News

GCSAA announces Student Essay Contest winners

Mark Mackey, Nick Dunlap and Jamie Borowski are winners of the 2009 GCSAA Student Essay Contest, which awards scholarships to undergraduate and graduate students for essays focused on golf course management topics. Funding is provided by The Environmental Institute for Golf through the Robert Trent Jones Endowment.

"Congratulations to Mark, Nick and Jamie for their outstanding writing contributions," GCSAA President Mark D. Kuhns, CGCS, said. "Thanks to The Environmental Institute for Golf, GCSAA is able to reward our members working toward degrees with scholarship stipends as an investment in research beneficial to our industry."

The contest is open to GCSAA members who are undergraduate or graduate students pursuing degrees in turfgrass science, agronomy or any field related to golf course management. Judges from the GCSAA Scholarship Committee select the winning essays, and the first-place entry may be published or excerpted in the association's official publication, Golf Course Management magazine.

Mackey, from Columbia, Mo., is a first-year graduate student at the University of Missouri. He won the first-place scholarship of $2,000 for his essay: “Keeping Amphibians on the Right Course." Mackey detailed his research on salamanders in Highlands, N.C., explaining how he worked hand-in-hand with golf course superintendents at 10 area golf courses and how the game of golf is helping promote the biodiversity of many organisms.

Dunlap, from North Liberty, Iowa, is a sophomore student at Iowa State University. He earned the second-place scholarship of $1,500 for his paper: “Sewage Effluent and Its Use for the Irrigation of Turfgrass."

Borowski, from Galloway, Ohio, is an undergraduate student at Clark State Community College in Springfield, Ohio. He claimed the third-place award of $1,000 for “Silicon Uptake Increases Performance of Improved Turfgrasses."

Assistants’ event now accepting nominations

Nominations are now open for the Green Start Academy, an educational networking event for assistant superintendents sponsored by Bayer Environmental Science and John Deere Golf.

Designed to help assistants advance their careers, the two-day program offers opportunities to learn best practices, meet industry experts and collaborate with peers from across North America.

Once nominated by his or her superintendent, an assistant superintendent is eligible to apply by submitting an essay. Fifty assistants will be selected to attend the Green Start Academy, to be held Sept. 29-Oct. 2 in Clayton, N.C., at Bayer’s Development and Training Center and at John Deere’s Turf Care factory in Fuquay Varina, N.C.

Essays will be judged by a panel of industry experts. For more information and to apply, visit www.greenstartacademy.com.

EPA video spotlights GCSAA, other PESP partners

A recent EPA Green Scene video podcast, "Green Gardening and Pest Management," spotlights the efforts of GCSAA, along with three other members of the Pesticide Environmental Stewardship Program (PESP), to promote IPM and reduce pesticide risk.

In the video, Tom Brennan, chief, Environmental Stewardship Branch of the Office of Pesticide Programs, discusses the PESP partnership with GCSAA, the National Pest Management Association, the IPM Institute of North America and Audubon International.

The video outlines ways consumers can use Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for safer and greener pest management in homes and yards. It also provides tips on how to select a pest management company for the home and garden and how to use pesticides safely.

View the video from the Green Scene archive.

Deadline approaching for comments on WaterSense specifications for new homes

Last month, EPA released for comment a second round draft of specifications for the criteria of water-efficient new homes under the voluntary WaterSense program. Turfgrass industry representatives are concerned about specific provisions in the draft outdoor specifications.

WaterSense is designed to raise awareness about the importance of water efficiency and ensure the performance of water-efficient products, similar to the agency’s Energy Star program. When final, both indoor and outdoor criteria must be met for newly constructed single-family homes and town homes, three stories or less in size, to bear the WaterSense label.

