MEDIA RELEASE:

Alex Stavitsky-Zeineddin, Safe Grow Montgomery

alex@stavitskymedia.com 202 360-7166

August 21, 2017, Gaithersburg, MD

Safe Grow Montgomery applauds the decision of the Montgomery County Council to appeal the decision by Judge Terrance McGann of the Montgomery County Circuit Court to strike down the 2015 Healthy Lawns Act application to private property (http://www2.montgomerycountymd.gov/mcgportalapps/Press_Detail.aspx?Item_ID=21318

Safe Grow Montgomery thanks Councilmember George Leventhal for championing the issue to make sure the council made a decision before the 30-day deadline to appeal Judge McGann’s decision.

It is clear to Safe Grow Montgomery that the legislative history of pesticide regulation in Montgomery County and the Maryland Legislature recognizes the right of Montgomery County and other units of government to protect its citizens from unnecessary risks.

With federal protections evaporating with each day of the current EPA administration, we praise the Montgomery County Council in exercising the courage of their convictions to appeal this court decision. Clearly the US EPA and the Maryland Department of Agriculture have failed to protect county residents from the adverse effects of the routine use of unnecessary cosmetic pesticides.

Safe Grow Montgomery, with over fifty partner businesses, non-profit organizations, and their 5,000 plus supporters who wrote and called their council members to have Healthy Lawns Act enacted, advocated for pesticide free public and private spaces due to health concerns regarding ongoing exposure these chemicals.

Currently, as is being done at some schools and institutions, under the direction of Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) organic lawn care guidelines, Safe Grow Montgomery and its supporters will aerate and overseed our lawns this fall, feed our soil and not our lawns with natural, slow release fertilizers, cut our grass high, and adjust our soil pH by applying lime as needed.

And we will welcome the symbol of Safe Grow Montgomery, white clover, that was recommended to be 15% of each sack of grass seed by the Cooperative Extension Services, until the 1960’s, for free nitrogen and delightful flowers for honeybees and native bees.

Cooperative Extension Services stopped suggesting 15% clover seed in grass mix because the chemical industry invented and marketed elective broadleaf herbicides and wanted clover to be classified as a weed. Clover was a necessary part of the English Meadow, the ancestor of the American Lawn.

Montgomery County residents look forward to healthy, safe lawns for our families, children, pets, and pollinators.

####

####