So Cool - Bonterra and Audubon International

I'm a big fan of Bonterra Wines, its one of the Merlot's I bring to parties. I had no idea they were as passionate about golf as I am, until I saw this:

"Bonterra Wines, the world's best selling wine made with organic grapes**, knows what it takes to find a balance between preserving nature and producing an award-winning product. As the Official Wine of The PGA of America, Bonterra is committed to helping golf courses find their balance between the environment and the game of golf.

That's why Bonterra is working with Audubon International to "Green the Greens" at courses across the U.S. From September 17, 2008 until the end of the PGA Tour season (11/10/08), a limited number of golf courses can join the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses (ACSP) on Bonterra's dime. The ACSP is an award winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect the environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf. "

How cool is that?
Although it's not available to International courses it is available to those in the US, all you have to do is submit your registration to Bonterra, and they will cover the $200 ACSP registration fee for the first 100 U.S. based courses who sign up from September 17 - November 10, 2008.

Golf courses can register here

Awesome, way to go Bonterra and Audubon International

Good Source of Information: Golfdom

I subscribe to a number of golf publications to keep up to date with industry advancements. I've cut my print subscriptions down throughout the years and instead sign up for a lot of web-based e-zines.

One of which is the Golfdom Insider. Golfdom is a great source of information for anyone who works in the golf industry, they aim to be an "upscale publication designed to fill the niche between the highly technical association journal and the newsy tabloids".

They cover a huge amount of environmental issues, here's a few links from their site:

Joe Hubbard - The Natural

ASGCA Issues Sustainable Development Guidelines

From Food Waste to Fertilizer

Solar Golf Cars

Audubon in Action

Turfgrass Trends (a number of links)

Environment Still Number 1 Concern For Golf

Podcasts : Biodeisel, Snow Mold (Mould for you Canadians), Syngenta Professional Products - Meridian insecticide

Videos: Fertilizer Prices, Golf and Environment,

Anti Golf Ads

I'm not sure what the situation in Turkey is in regards to fresh water supply and golf course development, so I'll let you decide on whether these ads are justified.



“A golf course means the absorption of 15000 cubic metres of water! Millions of cubic metres of water will be spent for the irrigation of the new golfing facilities to be built on our Southern shores. The water resources of the region are indeed too limited to meet the needs of the new facilities. Help us to prevent this.”



“200,000 trees with one strike! Millions of m3s of water will be spent for the irrigation of the new golfing facilities to be built on our Southern shores. The water resources of the region are indeed too limited to meet the needs of the new facilities. Help us to prevent this.”

Green Golf on the Go

There are so many "Green Golf" stories I can't keep up.
I've decided to start posting links to a bunch of small stories together in one single post, enjoy!

We've covered pasture golf before, check out this course in Kansas
www.vinlandnaturalnine.org

St. Andrews could be under water by 2050 due to global warming

Trump row councillor’s call to reject £1bn project
Open letter says any planning permission given should be on reduced scale

Eco Clothing for Golf
www.untouchedworld.com

Background on Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program

If you haven't heard of the Audubon program for golf courses, your probably on the wrong site. Here's a little background for you, from Audubon:

"The Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Course is an award winning education and certification program that helps golf courses protect our environment and preserve the natural heritage of the game of golf. By helping people enhance the valuable natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency, and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf operations, the program serves as vital resource for golf courses.

Getting involved is easy. Membership is open to golf courses in the United States and internationally, including private clubs, public and municipal courses, PGA sites, 9-hole facilities, resort courses, and golf residential communities. After joining the program, your next step is to take stock of environmental resources and potential liabilities, and then develop an environmental plan that fits your unique setting, goals, staff, budget, and time. Audubon International provides a Site Assessment and Environmental Planning Form to provide guidance, as well as educational information to help you with:

Environmental Planning Wildlife and Habitat Management Chemical Use Reduction and Safety

Water Conservation Water Quality Management Outreach and Education

Based on a site specific report provided by Audubon International, you develop a plan that works for your golf course. By implementing and documenting environmental management practices in the above areas, a golf course is eligible for designation as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, improving its stature and reputation."

They just released a new website with a whole bunch of great information, unfortunately I can't post links to anything so instead go there yourself and check it out www.auduboninternational.org, be sure to check out the map page which lists both the number of courses and the total percentage of courses within each state.

Rob Lowe explains

Buffer Zones, Filtration Strips and Naturalization

Buffer Zone at CaledonWoods Golf Club, Ontario Canada.

There is so much info out there on buffer zones so I've decided to just compile a bunch of it here.
Note: I'll be updating this post as I find more articles.

Follow Link for "Landuse Buffer Zone Standards" *GREAT OVERALL GUIDE*

Follow this link for "Buffer Strip Techniques for Golf Courses"

Follow Link for "Buffer Zone Vegetation"

Follow Link for "Core Habitat, Not Buffer Zone"

Follow Link for a great list of Buffer Zone Articles by the Turfgrass Information Centers TGIF Database

Wikipedia

More to a flower than meets the eye (warning: shamless self plug)

As many of you know I run a business called Out on a Limb where I provide golf courses with various environmental services. I was recently planting a buffer zone at a high end Toronto golf club and was asked by a member "why did you choose those plants?".

