(Beyond Pesticides, March 7, 2013) A group of Canadian doctors and health advocates are urging the provincial government of British Columbia (B.C.) to ban the use of all cosmetic pesticides for lawns and gardens. The campaign, lead by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) along with the David Suzuki Foundation and Environmental [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 2, 2013) As the medical community weighs in, the new year begins with a push in New Jersey to adopt the Safe Playing Fields Act (S1143 / A2412), straightforward common sense legislation to remove children from harm’s way by stopping hazardous lawn pesticide use on school grounds. The bill’s sponsors, state Senators [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, October 19, 2012) School is a place where children need a healthy body and a clear head in order to learn. Despite a successful trend toward nonchemical strategies, pesticides remain prevalent and are widely used today in universities, schools, and daycare facilities. Kelsey Crain, an undergraduate student at University of Delaware, first became [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, October 1, 2012) O’Hare International Airport in Chicago is planning to sign on a shepherd and approximately 30 goats and sheep to graze on overgrown brush at the perimeter of the airport later this fall. The animals are expected to clear about 250 square feet of vegetation per day. Airport officials sought out [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 27, 2012) Manitoba will likely join the majority of Canada’s provinces in banning cosmetic pesticides next year, according to Conservation Minister Gord Mackintosh. The minister made his announcement on Monday after a coalition of health and environment groups, Cosmetic Pesticide Ban Manitoba, delivered a letter with over 1,000 signatories that calls on [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 26, 2012) A citizen’s group in Washington State submitted to its county commissioners a petition that urges a ban of all herbicides or other chemicals on county rights-of-way. The group, which opposes all roadside pesticide spraying, is calling for the adoption of safer management alternatives, citing dozens of studies showing cumulative and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 11, 2012) Lawn company giant, Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., pleaded guilty to numerous charges of misleading consumers with unapproved labels and falsifying insecticide registrations, including using toxic chemicals in wild bird food. Scotts was ordered to pay $12.5 million in criminal fines, the largest penalty ever set under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, August 21, 2012) A proposed ordinance that eschews chemical fertilizers and pesticides in favor of an organically maintained system on public land in Durango, CO will be up for debate tonight, and, if denied, will wind up on the city’s November ballot. The ordinance was put together by a group of local advocates, [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 31, 2012) Last week, Richmond, California’s City Council unanimously approved a pesticide reform ordinance targeting the use of toxic chemical pesticides within city boundaries. Barring a public health emergency or immediate threat to city property, the regulation bans city departments from using any pesticide considered a known carcinogen (Toxicity Category I and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, July 12, 2012) The Council of the District of Columbia passed a pesticide reform act Tuesday strengthening pesticide restrictions in our nation’s capital. To ensure the rules are enacted, Beyond Pesticides is calling on supporters to take action and urge D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray to sign the legislation into law. The Pesticide [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, June 28th 2012) The Canadian province of Manitoba is asking for public feedback on whether to ban the sale and/or use of cosmetic pesticides for lawn care. This request comes on the heels of a May 17 recommendation by a special committee in the Canadian provincial government of British Columbia (BC) not to [...]

Beyond Pesticides, (May 10, 2012), British Columbia (BC) may become the eighth Canadian province to ban cosmetic (lawn care) pesticides after the Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides submit their recommendations to the legislature later this month. The report will outline the bipartisan committee’s findings from over the last eight months on restrictions for non-essential pesticides [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 17, 2012) Last week, Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Council voted to limit the use of chemical insecticides, weed killers and other pesticides on county property. According to the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the restrictions will apply to the county’s 66 buildings, their lawns and the wide swaths of open space at Whiskey Island and [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, April 6, 2012) A number of communities on Cape Cod, Massachusetts have begun to adopt or explore organic turf management practices for municipal parks and athletic fields. The towns of Wellfleet, Eastham, Barnstable, Brewster, Orleans, Chatham, and Harwich have all made moves toward adopting policies or informal practices that seek to limit the [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 13, 2012) The town of Woodbridge, CT voted on last week to ban the use of pesticides on the town’s athletic fields. With the Board of Selectmen voting 5-1, Woodbridge committed to a pesticide-free land management program with the full support of Parks Department director Adam Parsons. The Parks Commission originally wanted [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, March 9, 2012) With Members of Congress attempting to gut pesticide protections from the Clean Water Act and state legislators threatening to repeal Connecticut’s historic pesticide ban on school grounds, environmentalists from the Northeast and beyond are joining with researchers, authors, beekeepers, organic business leaders, elected officials, and others to discuss strategies for [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 24, 2012) On Wednesday, February 22, the Connecticut General Assembly’s Planning and Development Committee held a hearing to consider a bill that would repeal the state’s ban on toxic pesticide use on school grounds by allowing their use as part of a so-called “integrated pest management” (IPM) system. If you live in [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, February 13, 2012) Acclaimed ecologist and Living Downstream author, Sandra Steingraber, will be speaking at the 30th National Pesticide Forum. With Connecticut and communities throughout the country facing threats to existing environmental laws, as well as opportunities for greater protection and increased local control, this conference will have a strong focus on organic [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 19, 2012) Although organic farming and land management continue to grow, policies to protect people from pesticides are threatened in the Northeast and around the country. At the same time, cutting-edge science links pesticide exposure to health problems, honey bee colony collapse, and other environmental issues. Join researchers, authors, beekeepers, organic business [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, January 6, 2011) A law in the state of New Jersey aimed at protecting children by prohibiting pesticides on school grounds has advanced in the state’s General Assembly. Public health and environmental advocates are hoping that the bill will be considered by the full legislature within the next week, before the legislative session [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, December 22, 2011) For the tenth consecutive year, the Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Organic Land Care Program (NOFA OLC) is hosting an accreditation course in organic land care in three different locations around the New England area starting January 9, 2012. Attendees will learn the how to design and maintain ecological landscapes without [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, October 17, 2011) Backlash from local residents in an Illinois city has pressured park officials to keep chemical pesticides off of athletic fields, successfully stopping a planned chemical treatment in November and postponing the city’s decision to spray until they hear more from concerned residents and turf experts. For four years, the Park [...]

(Beyond Pesticides, September 29, 2011) The town of Scarborough, Maine joins the ever-growing list of communities in Maine and around the country that have decided to ditch conventional, chemical-intensive landscape management practices on public properties in favor of a more sustainable approach. The town Council Members passed a Pest Management Policy last week which prohibits [...]