University of California, Santa Cruz
OP-9: Landscape Management

The Campus Natural Reserve is approximately 410 acres of open space.

The Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems manages 32 acres on campus as a certified organic farm for education and research. The facility practices and teaches organic soil management, alternative pest control measures, water conservation, and biodiversity on both home garden and commercial scales.

The UCSC Grounds Services practices Integrated Pest Management (as defined by the EPA) when responding to pest problems in the landscape as well as in office and residential areas in buildings. Integrated Pest Management is a strategy that focuses on long-term prevention or suppression of pest problems through a combination of techniques such as monitoring for pest presence, using non-chemical practices to make the habitat less conducive to pest development, improving sanitation, and employing mechanical and physical controls. Pesticides that pose the least possible hazard and are effective in a manner that minimizes the risks to people, property, and the environment, are used only after careful monitoring indicates they are needed. When it is determined that the appropriate response to a pest problem involves the application of pesticides, the materials used are required to have been evaluated for use on campus by UCSC's Environmental Health & Safety Environmental Programs unit. Materials on the Proposition 65 list are not used.

Planting areas outside building compounds should relate to the surrounding native plant community and utilize native plants, closely related species, or, in specific and limited locations, ornamentals successfully used on campus. Selected plant species should be water efficient, requiring little or no irrigation, so as not to affect drainage and availability of water to existing native species, and to minimize water usage on campus.

Most stormwater is infiltrated to the underlying karst aquifer.

All tree crew trimmings are chipped and used on-site for landscape mulch. Logs larger than we can chip are either stored and chipped on-site by contract tub grinder and used on-site or milled for lumber to be used on-site.
All but 15% of turf area is mowed with mulching deck mowers.
The remaining 15% (competition soccer field) turf area is vacuumed, collected and taken to the City of Santa Cruz Green Waste for composting.
10% of landscape clippings and leaves are used on-site for erosion control. Ninety percent is collected and taken to the City of Santa Cruz Green Waste for composting.

The grounds at UCSC are monitored internally by a dedicated crew. The Grounds Services unit utilizes water flow software with control valves to monitor flow being irrigated on every plot of landscape, field, or other areas. The amount of flow delivered to an area will be adjusted to account for humidity, precipitation, and temperature, to avoid over-watering.