Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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At FTCC, Goodness Grows! by JEFFREY WEBB The sun is just peeking through the trees that line the banks of the Cape Fear River when Lisa Snyder arrives at Fayetteville Technical Community College's Horticulture Educational Center. She looks forward to working with the many beautiful plants that fill the 4,000-square-foot green- house and dreams of one day owning and operating her own greenhouse. As a student-employee, Snyder receives valuable hands-on experience. Students in the Horticulture Technology curriculum who enrolled in the Plant Propagation class have spent the semester sowing seeds, transplanting seedlings, rooting cuttings, potting, feeding and watering two greenhouses full of plants while experiencing day- to-day operations of producing and caring for plants that will be placed up for sale. The students are given opportunities to apply what they learn in real- life situations. Just around the corner, students in the Landscape Construction class are finishing a brick-on-sand walkway and will soon begin constructing a zigzag wooden bridge. Students not only receive class- room material but also experiential learning — they get to practice the skills they are being taught. A few thumbs may get smashed along the way, but even beginners learn how to create the elements used in landscape design. In the Soils and Fertilizers class, students are bent over their calculators computing the amount of fertilizer needed to follow the recommendations from a soil test. Students apply skills they learn in other classes, such as Turfgrass, Greenhouse Operations and Landscape Management. FTCC's Horticulture Technology curriculum has a unique partnership with its next-door neighbor, Cape Fear Botanical Gardens, which allows Fayetteville Tech students access to these beautiful gardens and grounds as part of their studies on plants and landscaping. Cooperative projects exist that benefit both Reducing Emissions the Cape Fear Botanical Gardens and FTCC's horticulture students. The Horticulture Technology/Management curriculum at FTCC offers an associate degree in applied science as well as three certificate programs: Basic Horticulture, Basic Landscape Maintenance, and Horticulture Science. Students can complete the AAS degree in five semesters by going to school full time; the certificate programs can be completed sooner. A wide range of individuals enroll in the program. Some students have recently completed high school, while other students are retired military or older adults who seek lifelong learning opportunities. Some students are employed by the companies that sent them to FTCC to get valuable training needed for career advance- ment. The Horticulture Technology program covers most aspects of a diverse field of endeavor, and the program's emphasis on management teaches students about the basics of business and entrepreneurship. Careers in horticulture include landscape installa- manager, private gardener, garden designer and interiorscape technician, just to name a few. Each student receives an opportunity to learn about all these areas and more. In addition, the Horticulture Technology program encourages high school students to participate in dual-enrollment programs available in some schools. FTCC also offers some horticulture classes at no charge specifically for high school students, giving these students the opportunity to earn college credit while still completing high school diploma courses. Learn more about FTCC's Horticulture tion and management, wholesale and/or retail green- house and nursery, retail garden centers, turfgrass Technology curriculum by contacting me at webbj@faytechcc.edu or at 910-678-8447. JEFFREY WEBB, Department Chair, Horticulture Technology Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@upand- comingweekly.com From the Editors of Environmental Magazine Dear EarthTalk: What is "pesticide drift" and should I be worried about it? — Nicole Kehoe, Burlington, VT If you live near a big farm or an otherwise frequently manicured landscape, "pesticide drift" — drifting spray and dust from pesticide applications — could be an issue for you and yours. Indeed, pesticide drift is an insidious threat to human health as well as to wildlife and ecosys- tems in and around agricultural and even residential areas where harsh chemicals are used to ward off pests. The big- gest risk from pesticide drift is to those living, working or attending school near larger farms which employ elevated spraying equipment or crop duster planes to apply chemi- cals to crops and fields. Children are especially vulnerable to these airborne pesticides, given that their young bodies are still growing and developing. "When pesticides are sprayed they can drift and settle on Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made strides in protecting more of us against pesticide drift. In late 2009 the agency rolled out new guidelines directing pesticide manufacturers to include labeling on their products indicating how to mini- mize off-target spray and dust drift. Any spray pesticides manufactured or labeled as of January 2012 and for sale in the U.S. must display the warning on its label: "Do not apply this product in a manner that results in spray (or dust) drift that harms people or any other non-target or- ganisms or sites." The EPA is also conducting and monitoring new re- Thanks in large part to advocacy by PAN and other groups, the U.S. playgrounds, porches, laundry, toys, pools, furniture and more," reports the non-profit Pesticide Action Network (PAN). "Some of the most toxic pesticides in use in the U.S. today are also the most drift prone, and yet this common route of exposure remains largely invisible." "Even the most careful, responsible pesticide sprayer cannot control what happens to pesticide droplets once they are released from his plane or tractor," the group adds. "And when conditions are right, these droplets can end up set- tling on someone's yard, on another farmer's crops, or on the skin of someone who happens to be at the wrong place at the wrong time." PAN cites research showing that upwards of 95 percent of applied pesticides miss their target, reaching nearby people and wildlife, waterways, soil and air instead. Besides this "spray drift," PAN also warns of so-called "volatilization drift"—whereby pesticides evaporate into the air from off of crops or out of the soil for up to several days following an application. 28 UCW APRIL 25 - MAY 1, 2012 regulations on their books, pesticide drift continues to be a problem wherever crops are grown. If pesticide drift is an issue where you live, work, study or play, contact PAN. The group can send out a "Drift Catcher"—a device that collects air samples which can then be analyzed for pesticides. "It enables farmworkers and community members to document and draw attention to otherwise invisible chemical exposures," says PAN. CONTACTS: PAN, www.panna.org; EPA, ww.epa.gov/pesticides/factsheets/ spraydrift.htm. EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a Even though spray pesticides are now labeled and 28 states have drift spray registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine ( www.emagazine. com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emaga- zine.com/subscribe. WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM search on the science of pesticide drift to better under- stand how it works so regulations can be tailored to miti- gate its impact. The agency's Drift Reduction Technology Project is working with three leading universities to test a wide range of nozzles, hoods, shields and other aids to minimize drift during ground and aerial applications of pesticides.