美国大学生活的巅峰是绿色，草丛四边形。这些原始的草坪通常是校园的中心，是学生聚集，毕业和庆祝的地方。但是，并非所有的四边形或校园都受到同样的照顾。
如果您是美国高等教育机构的大约2000万学生之一，则由于您的校园的土地护理政策和实践，您的赔率是否会暴露于有毒，致癌农药。大多数大学都采用常规的土地保健实践，严重依靠合成农药来维持校园美学，并使校园和运动场没有杂草。Potential health implicationsof pesticides range from cancer to hormone disruption to inducing neurotoxicity. This should horrify campus communities, including students, prospective students, staff, faculty, and parents.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Newresearch从无除草剂校园揭示了沟渠合成农药并过渡到organic land care practices可以节省水和金钱，同时消除癌症风险，促进生物多样性并减轻气候变化。根据采访的无除草剂校园，在八个不同的高等教育机构的土地保健和可持续性专业人员进行的校园中，美国生态校园土地管理状况,详细介绍过渡到有机土地护理的一些成本，收益和最佳实践。
Water Savings
Harvard University, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, operates with a campus that has been 90 percent organic since 2010. They have seen irrigation savings of 30 percent as a result of the transition away from synthetic pesticides. The transition has resulted in 2 million gallons of water saved every year, or 24 million gallons saved since the transition. Between 2006 and 2013,Cascadia College/UW Bothell在华盛顿州，用水量减少了26％。地面主管将这种减少归因于新的覆盖实践，土壤食物网的发展以及减少农药导致的土壤结构。
Cost Savings
哈佛开始在现场堆肥景观浪费，而不是为其拆除付费。这消除了与清除景观废物相关的年度35,000美元的成本，并为哈佛每年的肥料成本节省了10,000美元。在卡斯卡迪亚学院/威斯康星州的大布特尔，考虑到所购买的时间和投入的数量，他们像曾经在常规草坪上所做的那样，在有机草坪上花费了1/10的金额。威拉米特大学，in Salem, Oregon, is also saving money; they estimate savings of approximately US$2,000 a year attributed to managing their landscape organically.
土壤健康
Many schools who participated in the research also saw an improvement in soil health. Healthy soil is important because it increases biodiversity, improves the landscapes’ ability to weather water flux, and potentially improves the soil’s ability tosequester carbon，这有助于缓解气候危机。在加利福尼亚北部的加州大学伯克利分校，地面团队看到有机过渡后，在校园测试地块上最大的绿色空间之一的土壤中，微生物增加了22倍，表明土壤生物多样性和整体土壤增加健康。在科罗拉多州的Cu Boulder，过渡后的土壤测试表明，土壤健康有所改善，最近的一种土壤测试显示，测试设施测量了最高水平的有机材料（这是土壤健康的关键指标）。
由30多个不同高等教育机构的无除草剂校园经理和可持续发展董事进行的调查的其他数据表明，人们对环境影响和个人接触农药的影响广泛。超过75％的受访者表示有兴趣减少合成农药的使用和实施有机土地护理方法，一般而言，受访者报告说，主要障碍包括缺乏教育以及信念，即有机土地护理更加昂贵，更耗时，并且更加耗时，并且是如此。更多的劳动密集型。
With so many benefits and potential cost savings, why have more schools not joined in on the organic land care revolution?它is clear that organic land care can save money and water, improve soil health and biodiversity, and potentially help to fight against climate change through increasing soil carbon sequestration. Research shows that grounds managers and sustainability directors are concerned about synthetic pesticide use. It is time that colleges and universities step up and listen to concerned stakeholders,阅读科学并通过快速过渡到有机土地护理来保护社区卫生并打击相交的气候和生物多样性危机。
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