Safe Lawns Mission To create a broad-based coalition of non- and for-profit organizations committed to educating society about the benefits of organic lawn care and gardening, and effect a quantum change in consumer and industry behavior. http://safelawns.org/ History In the spring of 2006, with water quality, chemical exposure and global warming emerging as mainstream issues, Paul Tukey, founder and publisher of People, Places & Plants magazine contacted a group of motivated and qualified professionals from the for-profit and non-profit sectors to try and figure out how to take organic turf care and grounds maintenance in the United States to the next level. Sixteen people gathered together at the American Horticultural Society’s River Farm in Alexandria, VA the following in July to help work out the vision that would become SafeLawns.org, and in less than one year, SafeLawns has touched literally millions through the Internet, print and broadcast media, and face to face contact at green industry shows, conferences and garden club meetings across America. In January 2007, SafeLawns hired a full time Executive Director, and three months later, in April 2007, launched a three pronged campaign to fundamentally change the way that American turf care and grounds maintenance are done. Held on “America’s Front Yard,” the National Mall in Washington, DC, it marked the emergence of a strong movement toward halting the pollution of our soil water and bodies by toxic lawn fertilizers and chemicals.