Turfgrass Council of North Carolina – Origins of Turfgrass, Part 3

NORTH CAROLINA TURFGRASS:<br /> Recent, rapid urbanization has driven the development of urban green space in the United States and abroad. The world population has almost doubled since 1970, and more than 80% of U.S. citizens reside in urban areas. As a result, much traditionally rural, agricultural, and wild land has been converted to lawns, parks, sports surfaces, etc. for aesthetics, recreation, and ease of maintenance. Simultaneously, cities and suburbs are filling with folks who are willing and able to change their habits to fit their belief systems—supporting wildlife conservation, reducing inputs like water and fertilizer, and decreasing fossil fuel use. Those trends will continue, so how can the turf industry meet the needs and demands of an increasingly ecologically and socially conscious society? Turfgrass has a role to play Lawns and other grasslands are important in built environments. They offer greater noise and heat abatement than pavement, hardscape, and synthetic landscaping. However, turf does not replicate the cooling and shading effects of tree canopy, nor does it fill the habitat void left after clearing and removing natural environments for communities. Turf provides erosion control, nutrient infiltration, and a familiar, low-maintenance aesthetic. Historically, one of turf’s main benefits has been line-of-sight for protection and separation from other humans and the wild—think roadside visibility, fire abatement, pest control, and home defense. With time, those practicalities have developed into the quintessential “American lawn.” Urban citizens worldwide recognize grasslands maintained as turfgrass lawns or open green spaces, such as parks, for their recreational and social functions as well as their aesthetics. Problems arise from reliance upon any one system. Turf often lacks species richness, and many modern management practices are ecologically insensitive. For instance, turfgrass’s role in carbon sequestration is often touted, but the positive effect of sequestration may be nullified by management practices such as the seed, sod, and transport to establish, mowing, pest management, irrigation, and fertilization. The literature suggests that even modestly maintained lawns may be net greenhouse gas emitters. Most importantly, lawn-age limits the peak sequestration—that is, once a lawn reaches a certain age (30 to 70 years old), the carbon released through decay equals that absorbed in growth (Gu et al., 2015; Tidåker et al., 2017). Regardless of the net balance, reducing fertilization and mowing frequency are essential to minimizing environmental harms (Law & Patton, 2017).