Ask your landscape maintenance contractor to use these best management practices to help protect our waters, our environment and those you love!

Why bother with best management practices?

Best Management Practices (BMPs) are designed to protect both our streams and underground drinking water quality, and to prevent clogging our stormwater facilities. Implementing BMPs can make a positive difference to help protect our waters, properties, and public health.

Best Management Practices

• Do not blow or sweep trash, yard debris, soils or chemicals into street or storm drains. Collect and properly dispose of these materials.
• Properly compost or dispose of debris daily.
• Inspect and safely clean onsite landscape stormwater facilities (e.g., rain gardens, swales) to ensure they operate as designed.
• Mow high, often, and with sharp blades.
• Store fertilizers and other chemicals under cover.
• Purchase the least amount of landscape chemicals needed for your site.
• Use integrated pest management practices.
• Adjust sprinklers to minimize irrigation overspray.
• Check local rules! Never stockpile landscaping material (e.g., dirt, bark chips, sand gravel) in the roadway or on pervious pavement unless your municipality allows it.
• Roots hold soils in place. Plant slopes with dense ground covering plants to prevent erosion.

Important measures you can take

Do NOT apply pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers under windy conditions, or when rain, snow, sleet or hail is predicted within the next 48 hours.

What is wrong with this picture?

Common practices such as these can pollute our water:

1. Over spraying fertilizer/pesticides on the sidewalk and applying them under wet conditions.
2. Raking or blowing leaves and grass off yard and into streets.
3. Leaving pet waste that can carry bacteria to waterways.
4. Stockpiling landscape material into the street where it can be a driving safety hazard, clog drains, and result in pollution.
5. Allowing irrigation overspray to enter waterways.

Our Partner

OLWS is proud to partner with The Oregon Association of Clean Water Agencies (ACWA) to protect and enhance Oregon’s water quality. ACWA developed the information (provided above) in collaboration with groundwater, stormwater and education experts dedicated to practical and proactive water resources protection.

Supporting Documents