows rapidly and conditions may not allow mowing as regularly as desired. Cut height may need to be adjusted several times during a day just to adapt to the different growth rates at the same site.

Small patches of overly tall, heavy grass clippings can usually be worked into the turf with a leaf rake. During periods of rapid growth, when heavy rains limit access for mowing, or when scheduling demands curtail crew mowing hours, grass may be too heavy and succulent to grasscycle for a mowing or two. In these instances, having the option to use a grass collection system saves valuable time and effort.

Even when clippings are collected, you can still recycle. You can spread the clippings under shrubs or in flower beds as mulch, or in wooded or rough areas that are screened from view, allowing them to decompose and add valuable nutrients to the soil. You can add clippings to an on-site composting pile or take them to a municipal composting facility. Setting up a step-by-step, on-site composting demonstration area with signs to explain each step of the process will further encourage public cooperation with grasscycling efforts. Call on local extension services, master gardeners, or garden dub members to help you establish and maintain the composting demonstration area.

When falling autumn leaves add to the grounds maintenance work load, another new type of mechanism makes the mower deck even more useful in recycling efforts. Perforated steel plates attach underneath the mowing deck, and as leaves are hit by the mower blades, they're deflected into the attachment. The leaves are held in the cutting chamber until they are pulverized into tiny pieces and discharged through the attachment's perforations. Just like the tiny mulched grass clippings, they are blown down inside the turf canopy to decompose. Not only is bagging eliminated, but nourishing food is returned to the tuff.

Besides the environmental benefits these recycling efforts provide, they have an added advantage. They save time, and when it comes to managing valuable personnel hours, time is money.

Manufacturers are responding to the widespread problems of doing more with less by introducing other equipment options to help save time. Multiple blade mower decks allow a wider swath to be mowed in one pass. Options for both riding and self-propelled, walk-behind units range from the traditional 36- and 48-inch decks to the commercial 60- and 72-inch decks. Compare the hours needed to mow a given area with a three-foot deck as compared to covering the same site with a six-foot deck. Some of the larger decks also have oscillating features, allowing the deck up to seven inches of vertical float for a better cut on uneven terrain.

Another time-saving introduction is the front mower. With mowers out in front, the operator can mow close to obstacles and easily maneuver around trees, shrubs, flower beds and fences to virtually eliminate trim work. Again, this option is available in riding or walk-behind units.

As always with budgetary limitations, new equipment purchases must be carefully considered. Comparing the immediate costs, the costs of operation, and the labor savings of the new equipment to the options of operating existing units as is, or with added attachments for environmental effectiveness, is sound management. The increased efficiency and environmentally compatible features of the improved equipment add to the plus side of the column.

Opting to serve as a grasscycling role model is an easier decision. There are no expenditures involved. The recycling process is a simple, effective, labor- and cost-saving activity, which grounds maintenance crews will readily adopt. By promoting grasscycling within the community, we become even stronger environmental supporters. Helping the public adapt to grasscycling on their home lawns improves the entire community's quality of life--and leaves individuals more time to enjoy recreation.