Learn More About DCNR’s Converting Your Lawn To Meadow Or Woods Program, Funding

The Department of Conservation and Natural Resources now has a Lawn To Meadow webpage to help landowners of all types convert their lawns to be a more environment-friendly and beneficial place.

Converting some or all of your lawn to woods or meadow shows you are a good steward of the land, adds natural diversity and interest to your backyard, and reduces the time you spend mowing.

A diverse array of native trees, shrubs, perennial flowers, and warm season grasses are much better than turf grass for keeping soil and nutrients in place and is great for pollinators.

Funding

DCNR will have a small amount of funding available in 2021 for lawn conversion practices, including conservation landscaping (converting lawn to native managed meadow) and forest planting (converting lawn areas to trees/forest). 

Lawns must be at least a quarter-acre. 

Visit DCNR’s Lawn To Meadow webpage and sign up for the Woods and Meadows newsletter.  Questions about this program and funding should be directed to Kelsey Miller at c-kelmille@pa.gov or send email to: RA-NRWoodsandMeadows@pa.gov. 

How Clean Is Your Stream?

DEP’s Interactive Report Viewer allows you to zoom in on your own stream or watershed to find out how clean your stream is or if it has impaired water quality using the latest information in the draft 2020 Water Quality Report.

(Reprinted, mostly, from the October DEP Chesapeake Bay Implementation newsletter.  Click Here to sign up for your own copy.)

Related Articles:

-- DCNR Good Natured Blog: For Cleaner Water, Convert Some Lawn

-- Penn State Extension: Improving Local Water Quality Thru Lawn Conversion To Meadows

-- Bay Journal: PA Initiative To Convert 10,000 Acres Of Lawns Into Meadows, Forests

-- Pollinator Gardens: Help Encourage Ecological Diversity In Your Own Backyard

Related Articles - Chesapeake Bay:

-- Draft Conowingo Dam Watershed Implementation Plan Calls For An Additional 6.41 Million Pounds Of Nitrogen Reductions In PA; Comment Period Open

-- Bay Journal: On Chesapeake Bay Cleanup, Field Studies, Computer Predictions Don't Always Agree
-- Bay Journal: Use Of Switchgrass Growing In Popularity For Farm Conservation

-- Farmers Tell Why They Need An Agricultural Cost-Share Program To Support Conservation Practices (Video) 

-- 46 Groups Want Farm Conservation Funding Bill Passed This Year

-- DEP October Newsletter Updates Chesapeake Bay Program Implementation

[Posted: October 19, 2020]  PA Environment Digest