Keeping Nutrients Where You Need Them

Oct 15, 2018

A green lawn, gorgeous landscaping, or that backyard garden usually means the application of fertilizer in one form or another. However, that fertilizer doesn’t always stay on your property and if it gets into the watershed, this nitrogen and phosphorus can have a real, measurable impact on the surrounding waterbodies.

Every summer, the Mississippi River brings enough fertilizer and other nutrients to the Gulf of Mexico to cause the formation of a low oxygen area known as hypoxia, or more commonly, the “Dead Zone.”

The Gulf of Mexico is a large-scale example, but even smaller watersheds can see impacts from excess nutrients in the form of fish kills, algae blooms, or waterbodies that are unsafe for human contact.

Every step taken to limit how much of these additional nutrients get into surrounding watersheds helps and it can start in your own backyard. Read more here.