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Hampton University will install synthetic turf at Armstrong Stadium later this spring and the field will be ready well in advance of the 2014 football season.

"A huge deal," HU coach Connell Maynor said. He said a new, state-of-the-art turf field is a recruiting tool and will allow the team to practice outside in bad weather.

Poor conditions forced the Pirates indoors on several occasions last season, because both Armstrong Stadium and the practice field behind the stadium have natural grass surfaces.

"You can't expect a football team to go out and win a football game, not practicing outside and having to practice inside in the gym," Maynor said. "That's going to be huge for our football program and the direction we're trying to take it, where we won't miss a practice."

Installation will begin after graduation, May 11, and is expected to be complete by the end of June or early July, Maynor said. He said the cost of the project is approximately $800,000, but that the expense will be offset by savings from maintaining a natural grass field.

"You're talking about a turf (field) that's going to last you 10-15 years," he said. "You look at the cost of painting a grass field, seeding, watering, upkeep, maintenance, you're saving a ton of money by going with the turf."

Hampton U. officials selected AstroTurf's 3D Decade product, which comes with a 10-year warranty and is considered one of the industry's best and most durable surfaces. Old Dominion installed similar surfaces at S.B. Ballard Stadium and the football practice fields at the L.R. Hill Complex.

The present field at Armstrong Stadium will be excavated. Base construction and a drainage system will be installed before the artificial surface is laid down.

HU's home opener is Sept. 6 against William and Mary.

Fairbank can be reached by phone at 757-247-4637.

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Hampton University to install artificial turf at Armstrong Stadium

A new satellite image shows grass fires scattered like seeds across the Kansas prairie.

And in fact, these fires are a bit like seeds, in that they are a crucial part of the prairie ecosystem.

"We cant have prairie without fire," Jason Hartman of the Kansas Forest Service told NASA's Earth Observatory, which released the satellite image today (April 9).

The Flint Hills of eastern Kansas are the site of most of the remaining tallgrass prairie in the United States. These rippling grasslands represent only 4 percent of the 170 million acres (688,000 square kilometers) that once blanketed the plains. The flint rock of eastern Kansas kept early farmers from tilling the land and saved the grass, according to the state's Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. [Images: The Unexpected Beauty of Tallgrass Prairie]

The prairies evolved to flourish after lightning-sparked fires, a fact humans have long taken advantage of. The Native Americans who once hunted this region lit fires to burn off dead vegetation, encouraging new growth that attracted bison and other large game. Modern ranchers also use controlled burns to clear soil for younger, more nutritious plants for their cattle, Earth Observatory reported.

Spring is controlled fire season at Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve. According to the National Park Service, prescribed burning was going on March 28th and March 29th, 2014. This image, snapped by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Aqua satellite, was acquired March 31. Red areas are burn scars from recent fires.

Tallgrass prairies may seem dull and undifferentiated to the untrained eye, but they're actually a complex and diverse ecosystem. About 80 percent of prairie vegetation is grass (40 to 60 species), with the remainder made up of more than 300 species of wildflowers, plus trees, scrubs and lichens, according to Live Science's Our Amazing Planet. The roots of these plants form tangles deep in the prairie sod, enabling early settlers to cut bricks from the soil. And these plant communities support more than 400 species of birds, 53 species of reptiles and 28 species of amphibians.

In March, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed one of these species, the lesser prairie chicken (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) on its list of threatened wildlife. The prairie chicken, actually a grouse, is identifiable by its yellow head and red, puffy neck. It has lost more than 80 percent of its habitat to human development, including ranching, wild farms and oil and gas drilling.

Follow Stephanie Pappas on Twitterand Google+. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.

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Kansas Grass Fires Seen from Space

Legislation to ban the sale or use of genetically modified lawn seed in Connecticut won state Senate approval Wednesday even though GMO grass isn't expected to be available here for at least one to two years.

The bill had the strong support of the Senate's top Democratic leader, Donald Williams Jr. of Brooklyn. But the legislation now heads to the House, where it faces opposition from that chamber's top Democrat, House Speaker Brendan Sharkey of Hamden, a fact likely to derail the bill.

Questions about what the House would do with the GMO seed ban didn't deter its Senate supporters, nor did claims by critics that such a prohibition was premature and unsupported by scientific evidence. The bill passed the Senate on a mostly party-line 25-11 vote, with three Republicans voting in favor.

Advocates of the ban warned that use of the herbicide- and pesticide-resistant GMO grass seed would encourage homeowners and businesses to use far more potentially harmful weed-killing chemicals on their lawns.

"One of the great threats to us in this country today is the invasion of pesticides," said state Sen. Edward Meyer, D-Guilford. He said allowing the use of GMO seeds in this state would result in the use of "huge quantities of pesticides" because homeowners could spread those chemicals all over their lawns without damaging the grass.

Williams said the GMO seeds being developed by Monsanto and Scott's make the grass resistant to the popular weed-killer Roundup. The primary herbicide in Roundup is glyphosate, which some studies have linked to a variety of pollution and health problems.

"All of the organic farmers I've talked to are wildly in favor of this [ban]," Williams said. He explained the great fear of organic farmers is that the GMO grass could spread to their properties and crops, while environmentalists worry about the pollution effects of increased herbicide use.

