By: Emily Reynolds

A lot of research going on at UMass falls under the headings of science, engineering and health. Some of them are breakthrough research topics. Rest assured, Sports Management and Landscape Architecture can now claim some research as their own.

The UMass Extension Turf Program is releasing the Integrated Pest Management Protocols for Turf on School Properties and Sports Fields.

The manual is based off of scientific research and lots of fieldwork. It’s basically a pest control system that is more efficient and less dependent on pesticides, which means that it protects the environment, the people and their wallets.

Part of the reason the manual was put together with less reliance on pesticides was to comply with the Massachusetts Children and Families Protection Act, put in place in 2000 as a way to reduce children’s exposure to harmful chemicals that are found in pesticides.

Since UMass is a public school, it has to comply with the act, including the Integrated Pest Management portion, which looks for alternatives for pesticides.

Although the Protection Act was put out before the big push to save the environment, it still had a few environmental provisions in there, which keeps it relevant for today.

The manual was put together by the Extension Turf Program and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources.

Emily Reynolds can be reached at [email protected].