Newcastle Experiments with Composts

"We did some trial work on compost and have been pretty happy with the results. We have found some of the batches vary in freshness so where and when you use it could be a concern. Overall though, using it in our divot mix has been great for speeding up germination and divot recovery. It is also showing significant promise in our high wear and droughty areas." - 

From Scott M. Phelps on the Newcastle Turf Maintenance Blog

Check out Cedar Grove for more info on their Compost Products

Part 3: The Quest for a "Zero Waste" Golf Course

Be sure to check out part 1 and 2 for a little more background info on how Josh Heptig, Dairy Creek Golf Course Superintendent, is committed to zero waste in his operations. In this video Josh takes us on a tour of his green waste management efforts.

 

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.

10 Golf Questions Video Series

Got some time to burn? Sure we all do right now. When you do find time for some Golf and Environment related background noise check out the "10 Questions" video series produced by BunkerShot.com and GolfTV. Here's a few that Turfhugger readers will likely enjoy.

Greg Lyman, GCSAA Director of Environmental Programs

Noble Hendrix & Bill Crispin of The Golfpreserves

Dave Aardsma from Waste Management, the title sponsors of the 2010 Phoenix Open.

Mark Woodward, CEO of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America

2011 British Open

The question on everyones mind for the 2011 British Open is surely not wether or not Rory will raise the Jug (and the bar), but what Environmental Stewardship or Sustainability efforts take place at Royal St George's Golf Club?

So, Turfhugger did some digging around and found a little something that only those who attend the event will get a chance to see, A Guide To Environmental Management of the Links.

This 34 page guide does a great job at discussing how the efforts at Royal St Georges reflect on the industry as a whole and that the R&A take sustainability seriously. It goes on to describe how habitat is protected, the ecological significance of the Sandwich Bay, the diversity of flora and fauna, management strategies to protect habitat, responsible turf management, overall environmental protection and resource conservation. All in all, a fantastic little guide. To boot it's printed on paper from sustainably managed forests.

Open 2011 Royal St Georges_Wildlife

Creating environmental guides for British Open venues is nothing new, to my knowledge the R&A has been putting these little booklets together since 2000. Here's some pics from my copy of the 2005 THE OLD COURSE A Guide to it's Environmental Management. 

Visit the R & A website at this link to see all of the Open Wildlife Publications.

(thanks to Alexandra Almeida for this link)

Part 2: The Quest for a "Zero Waste" Golf Course

This is a follow up to The Quest for a "Zero Waste" Golf Course interview I did with Josh Heptig about a month ago. This time around we start to get in to some of the financials and the nitty gritty.

Turfhugger: What is your return on investment?

Josh Heptig: Luckily in our situation we do not have any out of pocket expenses other than some of our staff's time. Our compost vessels were granted to us via Integrated Waste Management Authority (our local waste management organization), much of the lumber for the infrastructure was donated by Hayward Lumber (local lumber yard), the worm bins and volunteer labor have been donated by Environmental Protection Associates Inc. (EPA Inc., the non-profit we are collaborating with) and Eco-Rotary International (a non-profit charitable organization in the US), and the current tea brewer is owned by Nyha Roots (one of our partners). 

The rest of the costs ~ $5,000 will be captured by a grant from the Morro Bay National Estuary Program (MBNEP). We are not actually sure how much cost will be saved at this point because there really is not any data relating to actual composting or tea brewing available with quantifiable results. Our hope is to provide those figures by working in conjunction with California Polytechnic University's Horticulture Department. We anticipate the total costs to getting our facility operational to be around $27,000 with labor, grants, and hard costs. 

Currently we are spending $0 for water as we have an agreement with a local prison to use their tertiarily treated waste water and we pay the pumping costs to the tune of $70,000 annually. If we can save 10% of the energy costs for pumping the water alone the ROI would be 3.8 years. That's not including potential fertility and pesticide reductions. So a course paying for water and pumping would have an even quicker pay back.

Musket Ridge Goes For Zero Food Waste

I'm a big fan of Bokashi. I have friends who used it for kitchen scraps in their houses and apartments and I've even seen it at one golf course (Blackburn Meadows on Saltspring Island in BC) to generate their compost tea. Basically, Effective Micro-Organisms (EM) are inoculated on wheat bran, saw dust or rice husks as a carrier, and are then added to food wastes to help break it down. Yadda Yadda Yadda, your left with a rich liquid concentrate that can be applied to turfgrass (well, soil). More about EM another time, but to the point of this post... 

Musket Ridge Golf Club is a Public course in Frederick Maryland. Like many courses, they see the marketing, cost and environmental benefits of employing "green" measures. As part of their Sustainability Plan they are implementing a zero food waste initiative.

The Bokashi method of intense composting will be used at the club's restaurant and banquet facility to turn tons of food waste into organic fertilizer for a vegetable and herb garden and possible use on the golf course itself.  Musket Ridge already has large areas designated as environmentally sensitive to protect native plants and wildlife.

From the Press Release:

Musket Ridge became the first golf club on the East Coast to launch a zero waste food initiative for its award-winning golf course, restaurant and Catoctin Hall wedding and banquet facility at a kick-off press event and reception on March 24, 2011.