Clean Water Action

Pesticides

Pesticide Free Zones (PFZ)

PFZ's are important for places where children and pets play--public parks, school yards, and home lawns. PFZ provides safe, healthy, LIVING lawns and landscapes that protect the health of children, families, pets, wildlife and the environment from unnecessary exposure to toxic pesticides. Ideally, PFZ means that no chemical pest controls at all are used, but will consider the use of organically certified materials and USEPA-exempt pesticides.

Integrated Pest Management

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) uses a wide variety of practices to reduce pests without the use of toxic pesticides. In an IPM program, pest control includes: prevention of pests by reducing food, water, and access used by pests; application of pesticides only as needed; selecting the least toxic pesticides effective for controlling pests; and, restricting pesticide use to areas not contacted or accessible to children, faculty and staff.

Towns/Groups that Have Passed PFZ Resolutions:

• Dennis Twp, January 2008
• Fair Lawn, October 2007
• Red Bank, October 2007
• Cape May County Freeholders, August 2007
• East Windsor Township, July 2007
• Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, April 2007
• Neptune Township, April 2007
• Hazlet Township, October 2006
• Clifton Township, July 2006
• Burlington County, June 2006
• Pine Beach, June 2006

Passing a Pesticide Free Zone and IPM Policy in Your Town

1. Find allies and champions for PFZ and Integrated Pest Management (IPM). This could include friends, neighbors, concerned parents/groups, gardeners, neighborhood associations, environmental commissions, town managers, and parks department representatives.
2. Gain support from elected officials, mayor, council and your environmental commission. Call them and/or attend one of the regular public meetings and give a five minute "pitch" during the "public comment" period (usually at the end of the meeting, but sometimes at the beginning). Suggest they support the concept of Pesticide Free Zones and Integrated Pest Management. Bring a copy of the Pesticide Municipal Policy to the meeting.
3. Schedule a vote on PFZ! Ask your town when the resolution can be scheduled for a vote. Clarify what other steps need to be taken to get that to happen.
4. Promote the PFZ Ladybug Signs. Let your town officials know about the friendly pesticide free zone ladybug signs. To obtain a PFZ sign at a discount of $6 each, to put up in your yard or take to a meeting, email janogaki@cleanwater.org. NJEF will provide one free sign to any town who designates a park as a Pesticide Free Zone! See a PFZ ladybug sign in action in Chatham Township!
5. Conduct a letter-writing campaign! Handwritten letters and/or emails to the mayor, council, and environmental commission or a phone call blitz can get things moving! View NJEF's sample action alert.
6. Thank the town for passing the resolution and contact the media. Write a letter to the editor (LTE) of the local paper praising the town government for its forward action to protect the public from pesticide exposure. To find your local paper, visit the NJ Press Association Website. It contains contact information for daily newspapers and weeklies. It's important to submit your LTE to a statewide paper, as well as your local newspaper (weekly). A nice touch might be including a photo at a park bearing the Pesticide Free Zone sign preferably with some children in the photo can be emailed to the local paper with a caption--Town Goes "Pesticide Free" To Protect Kids Where They Play.