Summing It Up
• Education and certification programs offer guidelines for standard environmental management practices. Performance Track Only one golf course in the country—Colonial Acres Golf Course in Glenmont, N.Y—has taken its environmental stewardship to the highest level by meeting the criteria of the Environmental Protection Agency Performance (EPA) Track program (see “Look..on the Course…it’s Environmental Superman!” C&RB, August 2006). This initiative recognizes facilities that consistently exceed regulatory requirements, work closely with their communities and excel in protecting the environment and public health. “We were looking for nothing,” says Golf Course Superintendent Patrick Blum. “We were doing it because it was the right thing to do.”
The more than 400 Performance Track members in 46 states and in Puerto Rico represent virtually all sectors of the manufacturing community and public facilities at federal, state and local levels. More than half of the members, or 52 percent, have 100 to 1,000 employees. Twenty-six percent of the members have more than 1,000 employees, and 22 percent have fewer than 100 employees. All members commit to making specific environmental improvements upon joining the program. Since it began in June of 2000, Performance Track participants report that they collectively have reduced water consumption by almost 1.9 billion gallons, conserved nearly 9,000 acres of land and increased their use of recycled materials by almost 120,000 tons. The voluntary program has been challenging and time consuming, admits Blum, but the long-term benefits include saving operating expenses and making the course a more efficiently run business. “It’s all I can do,” the superintendent says. “I’m not going to find the cure for cancer. I’m not going to stop world hunger. Turf is my niche.” For more information on how your facility can apply to be considered for the EPA’s Performance Track program, visit www.epa.gov/performancetrack/about.htm. |
It’s not easy being green, but many superintendents agree that it’s well worth the effort.
Clubs and resorts that have “gone green” by becoming better stewards of the environment— whether on their own or through voluntary compliance programs—have reported high member and guest satisfaction. Even better, they’re saving money on upkeep and maintenance.
For new golf courses, the commitment to improving environmental standards can begin in the design phase, while established facilities can follow educational and certification program guidelines to achieve their goals.
“Golf is not an enemy to the environment when it’s done correctly,” says Buck Workman, the Certified Golf Course Superintendent at Cateechee Golf Club in Hartwell, Ga. (120 miles northeast of Atlanta).
Cateechee implemented environmentally sound practices during the construction phase of the course. The 18-hole, semi-private club is a certified member of Audubon International’s Signature Program, which recognizes the conservation efforts of new developments, including golf courses.
Workman says the course—built on property that once was designated as an effluent water land application system—was a natural for the program.
Golf course construction and the certification process started in 1996. The course opened in 1997 and became certified as a Signature property in 1999.
“Getting that initial plan done was more difficult than I thought,” recalls Workman. “But once you get it in place, it’s basically just a checklist.”
With no forms to fill out, Workman says, the club had to write its own program, which totaled about 700 pages.
“It’s all up to you,” the superintendent says. “They don’t want it to be a cookie-cutter type of thing. They want it to be site-specific.”
Outside experts helped with preliminary efforts that included a wildlife inventory and soil modeling, to measure how long it took pesticides to seep into groundwater. Continued practices have netted a 30- to 40-percent reduction in highly maintained turf, Workman says.
And that translates to “pretty much [saving] 30 to 40 percent in money as well,” he adds.
Stone Creek Golf Course became a Audubon- certified cooperative sanctuary this year. “I really enjoy talking about the benefit of golf to the environment,” says the club’s Superintendent, David Phipps. |
A Natural Sanctuary
The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, started in 1992 through collaboration between Audubon International and the United States Golf Association (USGA), helps existing golf courses incorporate environmentally responsible care into day-to-day operations. Of the 2,100 courses in the program, 605 are certified.
The remaining courses are registered members that have not yet completed the certification process, which generally takes one to three years, says Joellen Zeh, a Program Manager for Audubon International.
To become certified, a golf course must implement standard management practices in six areas: environmental planning, wildlife and habitat management; reduction and safety of chemical use; water conservation; water quality management; and outreach and education. Each course develops its own program, and recertification is required every two years.
Top of the Leaderboard
Village Links of Glen Ellyn in Glen Ellyn, Ill. (a Chicago suburb), which became an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary in 1993, was the program’s first municipal course to achieve certification.
“They don’t just let you rest on your laurels. They always require you to do more each year,” notes Tim Kelly, the Golf Course Superintendent.
The maintenance crew irrigates the 27-hole course with its ponds and tracks weather conditions to go as long as possible without watering. The crew follows proper chemical application and storage regulations, and constantly searches for better, safer spray technology.
In June, Hoover (Ala.) Country Club, located near Birmingham, became the state’s first golf course to be certified as a cooperative sanctuary.
“With the unique situation with urban development around us, I thought it would be a good tool to show how wildlife could co-exist with all the urban development around a golf course,” notes Doug Trosper, the club’s Certified Golf Course Superintendent.
