Pesticide Use/Landscape Management

Since 1984, Eugene School District 4J has implemented principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) in the management of district landscapes. Since then, non-chemical means of dealing with weeds and other pests have been the norm, in which use of pesticides (including herbicides) has occurred only after very careful consideration, and after all other means were tried.

During the past several years, 4J Facilities Management has partnered with a large, diverse group of interested community people in looking at this program and updating it. This new program has been adopted by the Superintendent, and is now in use. As with the program it replaces, this new set of guidelines strongly stresses the concepts of IPM. Other fundamental principles include considerations of Health and Safety (first and foremost), Functional Design, Aesthetics, and Facilities Usage and Costs.

This set of operational guidelines for managing 4J landscapes, using the above principals, uses the concepts of Prevention, Exclusion, Structural Modification, and Tolerance to deal with situations that arise on the district’s properties. The problem-solving matrix covers a wide variety of issues:

• Ants, termites and other insects
• Athletic fields
• Fence lines
• Flower and shrub beds
• Gophers, moles and voles
• Horsetail weed control
• Moss on pavement
• Weeds in pavement cracks
• Running tracks

In all of these issues, 4J Facilities Management is committed to using any non-chemical method of control that is effective. Only after non-chemical methods have proven ineffective, is chemical use considered, and then only when the Director of Facilities Management and the administrator at the affected school is informed and agrees to it. Other than emergency uses (such as yellowjacket nests in proximity to students), all uses of chemicals will be during non-school days when the site is deserted, mostly during summer vacation.

Copies of this program are available upon request from 4J Facilities Management. To obtain a copy, or to get more information, please contact Dan Fuehring, 4J Safety Specialist, at 687-4018.