Georgia Institute of Technology
OP-9: Landscape Management

The total campus area is inclusive of the footprint of the institution's buildings and any undeveloped land that is not formally protected.

The objective of Georgia Tech’s IPM plan is to reduce the occurrence of pests while ensuring minimal human exposure to health risk, and inflicting minimal hazards on the environment. An effective and environmentally sensitive approach to pest management that relies on a combination of the following common-sense practices designed to reduce the amount of pesticides used in landscape management:

● Cultural practices - Selection of native plants, analysis of soil type, location and soil preparation, and planting beds free of weeds and disease material

● Identification - Accurate identification of the pest problems and the use of recommended products at proper rates

● Intervention - Physical (mowing, pulling and pruning) or chemical (pre-emergence and post emergence)

The IPM plan consists of the following steps

1. Set Action Threshold and Scouting: Determine acceptable damage threshold in the event of infestation and scout.
2. Prevention: Plant pest resistant varieties; native plants; keep plants healthy; fertilize and water regularly with proper soil preparation. Apply mulch 2 times per year to prevent weeds and increase soil moisture content.
3. Monitor and Identify Pests: Ensure proper pest identification, monitor life cycle and stages of pests, track seasonally to document increase/decrease of pest infestations.
4. Control: When possible, control pests with cultural, mechanical and conventional chemical control. Chemical intervention should be used as a last resort, and when used, should be applied at the recommended lower rate.

Georgia Tech campus vegetation plays both an ecological and a design role. It is the single most important player in making a sustainable campus and contributes to both beauty and environmental health. At Georgia Tech the sustainable use of vegetation is governed by ecological principles, site assessment, and interface with human use. Georgia Tech acknowledges the importance of using native plant species in landscaping practices as noted it improves the environment. Once, established native plants do not need pesticides, fertilizers, or watering as they accustomed to local condition; therefore, they are more resistant to pest problems. As a result, pesticides are seldom needed improving the water quality. In addition, the use of native plants reduces or eliminates the need for irrigation since they are used to the rainfall cycle of the local environment. This allows for a better stormwater management. To ensure that native vegetation is protected the campus IPM plan is used as it is vital to our efforts to protect native vegetation from contamination or spread of invasive species.

Several bioswales are in place within the Georgia Tech campus, in addition to the implementation of the Eco-Commons. The Eco-Commons underlies in the idea of “hydrological convergence” in trying to restore a forest hydrology rather than a typical urban watershed. The Eco-Common includes expanding woodlands along with man-made storage and irrigation systems to intercept, infiltrate, harvest, and redistribute stormwater and condensate from buildings.

Grounds keeping waste is generally composted in place - for Grass clippings are recycled through the use of mulching mowers, reducing nitrogen requirements of the soil, and minimizing impact on landfill waste. Leaves are either a) blown into bed areas to serve as natural mulch for plant material, or b) removed to a compost area, where they are allowed to break down until they can be used for soil amendments, etc. The Facilities Landscape Department recycles 98% of all the grass clippings, 80% of all wood products, 97% of fallen leaves and about 25% of pruning products from shrubs on campus.

The current Campus Master Plan (http://www.space.gatech.edu/masterplan/index.html) includes sustainability as a main focus.

Georgia Tech is located in a temperate climate that receives little to no snow or ice on roadways. When needed, Georgia Tech’s Office of Emergency Preparedness will closely monitor weather conditions and assist Facilities Operations and Maintenance in being aware of the potential for a winter storm. The campus begins to reduce the negative impacts of snow and ice early, before they can accumulate and therefore become a bigger problem than necessary. This is done first through snow plow blades that can be attached to trucks and second through an Ice-melt a low concentrated brine solution in addition to sand. No rock salt is used as it kills the plants.

[1]Tree Campus USA
[2]STARS REPORTING
[3]Landscape Plan
[4]PGMS Accreditation