FERTILIZER...EVERYONES FAVORITE SUBJECT

Group Members:

Josh Garland

Contacts:

e-mail:jg217406@ohio.edu

joshecology@gmail.com

Sources:

Ron Chapman-Dir. Energy Mgnt.

Dave Hamill-Grounds, Recycling, and Refuse

Pam Callahan-University Planning

Ralph Six-Procurement Services

www.ohio.edu

www.cleanair-coolplanet.org

www.bbc.co.uk

I.Objectives:

There are two main sets of information needed to complete the fertilizer section of the Clean Air-Cool Planet Campus Carbon Calculator. First we need to have the rough tonnage of fertilizer purchased by the University over the last 17 years. Second we need to find the Nitrogen content using the application rates and figure out how much Nitrogen has been put into the soil around the University. To do any of that with any accuracy it is also important to know exactly how the green area of the University has changed over the last 17 years with the addition (or subtraction) of University managed green space and the remodeling of the Sports Corridor.

II.Methods:

A.Fertilizer Tonnage

1.After many phone calls and speaking to a number of people in the purchasing office I found the best way to track direct fertilizer tonnage was to obtain the information from the Universities Purchasing Card records, or P-Cards.

2.Since the records can only be cross referenced by the name of the vendor, it is important to have the names of the suppliers used by the University grounds crew.

3.It was not possible to find any of the records using University Purchasing Orders, so P-Cards are our only option in this regard.

B.Nitrogen Content

1.The Nitrogen content was obtained from the David Hamill of the University grounds crew. He let me know the amount of Nitrogen used in pounds per acre and it was a quick conversion to put it into the Calculator.

2.It would also have been possible to calculate the percentage of Nitrogen using the tonnage and the Macro nutrient ratios of the fertilizers. This method was not approached because the data for Nitrogen used per square foot was given directly to me.

C.Land Changes

1.Because the make up of the University's green space has changed over the last 17 years, it was extremely important to learn just how the land has changed. I spoke to Pam Callahan to get an idea of all of this. The bulk of the changes that concern fertilizer usage have occurred along the Athletics Corridor. The remodeling of the Golf Course and the creation of recreation fields located next to the Hospital are some prime examples (Photos 1-3). Because the Calculator calls for the information to be in specific units, all of my measurements were converted to 1,000 square feet.

2. Because of the different concentrations and amounts of fertilizer that have been used on various ares it was important to make a distinction between some fields. While some areas, like the college greens, can be lumped together other ares need to be differentiated from one another. For instance the athletic fields need to be seperated based on the turf on each and the sub-strait under them. Areas like the football field are located on naturally occurring soils while some areas, like the Baseball diamonds, are located in the old river bank and needed artificial sub-state under them. The various soil properties and textures require different amounts of fertilizer to accomplish the same affects. The native soils are more effective at holding Macro-nutrients in the soil and therefore require less applications. Below are the field categories I used.

a. Golf Course

b. Native Soil Athletic Fields

c. Artificial Soil Athletic Fields

d. Rec. Fields

e. College Parks

f. College Parks

g. College Greens

h. Tailgate Field/Band Practice Field

III. Results:

A. Fertilizer Tonnage

1. The data for the exact fertilizer tonnage has not been obtained as of yet due to the fact I have been unable to get the names of the vendors yet. With any luck I'll be hearing from Dave Hamill with that information as soon as possible.

B. Nitrogen Content

1. For Nitrogen content, Dave Hamill supplied me with the application rates in terms of Nitrogen per 1,000 square feet per year. I have only been able to obtain the rates of application for the Golf Course, the native soil Athletic Fields, and the artificial soil Athletic Fields. Again, I am waiting to hear from Dave about the application rates for the remaining areas.

2. Although the complete sets of data I have are limited, there have been some extremely interesting finds.

a. Over the last 17 years more than 169 thousand pounds of Nitrogen have been placed on the Golf Course alone

b. Roughly 10,300 pounds have been placed on the Artificial soil Athletic Fields

c. and nearly 8,800 pounds have been placed on the native soil fields (including the Football Stadium)

d. The combined total for the Intramural Fields is over 188 thousand pounds of Nitrogen since 1990

C. Land Changes

1. I was able to Visit Pam Callahan in university planning and she was extremely help-full in helping me get a feeling for just how th University's layout has changed in since 1990.

