?Nothing Beats Nature?: Park Visitor Preferences for Natural Turfgrass and Artificial Turf: A Case Study

Green spaces comprising natural turfgrass are ubiquitous in urban areas globally and allow for a variety of ecosystem services that benefit nature and people. However, traditional natural turfgrass is often critiqued for the number of inputs (e.g., fertilizer, water) required to maintain it. With those critiques in mind, some cit-ies have turned to artificial turf as an alternative groundcover despite environmental and human health concerns (e.g., heavy metal leaching, volatile organic compounds). Research of artificial turf has been minimal compared with that of the growth of in-stallations, especially related to social aspects of the surface. The current research used an in-person experiential case study of park visitors in the Twin Cities Metropol-itan Area of Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN, USA, to investigate how individuals perceived artificial turf compared with natural turfgrass as it relates to potential uses (e.g., rest-ing/relaxing) and beliefs about sustainability (e.g., environmental impacts). Overall, participants preferred natural turfgrass across all uses but two (recreational and or-ganized sports). The largest differences were observed for the use for picnic areas and the use for play areas for pets. Participants also perceived natural turfgrass as more sustainable than artificial turf, corresponding to the contribution to human health and well-being. In contrast, participants equally perceived the use of these sur-faces in terms of natural resources. These findings have implications for public land managers, urban planners, city councils, and other stakeholders because they con-sider the adoption of artificial turf or other possible alternatives (e.g., low-input turf -grasses, bee lawns) to traditional turfgrass in the communities and their sustainability, maintenance, and cost-savings.