Click on the links below to learn how fertilizers and pesticides harm our health and environment, and threaten our most precious resource—water. Individual actions to skip the fertilizers, avoid pesticides, and conserve water in our own landscapes can improve Chatham's water quality and quantity.
Fertilizers fuel potentially toxic cyanobacteria blooms in ponds, and nitrogen from fertilizers stimulate algae growth in saltwater. By reducing fertilizer use, we can improve our water quality and prevent habitat degradation for shellfish, eelgrass, and fish that are essential for Chatham's recreational and commercial fishing.
Pesticides, including weed killers, insecticides, fungicides and rodenticides, are highly harmful to our health, particularly in children and pets. By avoiding pesticide use, we can reduct the negative impact on the environment, pollinators, and wildlife.
Water conservation relieves stress on our town water system, ensuring sufficient quantities for fire suppression efforts and for drinking water.
Cape-friendly lawns are watered by Mother Nature, with no need for harmful fertilizers or pesticides. Preserving native Cape Cod landscapes provides healthy habitats for wildlife, while also ensuring water quality in our bays and ponds.
FERTILIZERS
Threats to the Bay and Sound, Center for Coastal Studies
Nutrient loading (from fertilizers) in our shallow coastal areas causes eutrophication, or suffocation, of the critical eelgrass beds that function as a nursery for juvenile fish and shellfish. These beds are essential to filtering contaminants from the water column and reducing erosion caused by climate change.
Tides of Resilience: Eelgrass- Cape Cod’s Silent Warriors
This website depicts the crucial role that eelgrass plays in mitigating the impacts of eutrophication, which is the excessive growth of algae and other aquatic plants due to high levels of nutrients, especially nitrogen and phosphorus, in the water.
The Hidden Dangers of Chemical Fertilizers
These sites summarize the environmental and health impacts of fertilizer use, including how food crops may not be as nutritious when fertilized with chemical fertilizers.
Effects of Chemical Fertilizers on Human Health and Environment: A Review
This literature review describes the effects on human health and the environment.
Cape Cod Pesticide and Fertilizer Use Inventory: Final Report, April 2014
This report, which provides the results of a study into the extent of pesticide and fertilizer usage by all constituencies on Cape Cod, recommends best management practices (BMPs) to reduce pesticide and fertilizers’ potential impact to water resources. FCW cited this source when providing homeowners’ pesticide and fertilizer usage numbers.
Environmental and Health Impacts of Pesticides and Fertilizers and Ways of Minimizing Them
The United Nation Environment Programme website contains links to UN reports and a summary of environmental and
health study results.
PESTICIDES
Non-toxic Landscapes
This website suggests ways to care for your lawn without the use of pesticides and fertilizers, and describes the many benefits of non-toxic landscapes, including cost savings, having a healthier yard, reducing toxins, protecting wildlife, storing more carbon, and reducing the negative effects of climate change.
Northwest Center for Alternatives to Pesticides – Managing Pests & Weeds
This website details how to eliminate a variety of pests, weeds, and plant diseases without the use of synthetic poisons.
Pesticides 101, Non-toxic Communities
This website provides information about how pesticides harm health (particularly in children) and contribute to disease. Pesticides can disperse widely from the application site and are not safe even when dry after application.
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
The government agency studying the effects of pesticides on health provides summaries and studies on health effects of many pesticides as part of their Agricultural Health Study with extensive references. They also share fact sheets on natural remedies and healthy homes suggestions.
Pesticides as big a cancer risk as smoking, study finds – The Hill
This report describes how pesticide use in general is linked with increased cancer incidence.
PFAS widely added to US pesticides despite EPA denial, study finds – The Guardian
This report highlights new research findings that toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are widely added to pesticides, a practice that creates a health threat by spreading the dangerous compounds directly into the US’s food and water supply.
Momentum Builds to Rescue Raptors – Mass Audubon
Pesticides used for rodent control are killing raptors (hawks, eagles, falcons) when they feed on the affected animals.
Cape Cod Pesticide and Fertilizer Use Inventory: Final Report, April 2014
This report, which provides the results of a study into the extent of pesticide and fertilizer usage by all constituencies on Cape Cod, recommends best management practices (BMPs) to reduce pesticide and fertilizers’ potential impact to water resources. FCW cited this source when providing homeowners’ pesticide and fertilizer usage numbers.
Environmental and Health Impacts of Pesticides and Fertilizers and Ways of Minimizing Them
The United Nation Environment Programme website contains links to UN reports and a summary of environmental and health study results.
WATER CONSERVATION
Tips for saving water indoors and outdoors in Massachusetts
US EPA practical tips on how to reduce water use indoors and outdoors.
Water conservation is necessary during critical drought conditions
Water conservation during drought conditions is necessary to ensure fire suppression, drinking water and habitats. A Cape Cod Commission article.
Chatham should investigate more drinking water sources Chronicle October 2, 2024
Conservation is necessary in controlling water use. All wells online produce 4.1 million gallons per day while the typical maximum demand is 4 million gallons per day. Given drought potential or wells going down, the town may not have enough water.
Why conserve water in Massachusetts
Conserve water to ensure there is water for our use and the environment.
How to conserve water
One page presentation by Wildlife Trust describes ways to save water.
Xeriscape the Cape
Landscaping for low water use from Chatham.gov.
15 Water Conservation tips
AARP article with tips to consider during drought and heat with strategies to avoid flushing away water and money.
CAPE-FRIENDLY LAWN
Blue Pages
Information about Cape Cod and Chatham water. It is an informative publication on history, our resources and what you can do to preserve the health of our water systems.
Go to page 49 in the publication to learn about lawn care specific to Cape Cod and our single-source aquifer.
APCC Cape Cod Lawn
A two-page explanation on what a Cape Cod lawn is and the advantages to the health of our community.
A Cape Cod Lawn - it's a thing!
Where lawn is desired, make it a Cape Cod lawn--for the sake of clean water and healthy yards for people, pets and wildlife. An APCC video.
Editorial by Andrew Gottlieb
The Executive Director of APCC details the problems with traditional lawns and the advantages of a Cape Cod Lawn.
Devastating environmental cost of traditional lawns
A two page description of the harm pesticides and fertilizers pose as well as advantages to a native lawn.
Fertilizer lawn area
The Cape Cod Commission has produced a Cape Cod map showing lawn area by land use type showing how much land mass on the Cape is lawn.
A Qualitative Survey of Pond Shoreline Vegetation and Anthropogenic Threats at Eleven Freshwater Ponds in the Pleasant Bay Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
A scientific paper presenting information about threats to the health of ponds. Within the document, the harmful use of pesticides and fertilizers is discussed.
My Cape Cod Lawn
Description by Chatham's Cathy Weston of a transition from a traditional lawn to a Cape Cod lawn.