What is sustainable landscape management ?
A sustainable landscape requires low inputs of labor, fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides to thrive. These chemicals have the potential to pollute surface and ground water and disturb natural ecosystem processes. Fertilizers from urban landscapes runoff into storm drains and enter waterways and cause algae blooms which affect light penetration, oxygen, and fish populations. The urban ecosystem objectives differ from the agricultural model driven by yield and profits which justifies the high usage of fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides. Sustainable management promotes tactics that recycle nutrients to promote an ecological balance. Composting and using mulching lawn mowers all return nutrients back to the urban ecosystem. Other strategies lower the use of broad spectrum pesticides to permit the natural control of damaging insect populations by insect predators and parasitoids. Finally, sustainable management encourages diverse and alternative landscap
