Luther College is changing its practices on lawn spraying

In an effort to be more sustainable, Luther College has reduced campus-wide spraying to an annual herbicide-spraying application in the fall.

That means instead of holding a campus-wide lawn spraying in the spring, the college will instead spot spray later this week.  Luther will continue to fertilize the campus lawns in the spring, but Friday and Saturday crews hired by the school will only spray a few areas around the athletic fields.  The spraying will be done outside of normal work hours. It also will be cancelled if the wind speeds exceed 10 miles an hour.  A representative of Luther's Facilities Services department will be present during the application.

The application will be done according to the product guidelines and in compliance with the Safety Data Sheet, which contains information on the potential health effects of chemical exposure and lists safe working procedures users should adhere to when handling chemicals.

Luther's previous policies in regard to herbicide spraying led to a protest in 2012, when around 60 people walked from Wayside Park near the College Drive Bridge to the Decorah Swimming Pool to protest Luther College's spraying of lawn herbicides over the Memorial Day Weekend.  The college since then has made several changes in its policies.