2. 1997 marked the year many of the most recent land renovations took place. That was the year much of the Athletic Corridor was shuffled around. Before 97' there was absolutely no flow in the way the layout had been planned to listen to Pam tell it. The Football players had to walk across Richland Ave to get from the practice field to stadium, the Baseball Diamond was somewhere else completely, and many a couple of the fields didn't even exist yet. Add to all of this the Brand New ping center being built and it was pretty clear the University had to condense it's Intramural areas. The following is a brief history and description of each of the areas.

a. Golf Course-The Golf Course was located entirely along the north bank of the Hocking River until '97 when four holes were moved to the south bank of the river to make room for the Ping Recreation Center. It originally had an area of 2,580,336 Square feet and now it has 2,178,000 square feet.

b. Peden Stadium (football)-The stadium has been in the same place since it's construction in 1929, but the practice fields were located across Richland Avenue before the renovations in 1997. They have twice the green space as the field itself bringing the total between the three to 195,995 square feet.

c. Trautwein Field (baseball)-The field was originally located where Walter Hall now stands but was moved in 1997 to an area where the Hocking River bed used to lay. The sandy soil that was used as a sub-strait is terrible at holding nutrients like Nitrogen and subsequentially many more times fertilizer is used there than would be if the field were on native soils. The size of the field is 97,812 square feet.

d. The Women's Softball complex was created in 1997 and shares similar leeching problems as Trautwein Field, it is 30,628 square feet.

e. Chessa Field-Pam claims it's been there forever. It is the farthest west of all of the fields on campus and has been used as a practice field for LaCross, Soccer, and Field Hockey. It is 70,802 square feet.

f. Tailgate Park-Located across South Green Dr. from the Convo is a triangular piece of land measuring 157,495 square feet. It currently is used for special events and receives no fertilizer application, but before 1997 it was used by the Band and did receive fertilizer.

g. Pruitt Field and Track- Located along the athletic Corridor, but receives no fertilization because it is artificial turf.

h. Mill Street Park and Rec. Fields- Located between the east side of campus and the west side of the hocking these areas have been used as intramural sports fields in the past. In 2004 Ohio University sold the piece of property known as Mill St. Park, decreasing the overall area from 1,872,079 square feet to 743,673 square feet.

V. Tables: Below is a table illustrating the fertilizer used on the fields I have complete data sets from.

VI. Thoughts and Suggestions:

I feel like our University should be taking every step it can to be reducing our impact in the Environment (Environment with a capital E). 90% of the effort should be made in the larger areas like Transportation and Energy use. But I believe every little bit counts, and I think this area of our Universities environmental impact should not be overlooked.

Although it is less than one thousandth abundant than Carbon Dioxide, Nitrogen has the potential to be 200-300 times more destructive to Ozone than Carbon Dioxide when it makes it's way to the upper levels of the atmosphere but has the effect of creating Ozone (Smog) when it's concentrated down by the surface of the planet (bbc). Nitrogen can also leech into water ways and cause emense damage to an aquatic ecosystem. The nitrogen promotes the growth of algae and cause their populations to explode in number. The resulting growth of algae begin to block out the sunlight from filtering underneath the water's surface. This causes a loss of quality light reaching the bottom. No light...no plants. No plants...no animals. No animals...you get the picture. This is the exact process responsible for the infamous "Red Tides" parts of the North American coastline suffers from.

I have a few suggestions for anyone who many be interested in cutting back on our fertilizer usage:

1. Go Organic-organic compost is more expensive, but it contains nutrient concentrations that would be naturally occurring instead of chemically synthesized. This may not seem to be such a big deal but remember, Nitrogen occurs naturally. And if we can utilize some of the already existing Nitrogen instead of supplying the industries that artificially create it, we could reduce the amount of excess nitrogen in the atmosphere. It's along the same lines as recycling.

2. Fertilize less space-I was told the University used to fertilize the College Greens, but because of budget cuts in the last six years they've had to stop. I'm sure the Greens were once a picture of Victorian beauty, but they seem to be doing just fine with no fertilizer on them now.

3. Astroturf-if more of the playing fields were artificial turf there wouldn't be so much fertilizer needed. That could seriously cut back on our fertilizer consumption.