The Warrenton, Va. property has nearly doubled its no-mow areas and superintendent Ed Evers closely monitors irrigation, watering spots only according to need that is determined by moisture sensors. Club members organized an Arbor Day golf tournament in 2018 to raise funds to address not just damaged tree removal and replanting, but also the overall health of the tree population on club grounds.
Ed Evers, Superintendent of Fauquier Springs Country Club’s golf course in Warrenton, Va., has invented a new meaning for the term “rough” when it comes to golf, the Fauquier Times reported. The course has shifted from manicured to managed this year, allowing more no-mow areas to go natural. It’s good for the environment, Evers said, and good for the course.
A tour of the 400 or so acres of the course reveals some areas where the grass is taller and the flora more diverse, especially alongside streams and river banks. Evers told the Times that the natural barriers serve to slow down rainwater as it travels from the course to the water, allowing it to seep into the ground to be naturally filtered before entering the streams or the water table.
As Evers drove the course in one of the club’s 50 electric golf carts, he pointed out where the course has been allowed to “go more natural.” “We have about doubled the no-mow area this year,” he said.
Although the layout of the course looks like it just grew that way, the places where the vegetation is thicker and taller are carefully planned to provide new challenges for golfers, as well as natural water filters and habitat for the wildlife that makes its home on the course and includes deer, fox and geese, the Times reported.
Pointing to a bit of forest, Evers explained that it’s a favorite spot for deer. “In a couple of weeks, we’ll start seeing some new fawns,” he said.
About half of the course’s acreage at Fauquier Springs CC is wooded or consists of more natural vegetation, Evers estimated.
Sustainable golf is not a new concept, he told the Times. In years past, bunkers were formed on a course when animals made burrows, goats would trim the grass, and putting-green grass was tamped down because it was naturally trampled by golfers. “Golf is played outside, in nature,” said Evers. “It should look natural.”
What people see on television when they are watching golf is not real, Fauquier Springs’ Head Golf Professional, A. Jeffrey Pianelli, told the Times. “Some courses are so manicured, if azaleas are not blooming at the right time, they’ll go out and warm them,” he said. At one course, Pianelli noted, “the greens are temperature-controlled.”
Irrigation is a good example of the benefits of Evers’ more hands-off approach at Fauquier Springs CC, the Times reported. “Some courses,” he said, “run sprinklers no matter what, according to a timer.” Alternatively, Evers uses data from moisture sensors to determine which areas need irrigation—and which do not.
Evers also uses the “less is more” philosophy when it comes to fertilizers and weed control on the course, the Times reported. “The products we use have improved so much over the years, and they are very targeted, [so] we can use a very small amount,” he said. As an example, he noted that he uses one product that only attacks the cell wall of one very specific fungus. “It doesn’t affect anything else,” he said.
Nature is not always a cooperative partner for the club, however. In the aftermath of a bad storm two summers ago, Fauquier Springs CC saw more than 20 fallen trees on the property, the Times reported. The club also lost about 20 ash trees to the emerald ash borer insect, Evers said.
“We work hard to keep our trees healthy, but sometimes, the only cure for a diseased tree is a chainsaw,” he said.
Evers, displaying what seems to be a personal relationship with every tree on the course property, added that woodpeckers drill holes in trees looking for insects. But “when woodpeckers are present,” he said, “that usually means the tree is on the way out.”
Sapsuckers, however, drill holes in healthy trees to get the sap, damaging the trees and shortening their lives. Evers told the Times he’s been known to go to the dollar store and buy colorful pinwheels to attach to the trees. The spinning toys discourage the sapsuckers, he explained.
Club member Dan Weber is the Chair of Fauquier Springs’ Grounds Committee, the Times reported. Weber and others in the club want to raise funds to address not just the damaged tree removal and replanting, but also the overall health of the tree population on club grounds. About 64 club members and volunteers participated in the 2018 Arbor Day golf tournament last April, with the $7,765 in proceeds going to improve the health of the trees.
Much of the tree removal, replanting and pruning work was accomplished by Evers and his staff, along with professional help from Williams Tree Service of Flint Hill, Va., the Times reported. Most of the downed trees have been removed, and a plan for planting has been developed and initiated. So far, Fauquier Springs has added pin oaks, dogwood, red buds, white oaks and an American hornbeam.
Some golfers are not unhappy to see certain trees come to the end of their lifespan—especially those in the middle of a fairway, club member Bob Dyer told the Times. But some trees are there as planned “course obstacles” that are part of the challenge of playing golf at Fauquier Springs, Dyer added.
One of the special features of the Fauquier Springs golf course and property is how it is bordered on the west by the Rappahannock River, the Times reported. The river provides spectacular scenery for golfers playing the eighth or the 18th hole.
Evers told the Times that he and his staff have allowed a more substantial buffer to grow up along the river, to provide filtering plants to clean the water before it enters the river. A group from Friends of the Rappahannock planted 200 saplings on course property last year, further extending the buffer.
But the Rappahannock also represents another hard-fought battle against the inevitable, the Times reported. Trees provide stability for the river banks, but when they do fall, they take a large amount of soil into the river with them, eroding the banks and throwing off the balance of the ecosystem.
In 2018, Evers told the Times, the Rappahannock flooded 13 times; in the years before that, the average was about four times a year. The high-water incidents make the trees more unstable. The club’s staff tries to remove dead trees from the bank before they fall, leaving their roots intact to hold onto the soil.
In a further effort to be a good community partner, Fauquier Springs CC may become a launching facility for canoe and kayak enthusiasts to enter the river, the Times reported. “We have a first draft of the necessary easement,” Evers said. “It should not affect the golf course at all. We’d like to see that happen by spring 2020.”
The club’s members are eager to push Fauquier Springs’ environmental efforts forward, Dyer told the Times. “Our members are part of the driving force and support for these improvements, plus they want to pitch in to help,” he said. “It is probably the case that people don’t join country clubs with ‘greening efforts’ at the forefront of their decision. But the evidence of their actions suggests that this is one of the key considerations that is received positively.”
The members agree that, especially in Fauquier County, an environmental mindset is not uncommon, the Times reported. Weber recalled that recently, a member passed away and her friends wanted to plant a tree on the course in her memory. “Years ago, they would have wanted a bench with a plaque,” he said.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.