Turfgrass industry stakeholders, under the leadership of the Irrigation Association and National Turfgrass Federation, have lead an effort over the past 12 months to work with EPA on the draft landscaping, irrigation systems and water budget calculator tool criteria. The turfgrass industry is extremely concerned about specific provisions in the draft outdoor specifications, including:

• Landscape design: EPA has developed two options for designing the landscape of WaterSense labeled new homes. Under option one, turfgrass shall not exceed 40 percent of the landscapable area. Under option two, landscape design shall be developed using the water budget tool based on a 70 percent evapotranspiration adjustment factor.
• Slopes: Plantings other than turfgrass shall be installed on slopes in excess of 4 feet of horizontal run per 1 foot vertical rise (4:1).

Although WaterSense is a voluntary program, turfgrass industry representatives are concerned about the “one-size-fits-all” approach of the specifications as well as the future use of the guidelines.

GCSAA staff are closely following the development of the WaterSense guidelines and working with other turfgrass industry groups to develop guidelines that are sensible and meet the goal of conserving water in home landscapes. The industry continues to push for the use of sound science in the development of the water-efficient single-family new home specifications.

The draft specifications are available for public comment through July 7. EPA anticipates releasing the final specification in late 2009. Learn more about this issue.

2010 Ryder Cup Matches to showcase sustainability

The 2010 Ryder Cup, to be held Oct. 1-3, 2010, at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales, is on target to showcase new standards in the sustainability of golf events.

A partnership of bodies, led by Ryder Cup Europe and Celtic Manor Resort, and managed by the Golf Environment Organisation, have been laying the foundations of an action plan that will deliver a diverse range of tangible social and environmental outcomes.

The initiative is backed by the Welsh Assembly Government, Ryder Cup Wales, the Wales Event Recycling Project, and the Newport City Council and is being delivered in conjunction with Greenstone Carbon Management.

Edward Kitson, Ryder Cup Match director, emphasized the lead organizations’ commitment to environmental sustainability and also the desire for all contractors and suppliers to play their part, stating: "Ryder Cup Europe and its partners are working hard to make The 2010 Ryder Cup an environmentally and socially responsible event.

"We are working to maximize all possible opportunities to reduce resource consumption through our procurement work, and also utilizing the event's profile to raise awareness of what can be achieved in golf facility and event management. We are very impressed so far by the willingness of prospective contractors and suppliers to help make this happen, and we believe we will have some highly innovative and ground-breaking examples of sustainability to present in October 2010."

Europe's Ryder Cup Captain Colin Montgomerie is lending his support to the initiative: "I am delighted that The 2010 Ryder Cup is pioneering sustainability in sport events. To know that important social and environmental issues are being addressed across all aspects of the event adds even more to the already huge sense of pride I have in captaining the European Team.

"Come event time, we are going to witness some inspirational sporting drama, within a stunning environment, and with a legacy of improved understanding and practical action in Wales and across the game of golf."

The action plan cuts across four core areas:
 
The Venue: Further developing the Celtic Manor Resort's existing environmental management program, through which the resort hotel and clubhouses have already achieved level three of the Welsh Green Dragon Awards for sustainable businesses.
Event Staging: Establishing policy, promoting best practice guidance and collating baseline data for a wide range of issues such as energy, transport, catering, waste and temporary structures. This part of the action plan aims to ensure outreach through procurement, extending the initiative as far as possible out into supply chains.
Communications: Preceding and during the event, undertaking a wide range of media communication activities to make the most of the unique opportunity to raise public awareness and demonstrate leadership in this field.
Legacy: Ensuring that Ryder Cup achievements have a multiplier effect across golf and the environment in Wales and internationally, including setting in motion a movement towards the greening of all golf events and the provision of a detailed Sustainable Golf Events Toolkit to aid delivery.

Jonathan Smith, CEO of the Golf Environment Organisation, explained the rationale for sustainable golf events, saying: "In the modern day, it is incumbent upon high-profile and large-scale sporting events to address social and environmental issues. The bar is rising rapidly in terms of government and public expectation.

"In this action plan, we have for the first time produced a practical roadmap to deliver a more sustainable golf event. A key phase is procurement, and how we can utilize the leverage of being associated with The Ryder Cup to encourage contractors and suppliers to go that extra green mile."