Kamyar Enshayan came to Lawrence to show city officials how to reduce pesticide use in parks and other public places.

Instead, Enshayan said Friday, he came away impressed.

“The numbers I see, only 10 percent of the (city-managed) ground receives spray,” he told a seminar at City Hall. “That’s unbelievable compared to most towns I know.”

But members of Kaw Valley Greens, who helped spur the city’s examination of pesticide use, said they hope it can be reduced even more.

“I would like to see the city of Lawrence move away from pesticides drastically, if not altogether,” said Marie Stockett, a Greens member who attended the seminar.

Fred DeVictor, the city’s Parks and Recreation director, said complete abandonment of pesticides was unlikely.

“We have an investment in our landscaping, and we need to protect that investment,” he said after the seminar. “But we want to provide the safest parks we can.”

Last year, the Greens requested a list of pesticides used by the city. DeVictor said that led to a meeting in November with the environmentalist group, which in turn led to the invitation to Enshayan to consult.

Enshayan, a physics professor at the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls, Iowa, helped lead a largely successful campaign to get that city’s government to reduce its pesticide use. DeVictor said he didn’t know the exact cost of the consultation, but said the city paid only for Enshayan’s housing, breakfast and lunch.

He toured Lawrence parks Friday morning and gave city officials an assessment of how they’re doing before the afternoon seminar. Members of the Greens complained they were not allowed to participate in the morning activities.

“We didn’t have a bus or anything,” DeVictor said of the tour.

But Enshayan told seminar participants he was happy to share what he told city officials earlier in the day.

“One of the suggestions I made was that the city should publicize its accomplishments,” he said. That might leverage public pressure on other Lawrence-area institutions to cut their pesticide use.

Mostly, Enshayan praised Lawrence officials. They said they try many alternatives to pesticides, including alternative mowing and seeding methods to reduce the need for chemicals.

“There is an amazing array of practices that your city is using,” he said. “I’m going to take this back to my city.”

Greens members were pleased with Enshayan’s review but not yet satisfied with Lawrence’s progress.

“I’m really glad to hear the city is moving in the right direction,” Stockett said. “But what would it take to reduce (pesticide use) even more and perhaps become pesticide free?”

Assistant Parks Director Tom Wilkerson said the city would keep seeking new methods.

“We are not finished,” he said.