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LOGAN — One of the most prominent areas at Utah State University is now marred by dead grass.
A mix-up in chemicals damaged the lawn on Old Main Hill, and it now it will take months for it to completely recover.
Last fall, a worker was spraying what he thought was herbicide to help control dandelions and other broadleaf weeds that grow in the area, but something wasn’t quite right, according to Robert Reeder, director of landscape operations at USU.
"He came and mentioned it to us and said, 'Hey I noticed when I was applying the herbicide that it didn't smell right, and it smelled more like glyphosate,’ which is commonly known as Roundup,” Reeder said.
Now, about 40 percent of the grass on the Old Main Hill is dead. “Unfortunately, this is in a highly visible area of campus, kind of one of our showpiece areas,” he said.
Reeder said it turns out a container was not labeled correctly.
“Somebody either placed the wrong herbicide in the container, or the wrong container was taken and mixed into the batch,” he said.
Some changes have been made to the pesticide mixing area to prevent this from happening in the future.
The damage could be seen fairly quickly. “We jumped on it right away. We overseeded it. We washed it in a bit to kind of wash the herbicide out. We overseeded last fall just before snow fell to give it the best chance."
The process to fix the problem costs about $1,000.
Now that the snow has melted, the damage can be seen by everyone. Student Chelsey Jensen called the brown grass an eyesore.
“It’s a beautiful area,” said student Audrey Halverson. “It kind of stinks that it’s dead, but it looks like they’ve replanted grass.”
Now, Reeder said, all they can do is wait for warm weather to foster the conditions for germination of the seed. He expects the lawn will fully recovery; but until that happens, everyone is asked to stay off that portion of the hill.
He hopes the area will start to grow and turn green in time for commencement in May. If not, workers are prepared to apply a dye to the area.
Until then, there is still a lot of space on the south side where for now, the grass really is greener.
