Slippery Rock University
OP-9: Landscape Management

82 acres of building footprints, impervious surfaces, sports fields and bodies of water have been excluded.

Emphasis of the IPM is placed on integrating interior and exterior strategies, while employing non-chemical practices such as: - Exclusion, such as screening and caulking; - Habitat modification , such as reducing the humidity in a room or thinning close-in shrubbery; - Sanitation, such as eliminating organic matter buildup in drains or cafeteria equipment; - Building maintenance, such as eliminating gaps around exterior door or sealing around utility entrances; - Trapping, such as modifying or installing insect light traps; - Monitoring, using insect or rodent glue boards or non-lethal rodent traps to capture pests. - Use of least toxic chemicals as pesticides when absolutely required at specific locations for the targeted species.

The Wolf Creek, Old Stone House, and Macoskey Center sites total 198 acres and are managed to an organic land care standard.These properties are regularly managed and maintained without the use of chemical pesticides, fungicides and herbicides.

The SRU Environmental Zoning Committee oversees all uses of outdoor university property to avoid infringement on areas such as Audubon Wildlife Sanctuaries and outdoor classroom areas and to ensure appropriate, sustainable methods are used when any land use changes occur. In 2012, an official Land Use Project Request Form was introduced to make sure the appropriate entities (Sustainability Office, Facilities Grounds group, Environmental Zoning Committee, etc.) review any proposed temporary or permanent use of campus property and recommend native/ecologically appropriate plants and trees for proposed landscaping initiatives.

SRU uses a campus stormwater retention system consisting of a series of connected streams, retention ponds and small lakes to minimize stormwater overflow and soil erosion. A small solar-powered rainwater collection and drip irrigation system is used in the Smith Student Center East Parking Lot. It features a green area where an environmentally friendly rainwater collection system captures rainfall in an underground manhole, where a 65-watt pump distributes the water to a drip irrigation system serving the planters in this area. The pump is powered by a solar photovoltaic panel located on the roof of the building. In addition, the Smith Student Center West Parking Lot features an environmentally friendly stormwater bioswale, porous pavement, and three bioretention rain gardens that minimize soil erosion silt run-off by capturing/filtering stormwater runoff on-site, rather than channeling it to the municipal stormwater system. The largest parking lots on campus (East and West Lake Parking Lots) also employ drainage opening at the bottom of the parking space "bumpers" that funnel run-off water below grade via a perforated piping system.

SRU composts pre-consumer food wastes from Boozel Dining Hall at the Macoskey Center for Sustainable Systems Education and Research. Leaves in many areas are also mulched on-site, and tree trimmings are kept on site to create additional habitat or to provide firewood for the Macoskey Center wood stove.

Indigenous planting areas have been incorporated into new building sites, and very little potable water is used for site irrigation(except for two athletic fields and a number of water-reservoir type potted plant containers that do use potable water, but in a very efficient manner).

SRU uses snow-melting systems at major building entrances to minimize the use of chemicals, and salting is normally only done after snow plowing/manual snow removal is completed when conditions require it (SRU does not typically salt in preparation for a potential storm). We use an “Ice melt blend” on the campus sidewalks which has calcium chloride, sodium chloride and potassium/magnesium chloride in it. Bulk rock salt is used for streets, parking lots and driveways.