Opponents of the ban said the scientific evidence is unclear on GMO grass and that there is the possibility that it could result in less use of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers.

Senate Republican Leader John McKinney of Fairfield urged lawmakers to adopt a two-year moratorium on the sale of GMO seed rather than an outright ban. He said the state should "take a more cautious approach" and require further study before enacting a ban.

The Senate rejected McKinney's proposal on a 23-13 vote.

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Senate OKs Ban On Genetically Modified Lawn Seed

In 2010, I wrote a long profile of Jim Flaherty on the theme of whether he was one of Canadas greatest finance ministers. When it came time to draw conclusions, I equivocated. Maybe, I summarized in more words than that; time will tell.

Time told. He was.

Back then, one could start asking about Mr. Flahertys place in the pantheon because he just had stared down an economic calamity of the like that few of his predecessors ever had faced. He died Thursday.

Ottawa was ill-prepared for the financial crisis. It had been a long time since the Finance Department had been asked to think about spending money. Mr. Flaherty, who, until three weeks ago, was Prime Minister Stephen Harpers only finance minister, inherited a budget surplus in 2006. He promptly narrowed it by cutting taxes, including the Goods and Services Tax, a fiscal sin for which few in the economics academy will ever forgive him. Besides trimming taxes, Mr. Flaherty had made clear the only other thing that mattered was paying down debt.

It is fine to be guided by your intellectual instincts when the economy is strong: The creation of jobs and wealth tends to cover up policy mistakes. The test comes when the good times end. Mr. Flaherty in 2008 confronted a situation that only could be reversed by heavy government spending.

This was a difficult moment for him. His economic philosophy was based on a rejection of the stagnation that marked Pierre Trudeaus tenure as prime minister. The last thing he wanted to do was run up the debt by paving roads, refurbishing hockey rinks and building gazebos. But he did it because after considering all the evidence, he knew it was the right thing to do. Not only did he sign off on the spending, but he made clear that he didnt mind if some of the money was wasted. The point was to flush the economy with cash, not worry about an embarrassing report someday by the auditor-general.

His leadership helped Canada overcome the most serious financial crisis since the 1930s, John Manley, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and a former political enemy of Mr. Flahertys, said Thursday in a statement. His astute judgment, thoughtful pragmatism and strength of character inspired confidence during a period of profound uncertainty and economic risk.

Ending the crisis was the easy part. Put bluntly, once the water is flowing, all you have to do is hold the hose until the flames are extinguished. It is the rebuilding that is difficult, which was why it would have been presumptuous in 2010 to conclude definitively that Mr. Flaherty had earned the same level of respect accorded to former finance ministers such as Paul Martin and Michael Wilson.

The budget Mr. Flaherty introduced in February answered one of the questions that lingered over his legacy. For an unabashed, if occasionally flexible, fiscal conservative, Mr. Flahertys tenure only could have been considered a complete success if he returned Canadas books to balance. With a little creative accounting, his last budget probably could have been written in black ink rather than red. There is little doubt that Mr. Flahertys restraint since the crisis will leave Canada with a budget surplus next year, if not sooner.

Economists will argue over how to score that achievement. Just this week, the International Monetary Fund indicated that Mr. Harpers government could stand to be a little less austere. With borrowing costs at record-low levels, there is a strong case that countries such as Canada should be taking advantage of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild crumbling infrastructure. Lacklustre economic growth and shaky business confidence would benefit from the spending. Mr. Flaherty did a bit of this, but not a lot. Its fair to argue that Mr. Flahertys quest to balance the budget neednt have been so intense. He would argue otherwise, probably with the example of middle-class Canadians who dropped their keys at his law office in the 1980s, unable to pay double-digit mortgage rates.

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Stubborn, but right: How Ill remember Jim Flaherty

Aviation Boatswains Mate (Handling) 1st Class Cesar Rivera gives Sailors self-contained breathing apparatus training during a general quarters drill aboard the Bush.

Sailors receive self-contained breathing apparatus training during a general quarters drill aboard the Bush.

Aviation Electronics Technician 1st Class Phill Jones, right, instructs Sailors on pipe patching techniques during a general quarters drill.

Sailors assigned to security division participate in an M16 live fire exercise.

Aviation Ordnanceman Airman Jeremy Cleveland, from Habersham, Ga., inspects FMU139 fuses on BBU-54 bombs.

Sailors prepare for general quarter drills on the flight deck.

Sailors assigned to security division participate in an M16 training exercise.

Aviation Ordnanceman 2nd Class Jason McManus, second from the left, conducts MK122 switch training on BBU-54 bombs.

Sailors aboard the Bush enjoy a concert by The Mulligan Brothers, a bluegrass band.

Aviation Machinist's Mate 3rd Class Robert Howell, left from Spotsylvania, Va., Aviation Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Benjamin Newman, center, from Arlington, Texas, and Aviation Machinist's Mate 2nd Class Jonathan Neely, from Spartanburg, S.C., mount an F404 turbo fan engine from an F/A-18C Hornet on an engine rack in preparation for maintenance.

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Photos: The USS George H.W. Bush Carrier Strike Group on deployment