Virginia Coastal Zone Management - Spring/Summer 2007
For a current list of restaurants and lawn care companies participating in the club, go to www.chesapeakeclub.org!
Chesapeake Club Expands!
By Virginia Witmer, Outreach Coordinator
Did you catch one of those unusual and humorous ads that hit the airways and papers this spring imploring you to wait until fall to fertilize your lawn and join the many who already “Save the Crabs...Then Eat ‘Em?”
Between March 5 and April 9, television ads appeared on 23 cable and network affiliated channels in the Richmond and Hampton Roads regions - over 645 “spots” in all. In addition, over a dozen newspaper ads appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Daily Press and Virginian Pilot. Begun in the DC area two years ago, the Chesapeake Club has expanded. But don’t worry! If you missed the invitation to join this spring, it’s not too late to learn how and do it today!
The ads are humorous, but the issue is very serious. Lawn care is a contributor to nitrogen loading in the Chesapeake Bay. Excess nutrients cause algal blooms, which block sunlight from reaching Bay grasses. Bay scientists have found that 30 times more juvenile crabs live in Bay grass than in areas without. If we do not reduce the nutrients flowing into our streams, rivers and the Bay, the Blue Crab, and many other species that live in our coastal waters, will continue to dwindle. Our plates will be quite empty. “Just as it did in the DC area, Chesapeake Club capitalizes on our region’s love for fresh, abundant seafood,” explains Julia Hillegass, a senior planner and environmental educator with the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission (HRPDC). “The television spots are wildly popular with all ages.”
The ads appeal to our sense of humor, but they also urge us to make a commitment. The behavior we are asked to change, however, is really quite simple - don’t fertilize your lawn in the spring. Wait until fall to fertilize when fertilizer runoff is less likely and less damaging to the Bay. And, it doesn’t mean your lawn pays a price - it is actually better for your lawn if you wait `til fall to fertilize. The grass roots are better able to absorb nutrients contained in fertilizer in the fall. Virginia’s cool season grasses store more food and build healthier roots when fertilized in the cooler months of fall rather than spring. The result - more nutrients are available to the grass when it greens up in spring.
As it did during its first successful run in the DC area, the Chesapeake Club campaign is proving once again how important it is for a successful social marketing campaign to establish partnerships, particularly new and unique partnerships, that help it expand its resources and reach a larger audience with a consistent message. With funding from Virginia CZM and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, HRPDC (and its 17 localities), the City of Richmond, the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover, and the Chesterfield Cooperative Extension Office are recruiting lawn care companies and restaurants to help distribute the Chesapeake Club’s message to homeowners. “The Chesapeake Club campaign illustrates how nontraditional partnerships can help us spread and reinforce an environmental message in an unexpected and clever way,” explains Hillegass. “Restaurants in the Hampton Roads area have really jumped on the opportunity to participate in the campaign. They love the message and materials (coasters) and are eager to continue supporting the campaign into the future.”
So, after the ads have run, and the seeds of change have been planted, its these on-the-ground grassroots partnerships that will help keep the momentum going. Commitment sows commitment. In Chesterfield County that commitment can be seen in the county’s extension office staff, who personally connect with up to 700 homeowners a year. They are carrying the Chesapeake Club message out into the community and demonstrating how step by easy step, the individual homeowner can become a member of the club. “As we call landscapers about participating in the Chesapeake Club,” reports Heather Barrar, an environmental outreach coordinator with Chesterfield County, “we are finding that homeowners have already asked for bay friendly services. As it turns out, the homeowners recently received a visit from their county extension agent.”
