Facility Services

            

For UWSP sporting events, the Grounds Work Unit does all the needed preparation, including field striping, leveling, raking, painting logos and all other necessary functions.  The campus fields are host to a variety of sporting competitions and are also used for practice areas for Baseball, Cross Country, Football, Outdoor Track & Field, Golf, Soccer, Softball, and Tennis.

            

Fields on the university campus are also used for a wide variety of intramural sports. The Grounds Work Unit takes great pride in maintaining 7 acres of fields which are primarily used for general sporting activities, as well as Rugby, Lacrosse, Soccer, Flag Football, Frisbee and much more. The same care that is put into UWSP’s competitive venues is given to these multi-use areas.

            

All members of the Grounds staff that apply pesticides are state certified for applying restricted-use chemicals. What is important to note is that the UWSP Grounds Work Unit do not utilize any restricted-use chemicals, however the staff uses the same demanding application procedures when applying pesticides on campus. Whenever pesticides or fertilizers are applied, a MOD is distributed in advance of the application notifying campus of the event.

            

With the eco system in mind, organic based fertilizers are used in over 2/3rds of campus applications. The Grounds Work Unit uses ‘Nature Safe’ fertilizer which is constituted from animal proteins. The feather meal, blood meal, meat meal and bone meal found in ‘Nature Safe’ are the same ingredients used in animal nutrition and pet foods.  Synthetic fertilizers are only applied when grassy areas need to be turned around in a short period of time. Product 2-4D is used on grassy areas to control broadleaf weeds including dandelions, chickweed, and plantain.  Pesticides are used once per year in the summer. 'Nature Safe' fertilizers are used on athletic fields 3 times throughout the year.

 

95% of all flower beds and gardens on campus are cared for by the Grounds Work Unit staff and student workers.  The flora is intended to be as diverse as our community.  We have over 200 berms, gardens and planters across campus of which all are weeded by hand and mulched multiple times throughout the growing season.  Fresh mulch is applied to the gardens in late spring and early summer, then again as needed to keep the berm looking good.  The grounds work unit spreads over 140 yards (63 ton) of screened compost each year. There are a few gardens found on campus that are maintained by student organizations like the Sustainable Campus Garden, Ethnobotanical Garden and the Herb Garden.The Sustainable Campus Garden is used as an outdoor classroom teaching students about local food production by offering workshops on topics from canning to composting.             

            

 

            

The Grounds Work Unit continually looks for innovative ways to utilize growing space on the university campus. A vacant lot on campus, intended for future use as parking space, is currently being used as a tree nursery. Through coordination with university professors and the Grounds staff, this otherwise empty space acts as a classroom where students can learn how to plant and care for trees. The trees that are grown and cared for in this nursery are in turn replanted throughout the campus, providing oxygen, beauty and shade for years to come.      

 

            

The Facility Services Department provides snow and ice removal for most of the UWSP campus. The only exception being areas immediately adjacent to residential living facilities. These areas are served by Residential Living staff.  There are 12 miles of sidewalk, numerous driveways, numerous handicap ramps, loading docks, service roads, as well as 27 parking lots of various sizes that must be expeditiously plowed and or salted for safe accessibility during winter months. The Grounds Work Unit is always looking for reasonable and sustainable means for snow and ice removal. We currently pretreat our stairs and sidewalks with a liquid brine solution that limits snow and ice from sticking to pavement. The brine pretreat makes it much easier to remove snow from these surfaces and it greatly reduces the amount of rock salt needed for deicing.

            

To better serve the needs of the campus, Facility Services has implemented the concept of “weather focus”. In short, this concept allows us to direct our staff (regardless of job classification) to address weather related emergencies.

            

For information regarding the “Weather Focus” process, please refer to the Facility Services Winter Weather Response Plan by clicking here.

            

The Grounds Work Unit’s Snow Removal Map can be viewed by clicking here.

            

The UWSP Facility Services Snow Removal Plan can be viewed by clicking the snowflake below.

            

Mowing the many lawned areas across campus on a regular basis helps keep the grass short, neat and even. This also gives the lawns a manicured and orderly appearance.  More importantly, mowing the lawn helps keep it healthy and eliminates some of the pests from grass at the same time.  It also ensures that various pieces of debris are picked up and are cleared every week, so that nothing really accumulates on the grass. We cut the academic green spaces once per week at a height of 2.5 inches. We cut athletic fields twice per week at a height of 2 inches.