Ocean City Begins Pesticide-Free "Experiment"

By Donald Wittkowski The grounds of Ocean City’s historic Bayside Center are about to be given a lush new carpet of green sod as well as an irrigation system to make sure the grass remains healthy even during scorching summer days. But there will be something missing from the grass. There will be no fertilizer or pesticides put on it. Mayor Jay Gillian has decided to use the grounds of the Bayside Center as a test area that is free of pesticides and fertilizer. The “experiment” is in response to suggestions from local residents for the city to consider using environmentally friendly measures to take care of the grass, shrubbery and flowers on public property. “When work on the grounds of the Bayside Center is completed, the area will be sodded and irrigated. But no treatments of fertilizer or pesticides will be applied,” city spokesman Doug Bergen said. “The experiment is at the request of the mayor in response to citizen suggestions.” Ocean City operates the three-story Bayside Center as a combination museum, community center and nature center through a long-term lease with Cape May County, the building’s owner. It is a popular tourist attraction that features sprawling green grounds and a bayside marina. Before the county bought the building at 520 Bay Avenue in 1995, it had served as a private estate for the wealthy Wheaton family, founders of a glass manufacturing factory bearing their name as well as Wheaton Village in Millville, Cumberland County. The Wheatons were not the first owners, though. The mansion was built by the famous Diesel family, inventors of the diesel engine, as a summer retreat in 1916. The grounds of the Bayside Center at 520 Bay Avenue await new sod and an irrigation system. Under the city’s operation, a large section of the building has been converted into a nature center, where children and adults can learn about the seashore’s wildlife and eco-system. Other parts of the building function as a museum, including a display on the history of the Ocean City Beach Patrol. The bayside boat docks and the green space surrounding the building are used for recreation. Sailing lessons and bayside camps are offered during the summer as part of the recreation activities. City Business Administrator George Savastano said the decision to eliminate the use of pesticides at the Bayside Center is part of plans to make the site “as natural as we can.” “The first step would be using no pesticides,” Savastano told members of City Council at their April 25 meeting. One local environmental advocate in particular, Donna Moore, regularly appears at City Council meetings to urge the governing body to eliminate the use of pesticides from public property. In public remarks at the April 25 Council meeting, Moore, a former member of the city’s Environmental Commission, thanked the mayor for going pesticide-free at the Bayside Center. However, she disagreed with the decision to add sod and an irrigation system. She believes the city should use the grounds as an environmental “showpiece” to teach the public about the shore’s wetlands. “This is the perfect opportunity for creating a wetlands environment,” Moore told the mayor and Council members. Local environmental advocate Donna Moore, shown here speaking at a City Council meeting, often urges the governing body to end the use of pesticides on public property. Moore also suggested adding native plants, rain barrels and community gardens to the Bayside Center instead of having it “look like everything else” in the city. “This is an opportunity to do something else and make it a showpiece,” she said. Moore often addresses Council about the potential health risks of pesticides that are used by the city’s landscaping contractors for public grounds. In particular, she has pointed to the chemical dithiopyr, which is commercially used to control crabgrass and acts both as a pesticide and herbicide. Moore said it is a known cancer-causing agent and potential groundwater contaminant. She also explained that dithiopyr is toxic to fish, mollusks and plankton as well as insects such as honey bees. Moore has urged Council to have the city’s contractors begin using a more environmentally friendly chemical to control weeds on public grounds, including parks and playgrounds. The Council members have repeatedly told her that the city plans to study other possible chemicals as an alternative to dithiopyr, but no decisions have been made. The city has said it is not aware of actual health or water quality issues related to the landscaping of public grounds.