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Presented in partnership with BASF
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Selling the ‘green’ in golf
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Royal Oaks CC in Vancouver, Wash., created a “bird-cam” by placing a video camera in a birdhouse and a monitor in the clubhouse. Photo courtesy of Royal |
Editor’s note: Inside Your Environment periodically presents information being featured or archived on The Environmental Institute for Golf Web site. For more about this month’s topic, visit www.eifg.org.
For just a moment, let’s all agree that golfer and community awareness efforts are very important, especially when it comes to environmental issues like water use or pollution prevention. Consider Golf Digest’s 2007 Golf and The Environment survey, which reports that only 36 percent of those interviewed were aware of their golf facility’s efforts to mitigate environmental damage, and more than 90 percent think that golf is an environmentally friendly sport.
So golfers think that golf is “green,” but yet it seems that only a little more than a third of them actually know what’s going on regarding environmental stewardship on the golf course. According to the survey, these informed golfers know about regulated and recycled water usage, restricting environmental areas for native plants or wildlife, and lastly, reducing the use of pesticides.
Superintendents are working within their communities and on their courses to increase community awareness about golf course environmental stewardship practices. Two superintendents in particular — Cutler Robinson, CGCS at Bayville Golf Course in Virginia Beach, Va., and Alan Nielsen, CGCS at Royal Oaks Country Club in Vancouver, Wash. — have created ongoing education programs that are making a difference.
In his case study, “Collaborating Golf Course Environmental Stewardship to Ensure a Healthy Watershed,” Robinson tells about his collaborative work to communicate the environmental efforts in place on his course, located on the shores of an estuary that leads into the environmentally sensitive Chesapeake Bay. Working with a local watershed group, the 22-year GCSAA member and his staff have been able to communicate their environmental stewardship practices and have opened the course up to tours as an example of implementing best management practices for watershed protection.
Robinson writes, “As the director of golf course operations of a 265-acre property on the shores of the Lynnhaven River with a track record of environmental leadership, I was honored to be selected to the executive committee and buffer restoration committee. The buffer restoration committee would spearhead the direction for plant selection and landscaping not just the shores of the Lynnhaven, but offer guidance for all plant health care management techniques within the entire watershed.”
Laurie Carroll Sorabella, the executive director of Lynnhaven River Now and a guest columnist for Green Links, states, “We have benefited tremendously from our relationship with Bayville GC and Cutler Robinson, director of golf course operations. Cutler routinely provides inspiration, experience and guidance to golf courses.
Like Robinson, Nielsen describes his work with his Audubon committee to implement a “bird-cam” as an interactive wildlife education tool within his case study, “A ‘Bird Cam’ is a Great Educational Tool!” Nielsen, a 29-year GCSAA member, and his crew put a video camera into a birdhouse and placed the monitor in the clubhouse to spark interest in their environmental stewardship program.
“Getting golfers and their families involved and interested in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program at Royal Oaks CC became much easier when we installed the bird camera and monitor for viewing,” say Gerald and Donna Schwanke, who are members of Royal Oaks’ Audubon committee.
The newly opened Chambers Bay Golf Course in Pierce County near Puget Sound, Wash., is the first golf course to become certified by Audubon International as a Silver Signature Sanctuary in Washington state and in the Pacific Northwest. Awarded to new developments that promote sound land management practices and the appropriate land use changes based on sound scientific research, the status recognizes Pierce County’s efforts to restore habitat on a 250-acre property and provide a cohesive education program aimed at golfers, area residents and trail users. The entire project includes 928 acres of Chambers Creek Properties, including 650 acres of gravel mines, two miles of shoreline, a 3-mile-long forested ravine and a frame of the Olympic Mountains. |
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