Urban Nutrient Mgt Planning Programming: Cooperative Extension Perspective.

Virginia is one of six states committed to a federal-state initiative to help restore water quality of the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal waters by 2025.  Part of Virginia Cooperative Extension’s (VCE) role in the development of Bay Watershed Implementation Plans (WIP) and nutrient Total Maximum Daily Loads has been as participants on Technical Advisory Committees, providing policy reviews and delivering science-based advice regarding proposed fertilizer legislation and labeling changes, and the development and implementation of a variety of multi-media outreach efforts to educate both the turfgrass industry and the general public about best management practices in improving and protecting Bay water quality.  The success in these programs has been through collaboration and cooperation with a variety of state regulatory agencies and industry associations.  VCE has partnered with the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (VDCR) in the development and implementation of the first-ever training and testing program towards becoming a certified urban nutrient management plan writer. The acreage captured under these plans is critical in VDCR’s target of meeting WIP goals of urban acreage under nutrient management plans by 2017.  To supplement in-person training, the “Urban Nutrient Management Handbook” was published by VCE.  It serves both as a training manual for the certification program, as well as a general BMP manual on water quality protection for the general public.  VCE is also collaborating with VDCR in an expansion of its Master Gardener-led urban nutrient management program that utilizes trained volunteers to collect urban acreage maintained under nutrient management plans.  VCE partnered with the Virginia Golf Course Superintendents Association in the development of its signature publication “Environmental Best Management Practices for Virginia’s Golf Courses” and is collaborating with the VGCSA in outreach efforts designed to reach VGCSA’s commitment to the state that each of Virginia’s approximate 325 golf courses will have a nutrient management plan by 2017.  In 2013, VCE partnered with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (VDACS) in the development of a free on-line training and testing program for the certification of commercial fertilizer applicators.  Through its first year of operation, 790 people participated in the training and 320 completed certification. Each of these outreach programs has received positive recognition at one time or another from industry, education, and regulatory groups, but the challenges in truly impacting Bay water quality remain daunting because of the sheer scope of the problem.