coordinating with each school/town to supplement their maintenance and using a regional approach enables The Field Fund to offer technical support and specialized equipment at an affordable cost. That said, the costs cited below are specific to our work here on Martha’s Vineyard which is all subcontracted. these numbers reflect a 30% “Island markup” due to the fact we live on an island.
Our maintenance protocols and spending tie directly to exact use and field conditions.
For high use fields that support both school activities and after school recreational practices and games, we typically spend about $15-20,000 per year. This includes soil testing, supplemental mowing, surface and subsurface decompaction (6-8 times/year), slice seeding, high quality seed, fertilizer*, and irrigation tweaking.
For full size fields that are used by schools but do not support heavy use and play, we spend about $7-12,000 dollars per year. Again, this includes soil testing, supplemental mowing, surface and subsurface decompaction (4-6 times/year), slice seeding, seed, fertilizer*, and irrigation tweaking.
For fields that are not full sized and are exclusively used for recreational use, we spend about $5-7,000 per year. This supports soil testing, supplemental mowing, aeration (2-3 times/year), slice seeding, seed, and fertilizer*.
*Note: Some of the fields we help support cannot have fertilizer applications due to their proximity to public wells and water sources.
**Note: The Field Fund has, with the help from grants from the UMass Lowell’s Toxic Use Reduction Institute (TURI) and private donors, been able to invest in several key pieces of field equipment that make our jobs easier and work far more effective. Click to learn about our fleet and technology tools.