Cordova Bay GC

Dean Piller, 2010 CGSA Superintendent of the Year, talks about how golf courses can be (and are) environmental leaders. Dean has long spearheaded Cordova Bay Golf Course's environmental programs. In the past, Dean's work has made Cordova Bay Golf Course the first "Audubon Certified" golf course on Vancouver Island. Now Dean is introducing a 'nutrition' rather than 'fertilization' program aimed at providing exactly what nutrients the grass needs and no more.

Check them out at http://www.cordovabaygolf.com

Achieving ACSP Certification at Overlake GCC

Shortly after I accepted the Assistant Golf Course Superintendent’s position at Overlake Golf & Country Club, it was a goal of mine to guide the club through the process of becoming a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary through Audubon International. I had been involved with the program at other clubs and knew what a great tool it could be to highlight environmental excellence at Overlake.

The first section of the certification process, Environmental Planning, was challenging for me as it involves a lot of information gathering. This section requires a description of all of your site information and development of a general plan on how you will institute all of your environmental programs. It also sets up your plan for the subsequent five sections, so I wanted to devote significant time to it.

I was tempted at first to take on everything myself, but soon found out that it was just too time-consuming to complete all of the paperwork, institute new environmental programs and manage the staff to ensure we were maintaining exceptional playing conditions on a daily basis. While course conditions continued to improve, and major projects were being implemented on the golf course, I was a bit frustrated with how slowly the Audubon program was progressing. I finally came to the conclusion that, in addition to my day-to-day responsibilities of managing the course, there just weren’t enough hours in the day to accomplish this undertaking on my own.

2nd Assistant Superintendent Marcus Harness and Horticulturist Lacey Leinbaugh explaining the difference between native and exotic plants to the students of St. Thomas School

Deering Bay YCC

A lot of golf courses have promo videos, but it's refreshing to see that some put their environmental efforts front and centre. Arnold Palmer signature course Deering Bay in Florida has done just that...

"In order to protect and maintain our pristine natural coastal habitat, Deering Bay values responsible conservation. From the eco-friendly paspallum grass chosen for our golf course to our on-site garden, we strive to live in harmony among our protected mangroves and diverse wildlife. Our golf course is a member of the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, and our carefully balanced eco-system features Florida manatees, American crocodiles, and more than 50 varieties of local and migratory birds. Our Committee for Conservation regularly hosts special programs on topics such as recycling and energy, as well as bird watching walks, local nature outings, wildlife lectures with renowned experts, and more."

A Look At Kiawah Golf Resort

The Kiawah Island Golf Resort in Southern Carolina is a leader in sustainability in our industry. They have plenty awards for their numerous projects and have truly made an impression with environmentalists, local residents and their guests. Below you'll find many examples of their projects and how they communicate their actions to guests and community.

Municipal Course Goes Biosolids Route

Awesome...

This video "highlights the sustainable modifications made to Hilaman Golf Course", a public course in Tallahassee Florida.

You'll see some features that are becoming quite common on golf courses including ACSP, Buffer Zones, Closed Loop Wash Pad, even the installation of Solar Panels on top of their cart storage facility.

Most impressive however is how the municipality fulfilled their responsibility to dispose of solid wastes from the local water treatment centre, and combined it with fulfilling the needs of providing the golf course with fertilizer through the production of processed biosolids.

This is thoughtful planning, demonstrating how sustainable solutions are the result of integrating the needs of multiple land users/services.

Black Bear Education at Seymour GCC

I recently participated in a project (an effort of Jim McGarvey, Brandroom Creative, Huxtable Productions and myself) to create an environmental brochure with Seymour Golf and Country Club in Vancouver's North Shore, an urban area with a high population of Black Bears. As part of this outreach project, I contacted the NSBBS to get some bear encounter safety tips. I felt these would be good to share here on Turfhugger, thanks to Christine Miller of NSBBS.

The North Shore Black Bear Society aims to reduce human-bear encounters through education, cooperation and community support. 

The NSBBS asks that golfers remember these six steps to bear safety on the golf course:
1. Stay calm - Avoid sudden movements and loud noises.
2. Stand still - Do not run! Do not swing clubs or hit balls towards bears.
3. Speak calmly so the bear knows you are not a threat.
4. Slowly back away - Leave your clubs if they are near the bear.
5. Report the bear sighting to other golfers in the area and to the Course Marshall.
6. Report the bear sighting to the North Shore Black Bear Society at 604.990.BEAR(2327) or NorthShoreBears.com

Scribblemaps Review

The free website Scribblemaps.com allows users to scribble, draw, measure distances and areas and place markers, pictures and videos on Google Maps. Yes you can do this with Google MyMaps, but you'll see a number of incredibly useful features not found on MyMaps.

Recently Turfhugger arranged for some Golf Management related icons/map markers to be made (Thanks to RHo Solutions and Rueben Butterfield, President of the Irrigation Industry Association of BC) that reflect the major environmental infrastructure of your typical golf course. Turfhugger has recently donated these markers for use on Scribblemaps  (Thanks to Jonathan of Scribblemaps!) ...Results? A truly useful way to manage your projects with accuracy, communicate current projects in an easy to understand and accessible format.

I'm a true believer of the importance of communication through maps, and therefore Turfhugger is commited to creating new map markers to help golf course superintendents communicate their pest, tree, habitat, water and legal obligations.