Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Third Time's a Charm: An Urban Landscape Summit Report Back

By Michael Gutierrez

 March 2018 marked year number three for the UF/IFAS Center for Landscape Conservation and Ecology Urban Landscape Summit. Arguably the best summit to date, this year’s event included informative and sometimes surprising insight from experts actively involved in developing solutions for urban landscape issues in Florida. UF/IFAS Miami-Dade Florida Yards and Neighborhoods (FYN) Coordinator Laura Vasquez traveled from South Florida to Gainesville to attend the event and agreed to share her summit experience with IrriGator.
Can you tell us about the work you do as Miami-Dade's FYN Coordinator?
LV: Our program encompasses three different sections: the Florida-Friendly Landscape portion of FYN, the irrigation portion (which is the Urban Conservation Unit) and also the rain barrels in schools program. I coordinate different events with the staff and work in each of the sections to help achieve program goals and teach landscape sustainability.
What was your primary motivation behind attending Urban Landscape Summit 2018?
LV: My primary motivation is learning about all these issues and solutions affecting urban landscapes and trying to apply them to our program in South Florida.
Was there any presentation(s) that really surprised you this year with new/original information?
LV: The presentation that stood out for me was the soil and tissue testing for Florida turfgrasses talk by Dr. Travis Shaddox from Fort Lauderdale REC. He talked about how much of the tissue testing for turfgrass is void. When someone does a tissue test, they receive a report that offers recommendations on how much fertilizer should be applied. He explained how there hasn’t been much research for establishing ranges for fertilizer application. So now Dr. Shaddox is working on establishing ranges of what should be applied based on tissue test results.


The fact that this is just now being addressed was surprising to me. This new insight suggests that recommending any kind of fertilizer use based on test results is not something we should continue to do.
Did you learn anything that you feel you can immediately apply to your work in Miami-Dade?
LV: With respect to the previous question definitely. Don’t be so quick to recommend soil/tissue testing since the usefulness of results are in question. In addition, researcher Bernard Cardenas presented a study on how quickly rain sensors dry out. According to his work, on average rain sensors dry out within 24 hours. For me this indicates that rain sensors are not the best option.
Miami-Dade Extension's Laura Vasquez conducts an FFL certification 
That’s fascinating, given that rain sensors are often the simplest/most practical option for preventing unnecessary irrigation. So what’s the alternative?
LV: For now, we’ll continue to push weather-based irrigation controllers/cloud-based controllers and shy away from rain sensors. Many homeowners depend on rain sensors but having this confirmation that they dry much faster than moisture in the soil was kind of surprising.


Your team has been consistent about attending the summit every year. What would you say to anyone working in your field that has been thinking about attending but hasn't yet?
LV: The best advice I would give is that if you really want to expand your knowledge of landscape sustainability, irrigation technology and on-going research that’s happening at the University - not only by professors but also students, so many students presenting posters with new ideas - this summit is one you should attend. There are opportunities as well to network with the people that are initiating all this work - one-on-one contact with top researchers in landscape sustainability and irrigation.

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