Stoneleigh resident Rachel McFadden says she has been seeing a lot of her neighbors using pesticides on their lawns.
"Rather than call them out, I thought I would do something positive," said McFadden, who opposes pesticides as harmful to the environment and people's health.
McFadden, a member of the Stoneleigh Community Association's Committee on Greening and Recycling, organized a workshop for the Stoneleigh and Idlewylde communities March 24, led by two pesticides experts from Washington.
Presenters Matt Wallach and Jay Feldman of the organization Beyond Pesticides, advocated organic lawn care and decried what they said are inadequate and ill-enforced state and federal standards.
"We as a consumer don't know what's in that bottle of Roundup," said Feldman, the nonprofit's CEO.
The greening committee is also planning upcoming public workshops on composting and soil health.
McFadden is also a member of a babysitting cooperative at Stoneleigh Elementary School and said last week's workshop grew out of conversations with other members about the dangers of pesticides as spring settles in and lawn care begins. She said she is concerned about the safety of her two sons, 4 and 6, and the family dog.
"That was probably my main motivation," McFadden said.
"We have a lot of young families and young children. What our neighbors do affects each other," said Carol Newill, another member of the greening committee. She is also concerned about the impact of pesticides on the Chesapeake Bay.
"Chemicals that are put on lawns wash into the bay," Newill said.
At the workshop, attended by about 35 people, Wallach and Feldman touted the benefits of organic lawn care, shared information on the dangers of conventional chemicals, and offered steps to reduce pesticide exposures inside the home and for land care.
Though the entire Towson area is in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, the issue of chemicals and runoff is especially worrisome for residents in Stoneleigh and Idlewylde, because of the area's proximity to Herring Run.
Feldman and Wallach handed out literature and door hangers teaching about the dangers of pesticides and the availability of organic alternatives.
"There's so much new science out there," said Wallach, who works largely with hospitals to encourage them to move to lower-risk landscaping.
The popular herbicide Roundup was frequently cited as an example of the potential harm from pesticides. Though Roundup does the job its label says it does, the active chemical glyphosate can be toxic or carcinogenic in humans, Feldman said.
Current federal regulations for research and labeling "assumes that we're all pretty much normal people," when many may have medical conditions or other predispositions that put them more at risk from certain chemicals, he said.
Furthermore, manufacturers like Monsanto, which makes Roundup, aren't required to list inert ingredients on the labels, Wallach and Feldman said.
At Beyond Pesticides' headquarters, they tell their own landscapers to avoid chemical herbicides and move to more natural solutions.
"One landscaper that we work with says his favorite herbicide is grass seed," Feldman said.
He and Wallach said hedges provide a natural habitat for insects. Composting of green waste can produce natural nourishment for gardens. In a pinch, the least toxic treatments for lawns include liquid nitrogen, silica gel, boric acid and soaps, they said.
The result isn't just a more eco-friendly lawn, but a healthier one and, during dry spells — like that in California of late — one that needs less watering, they said.
Maryland is one of seven states that allow jurisdictions to preempt state pesticide and herbicide regulations in favor of stricter legislation, something Takoma Park has done and Montgomery County is considering. A bill currently under consideration in Annapolis called the Pollinator Protection Act would ban harmful neonicotinoids from landscaping products.
Newill hopes to keep the momentum going in weaning her community off pesticides, and said the greening committee is organizing workshops on vermiculture (using worms for composting) and brewing compost tea as a nutrient. Both of those sessions will probably be in April, she said.
"We're using nature to make our yards healthier — and to keep our families safe," Newill said.
Newill said the committee is also organizing an event in May, where people will be able to bring soil samples from home for testing.
Newill and McFadden said they were happy with last week's meeting at Idlewylde Hall and the turnout.
And Newill saw an unexpected benefit.
"One of the outcomes of the meeting is that more people joined the greening committee," she said. "We got another six people."