Luther College announces plans for lawn spraying

Luther College has announced that it will spray the lawns with herbicides the evening of Friday, May 27th, with Saturday, May 28th, and Sunday, May 29th, set as back up days as needed.

Luther Environmental Services Manager Ivan Hackman, in response to community requests, has established a no-spray "buffer zone" that will be observed around the Decorah Swimming Pool lawn so that the play area for children is protected. Other no-spray "buffer zones" include the dike areas, edible landscape areas and the Sustainability House. Spraying will take place after normal work hours and on weekends.

Luther vice president for Communications and Marketing Rob Larson said, "A number of modifications to our application process have been made to ensure that wind variability is taken into account with anemometer readings and that additional space is used as a buffer between Luther green space and public space, particularly in the area of the community pool."
 
Luther officials say wind speeds will be checked before the herbicide is sprayed and in no case will herbicide be applied when the wind speed exceeds 10 miles per hour.  A representative of Luther's Facilities Services will be present during the herbicide application process.