The private club, which registered for the program in 2000, spent about $1,000 in sta
rt-up costs for bird boxes, feeders and seed. However, the course saves money by reducing chemical and fertilizer use on buffers around creeks and other waterways. Trosper also says potential renovations such as a new irrigation system would provide a more efficient means of watering the turf.
This area was so dense and overgrown that the golf hole in the background would not have been possible to see, explains Matt Peltier, Superintendent of Spring Hills CC. Now the area has a seasonal water feature and some native grasses along the perimeters for waterfowl and small animals. A healthy population of frogs has caught the attention of the local blue herons looking for an easy meal. |
“In the long run, I think it’s priceless when you get it accomplished,” he says.
Pinehurst Resort, which has eight golf courses in Pinehurst, N.C., scored an ace when it became the first member of the Safe Harbor program in 1995. In recognition of this achievement, the resort will receive the 2007 President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America.
Safe Harbor is a U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service initiative that helps private landowners provide habitat for threatened and endangered species and offers legal protection from additional Endangered Species Act restrictions. Pinehurst provides habitat for the red-cockaded woodpecker by clearing the understory of the pine trees located on its golf course property.
“We feel good about doing things to enhance an endangered species,” says Brad Kocher, the resort’s Senior Vice President of Grounds & Golf Course Management.
Tim Kelly, Golf Course Superintendent for Village Links of Glen Ellyn. |
Slice of Life
One of the most effective ways for courses to preserve the environment—and to cut costs—is to naturalize property in out-of-play areas.
“You can concentrate more of the time and money you do have where people are actually playing golf,” says Cateechee GC’s Workman.
While this practice could be a tough sell to a golfer who has a wicked slice off the tee, “Some people have been able to bring in more golfers because they’re attracted to an environmental property,” notes Audubon’s Zeh.
Village Links of Glen Ellyn established its wildlife habitat by keeping exotic and invasive plants out of naturalized areas. “That’s a struggle that takes a long time,” Kelly says. “They’re not easy to establish. They take less work, but they’re more frustrating because you want them to be a certain way, and it doesn’t happen as fast as you think it can.”
Debunking The Myth of the Dump
The reputation of golf courses as “toxic waste dumps” motivated him to pursue Audubon certification, Kelly says. “In hindsight, it’s the right thing to do,” he believes.
He also calls environmentally sound turf care a good public relations tool for the golf industry and for individual courses that achieve certification.
Escalating fuel prices and limited water resources will cause more courses to strive for cooperative sanctuary certification, Hoover CC’s Trosper believes. “I think you’re going to see more people do it because of the pressure,” he says.
“Golf is not an enemy to the environment when it’s done correctly.” – Buck Workman, Certified Golf Course Superintendent, Cateechee Golf Club, Hartwell, Ga. |
At some properties, though, members may resist pursuing a formal environmental certification, either because of the cost, or perhaps for political reasons. When this is the case, though, that doesn’t mean support for sound practices can’t be just as strong.
At Spring Hill Country Club in Albany, Ore., there is strong backing for Golf Course Superintendent Matt Peltier’s use of standard conservation practices in his maintenance operations. “We’d rather spend our money creating a habitat for foxes and deer and wood ducks and everything else that wants to come here and call it home,” he says.
For instance, Peltier says, the private club planted trees and tall grasses in open areas to protect small animals from raptors and created aquatic habitat ecosystems in the ponds.
Spring Hill CC planted native nutsedge and cattails along the perimeters of this water feature, as well as water lilies for cover for the fish. Many ducks, small birds and mammals (raccoons, redtail fox, deer and ground squirrels) now share the space with the club’s golfers. |
Outdoor Classroom
Stone Creek Golf Course in Oregon City, Ore., became a certified cooperative sanctuary in June, and Golf Course Superintendent David Phipps enjoys the community outreach aspect of the program. He invites school classes to the 18-hole municipal course, and educates others about pesticide and fertilizer use.
“I really enjoy talking about the benefit of golf to the environment,” Phipps adds.
Getting started was the biggest obstacle to the certification program, the superintendent says. However, he explains, his staff already was practicing most of the elements of the Audubon program, and their conservation efforts have helped them save everything from dollars on the bottom line to their own little corner of the planet.
The superintendent even finds an advantage in the extensive paperwork required by the program. If anyone ever questions their practices, notes Phipps, “We’ve got the records and documentation to protect ourselves.” (For more on Stone Creek’s program, see “A Step Ahead of the Law ,” C&RB, December 2005, pg. 46.)
A New Way to “Read Greens”
Colorado, Oregon, Florida, Illinois and Delaware have the most participants in the cooperative sanctuary program, Audubon’s Zeh reports. “In most of those states, they have a very high environmental literacy rate in the population,” she notes.
According to an Audubon survey, she adds, 99 percent of superintendents said play quality and golfer satisfaction didn’t suffer after their courses were registered in the program—and half reported that quality and satisfaction increased.
Even better, she adds, not one superintendent reported a drop in job satisfaction since registering—and 70 percent said it had increased.
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