In a continued effort to apply Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices within LARMAC’s landscape, the LARMAC Board is pleased to share this update of an organic landscape consulting contract with Osborne Organics. The scope of work is focused on gathering information and developing a transitional plan to organic pest management at the following locations: • Founders Park • Oso Grande Park • Chaparral Park • Cambridge/Covenant Hills Drive Greenbelt Area • Wagsdale Park All portions of the parks (turf and planter beds) have been included in this transitional program, which is estimated to occur over the next 2-3 years. The initial process will involve site analysis, review of current and historical maintenance practices and soil tests. The work that began earlier this year is part of a transitional process. Soil tests have been completed and once the results have been analyzed, the preliminary program will begin. When moving from a chemical materials program to an organic one, it should not be expected that everything is completed by the end of Year One. New practices will be introduced over the transitional three-year process. This will include improving soil health, introducing new product, and ultimately looking to have a healthy, biologically active soil that will improve plant health and vigor and maintain expectations. Throughout the transition, Osborne Organics will set goals to create a soil and plant environment that will require less input in the years that follow. The determination of a management level depends upon the communicated individual site expectations. Site expectations govern the level of cultural intensity. Cultural intensity is everything that goes into managing the Ladera Ranch site. This includes labor, product input, and water. Product applications will be natural, organic and preferably materials that are approved by the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI). If a product is not able to be sourced to meet the above criteria, an organic compatible product that is not OMRI certified will be allowed. This includes fertilizers, soil amendments, microbial inoculates, and those amendments that are considered to be microbial food sources.

Update from the people who Enforce the Healthy Schools Act. Pretty soon Ladera Schools will be in compliance and we will be able to review the Pesticide Usage Reports for the fields our kids use (if compliant) dating back two years. I find this information extremely valuable for health concerns... Good afternoon Kara, Yesterday we had a conference call with Ken Gibson and some representatives from LARMAC, O'Connell Landscape, and Animal Pest Management. We discussed the Healthy Schools Act (HSA) responsibilities of the school district and the responsibilities that would fall on the pest control companies. We focused on explaining how Founders Park counts as a schoolsite under the Healthy Schools Act and covered training requirements. Overall I think it was a productive meeting, everyone had great questions and were open to learning the details of the HSA. Moving forward we have asked for records of applications done to Founders Park from the pest control companies. We have offered to assist them in compiling those records since they were unaware the law applied to Founders Park. Also, we were happy to hear that LARMAC and O'Connell Landscape will be contacting Capistrano USD to talk in detail over the use agreement and designate Healthy Schools Act responsibilities. Thank you, Estela Navarro Environmental Scientist California Department of Pesticide Regulation Pest Management and Licensing Branch School Integrated Pest Management Program P: (916)445-1851 ​ ​

Ladera Ranch has been Roundup/Glyphosate free since mid 2017! I was just notified of this by my contacts in LARMAC. WE DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE! Thank you to everyone in this group. Continue to invite and share! Thank you to Jennifer Powers for making some noise. 🙂 I have been in meetings with Mission Viejo, but it looks like we can also get a meeting with officials in LR soon. Mission Viejo is making great progress and soon both of these cities can be completely NON TOXIC. There is still much to be done. Feel free to shoot an email to our HOA and say you want toxic chemicals out of our city. contact.larmac@laderalife.com