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Presented in partnership with BASF
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Pedal power in the Rockies
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Pam Brown didn’t set out to change the world when she began encouraging the maintenance staff at Keystone Resort’s Ranch Course in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains to ride their bikes to work.
An avid mountain biker herself, the six-year GCSAA member at first simply saw the gentle prodding more as a matter of convenience than anything, a small step toward something bigger. “It’s only a couple-of-mile-ride to the courses from the resort’s employee housing,” she says. “And since 80 percent of our employees use that housing, it just made sense to encourage them to either ride bikes
or use the resort’s bus system.”
But as more and more of her staff members showed interest in pedaling their way to work each morning, the environmental benefits — however small in the ultimate scheme of things — came into much clearer focus.
“Especially with gas prices going up and up, I’d anticipate that we’ll be at the point this season where maybe only one or two of our staff members will drive to work each day,” she says.
Initially, Brown’s efforts were anything but formal, so much so that it would be hard to classify it as a “program.” A few bikes began to show up each morning, leaning against the wall of the maintenance facility next to her own, so to keep them out of the way, she had a basic bike rack constructed. When that bike rack began to fill even more, she realized she might be on to
something.
Her first move to formalize the program was to offer free inner tubes to any staff member who regularly rode their bikes to work. “When you’re mountain biking, you tend to pop a lot of tubes, and they were in demand in our shop,” Brown says. “We thought by offering to buy replacement tubes, we might encourage more riders.”
Shortly after, a small boost to Brown’s budget allowed her to add free bike tune-ups to the ride-your-bike-to-work incentive program. Additionally, she and some members of her staff began to tinker with a few older bikes that had been left around the shop over the years and offered them to co-workers who didn’t have their own bikes.
Those efforts enticed a group of eight or nine — about half of Brown’s staff on the Ranch Course — to begin riding their bikes to work regularly. A similar sized group utilizes the resort’s bus system to get to and from work each day.
Unfortunately, budget constraints won’t allow for the free tune-ups this year. However, she still anticipates an active group of riders when the course’s season kicks into high gear.
“I think we have a unique situation here because we have such a great system of bike paths in Summit County, and so many people enjoy mountain biking,” she says. “A lot of our people, if they’re not out playing golf in the summer months, they’re hitting the trails and riding. Riding to work is just a natural extension.”
John F. Anderson, a 36-year veteran superintendent and a 26-year member of GCSAA, is the first recipient of the Oregon GCSA’s Michael S. Hindahl Environmental Award of Excellence. While a superintendent at The Oregon GC, Anderson worked to certify the course with the Audubon Sanctuary Program — the first course in the state to earn the status. He also went several years without applying pesticides by following his own Best Management Practices. Anderson also worked at Portland GC, Coeur d’Alene Resort and most recently Pronghorn GC. The award, named after the late Michael Hindahl, an environmental advocate and pioneer of the OGCSA Environmental Stewardship Guidelines, recognizes superintendents who have shown leadership and environmental fortitude. |
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