As an add on to the thread on herbicide use and training, or lack there
of, by some users. I can't remeber the source right now, but I recall
some fairly accurate estimates that the aaverage chemical application
per acre in suburbun and urban lawns and gardens is 4 times the amount
applied per acre in the highest known agricultural uses. I don't remember
if this included golf courses or not, but many courses use any enormous
number of agricultural chemicals. One of my first environmental
chemistry lessons: as an undergraduate in ST.Paul MN I measure
nitrate/nitrate levels in a stream in the twin cities. You could easily
tell, in late spring, which samples were just downstream from a golf
course by the large associated increase in nitrogen.

Why is this important-one of the prime development drives in many parts
of the world now is to attract tourist with golf courses. If these often
turn into enormous, indescrimant users of any chemical they can get there
hand on, we may see an effect not just localized to the immediate site of
development. (Any one of my favorite birding sites in grad school was
the Rose Bowl course in Pasadena, CA-sometimes home to wintering eurasian
widgeon, vermillion flycatchers, and Lewis woodpeckers!)

James Neitzel
The Evergreen State College
Lab I, Olympia WA 98505
neitzelj at elwha.evergreen.edu