Pesticide & Lawn-Care Groups Plan National Campaign

An alliance of pesticide and lawn-care industry associations and companies, calling itself the Evergreen Foundation (EF), has raised over $200,000 in seed money for a "national marketing campaign to consumers throughout the United States to promote the economic, environmental and lifestyle benefits of healthy landscapes and green spaces at home, work and play," Lawn & Landscape magazine reports. "Careful use of pesticides and fertilizers, prudent use of water, managing noise and air pollution are among the issues the EF plans to tackle in its campaign. There are coordinated activist efforts in such areas as Canada to New York state, Minnesota and western states to curtail or even eliminate pesticides and fertilizers, severely restrict the use of water and lawns and other efforts detrimental to the green industry and consumers, the foundation believes," L&L writes. Financial contributors to the campaign include Associated Landscape Contractors of America, Bayer Environmental Science, John Deere, Dow AgroSciences, Lawn Doctor, Syngenta, The Toro Co., Turfgrass Producers International, and Weed Man USA among others.