Madeline Leslie
Graduate Research Assistant
Applied Plant Science
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Did you know?
There are actually four similar species of fine fescues commonly used in seed mixes. These are creeping red fescue, Chewing’s fescue, hard fescue, and sheep fescue
Still curious?
Come join us for the following event:
USDA Outreach and Extension of Fine Fescues
I am working on a research project funded by a grant from the United States Department of Agriculture through the Specialty Crops Research Initiative. The overall goal of this project is to develop new low-input fine fescue turfgrass cultivars that provide economic and environmental benefits for consumers, land managers and the general public. My role within this endeavor is to assist in conducting outreach to consumer and public agencies and public officials. Once the results of a separate socio-marketing research component of the project are available, I will help devise different outreach plans tailored to each separate audience. One component of this will be building a public-facing website that will inform consumers and land managers about low-input find fescues, best management practices, and provide instruction on converting established lawns and turf to a new species of grass. Further outreach techniques will likely include using traditional information dissemination methods such as workshops and field days, as well as web-based tools such as webinars, podcasts, and social media. In addition to these ongoing activities, I recently completed the construction of a website which provides information about this project to academics and professionals who are interested in following our research.
Action Items
- Check out www.finefescue.umn.edu to keep up to date on the progress of the project.
- In the future, look for a website that will provide information about new low-input fine fescue species, low input management practices and general turf information.
- Peruse trial results conducted by NTEP, the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program, to learn more about the performance of fine fescue cultivars around the country.
Additional Resources
The website for the National Turfgrass Evaluation Program: http://www.ntep.org/