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When the levee breaks
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Ron Strahan, assistant turf professor at Louisiana State University, describes the challenges of establishing turf on New Orleans’ 1,300-mile system of levees. Photo by Darcy DeVictor |
But the reality of what construction of the levees means for New Orleans and how the city sustains damage from hurricanes and storms is perhaps not so simply defined.
At the Field Turfgrass Seminar this year in New Orleans, Jeff Beasley, Ph.D., assistant professor of turfgrass at Louisiana State University, guided the group through a hurricane-themed tour of New Orleans’ still-devastated areas, the levees and the challenges of rebuilding them to best protect the city from future storms.
A team of professors at LSU that includes Beasley, Ron Strahan, Ph.D., and Ed Bush, Ph.D., is working with the Army Corp of Engineers to create a better buffer against storms by growing turfgrass on the 1,300 miles of levees in the New Orleans system.
Why turfgrass? Concrete is too expensive and turf is the most cost-efficient option, Beasley said, adding, “When you’re dealing with 1,300 miles of levees, it’s almost like you’re dealing with a city of roads.”
Complicating the project are the conditions the LSU team is working with.
“Imagine you’re doing everything that’s terrible,” Beasley said. “We’re compacting soil. We’re using heavy soils, like clay. We have no irrigation. And we need to establish grass quickly and we need to do it efficiently.”
Finding turfgrass varieties that will take to the levees is another challenge. Built with clay to help prevent erosion, the levees feature a salt content of up to 15,000 ppm.
“It’s like trying to grow grass on pavement with high salt,” Strahan said, adding that the key is preventing erosion. “Once erosion takes over, it weakens the levee, and it becomes more vulnerable to a storm if you have no grass covering there.”
“If grass is not established, the levee will wash away, and we’re talking about millions of dollars just washing away,” Beasley added.
The group currently has eight field trials under way, and so far has had the most luck with bermudagrass and bahiagrass. Even salt-tolerant grasses like seashore paspalum aren’t emerging on the clay-based levees.
It’s a nonstop effort that’s under pressure from many directions.
“This is political in a lot of ways,” Beasley said. “The last four years, we’ve had three hurricanes. People are fearful, so it’s a pressure cooker situation.”
While it’s a challenging job, it represents one of many non-golf course opportunities available to turf managers.
“Right now, there’s no doubt that the economy is contracting, and golf courses are going to suffer,” Beasley said. “If you’re a superintendent and your course is shut down, there are opportunities out there beyond golf course expertise.”
In a recent Golf Digest Publications report titled “Golf and the Environment,” 72 percent of golfers (versus 74 percent of the general U.S. population) said golf should be more environmentally friendly to set a good example for other businesses. Seventy-four percent of golfers (versus 63 percent of the general population) said golf should be more environmentally friendly to reduce conflicts with environmental groups. Fifty-two percent of surveyed golfers and 56 percent of the general population said the benefit of higher environmental standards would be an improvement to golf’s image, while 31 percent of golfers and 40 percent of the general population said it would attract more kids to the game. When asked whether government regulation is a necessary approach in addressing environmental issues, 71 percent of golfers and 68 percent of the public at large said yes. |
