Building an Extension Program for the Fine Fescue SCRI Grant.

Public land managers, public policy experts, consumers, turfgrass professionals, seed sales people, seed producers and plant breeders were targets of the outreach plan for the fine fescue-SCRI grant.  The latter all have varying perspectives on low-input turf.  Flexibility in the types of outreach and extension programs was required and informed through socio-marketing research of the audience’s preferences for delivery systems. The objective was to determine the most effective method to reach varying audiences with information about low-input turfgrass.  Needs assessments, consumer surveys, video and written descriptions of low-input turf, fine fescue demonstrations on campus, public gardens and public parks were utilized.  Two online surveys of residents of the Twin Cities Metro area were conducted; participants were asked questions about their lawn maintenance practices as well as their understanding of local watersheds and related environmental issues. Both surveys found that approximately one third of respondents had misconceptions about the connection between their yards and local waterways.  In addition, the second survey compared two educational methods and found that an individual’s intent to change behavior was more strongly affected when information was provided to them via an online fact sheet rather than a video.