There are many things to consider while planning a buffer zone, I personally like to follow the Permaculture principle of planning for at least three beneficial characteristics resulting from the one project. In order to do this successfully each site must be considered on an individual basis. The slope/grade, soil type, playability, aesthetics, biodiversity, plant function and possible maintenance requirements should all be considered while planning for the specific planting site. Some of the benefits realized by considering the above features of a planting project include erosion control, habitat corridor linkages, nutrient filtration, beautification, fuel conservation (no more mowing), shading (important role of many urban projects) and many more.

The debate between native and non-native material is ongoing, when it comes down to it I evaluate material for buffer zones based upon the functions the client wants from the project. For example - if they are looking for something that is primarily aesthetically pleasing I'll use plants that produce showy flowers. This is where the designer, according to that permaculture principle mentioned above, must consider other beneficial characteristics of the plant for this particular site.

Lets use the native Blue Flag Iris (Iris versicolor) for example, Iris's are commonly used in moist planting areas, and produce large flowers that golfers love. They are low enough to the ground that they wont pose too much of a difficult feature to play. Iris's can help define a hole by offering a visual reference for yardages or common out of bounds areas, and of course they provide nectar to bees. Another lesser known but extremely beneficial characteristic is their ability to filter pesticides. Now I'm in no way condoning or promoting the irresponsible use of pesticides that would lead to pest control products leaching into a body of water, what I am saying is that we should employ specific species capable of removing these chemicals if they are released into the environment, it would be irresponsible not to.

“Studies from golf greens have shown that 5 percent to 10 percent of the total pesticides applied are lost in runoff. In worst case conditions, this figure can be as high as 30 percent,” says John Clark, a professor of veterinary and animal science at UMass (taken from this article). “We have identified plant species that can reduce the amount of certain pesticides in soil by up to 94 percent in the greenhouse.”

Out of the ten herbaceous plants tested Blue flag iris was the clear winner, able to reduce levels of the insecticide chlorpyriphos (EPA Info here, fact sheet here) by 76 percent and levels of the fungicide chlorothalonil (Info here and here) by 94 percent in soil after three months of growth.

I will continue to write articles about plants that could be used to fulfill the many functions that we need them to on golf courses. I'll be tagging them under the function titles of erosion control, habitat corridor linkages, nutrient filtration, beautification, fuel conservation (no more mowing), shading (important role of many urban projects) and many more.


For more information about bioremediation techniques used on golf courses check out the links below:

Wikipedia

The Bioremediation and Phytoremediation of Pesticide-contaminated Sites - Prepared by Chris Frazar National Network of Environmental Studies (NNEMS) Fellow

Pesticide Residues in Grass Clippings Raise Concerns - BNET

Selection of Plants for Optimization of Vegetative Filter Strips Treating Runoff from Turfgrass

"It's sink or swim time: Golf must push forward"

The Globe and Mail is one of Canada's few newspapers written at a post secondary reading level. The Globe is well known for its golf coverage, check it out here.

Recently an article, Click here, appeared on Globeandmail.com which evaluated directions the industry, according to the writer, should go. Here's a bit from the article:

"Environmental accountability will be so aggressive and predominant a generation from now that I suspect we'll look back and shake our heads at ourselves. Right now, only about 600 of 23,000 golf courses in the United States, for instance, have the Audubon certification for best practices in golf-course maintenance. Less than 3 per cent? That's not even close to respectable."

A little side note: Canada has approximately 2000 golf courses and at last count only 53 were Audubon Certified - just over 3% - the highest percent of any country involved in the program! Way to go eh!

Kleen Drinking Water

Many golf courses have taken steps to ensure golfers of the safety of on-course drinking water, despite their attempts there are still cases of golfers tracing illnesses to on-course water supplies. We're not talking about drinking water from a pond, we'll talking about the coolers set out on the course by staff who may, or may not, of washed the cooler correctly. This has led many courses to provide plastic bottles of drinking water, but with the recent concern about plastics (specifically Bisphenol A, check out Wikipedia for more info) and the increase in waste this creates some courses are looking for a cleaner greener option.

I was in the pro-shop of Toronto's famous Rosedale Golf Club the other week and saw that they have trouble keeping Klean Kanteens on the shelf. "All the members want them" I was told. Well here's the best way for you to get your hands on these products seeing that the stores are having troubles: www.ourbackyard.ca or find a Canadian retailer through www.oneworlddistribution.ca

Golf Clothing is "Going Fore The Green!"

From an interview with John Ashworth:
“We decided to launch an organic and sustainable product line because it is a responsible path to take, Organic products continue to improve, and we want to do our part for the planet. We hope to grow this part of our collection each season.”
Buy Ashwoth products at GolfGalaxy.com

North Carolina offers golf tourists green options

Proximity Hotel and Print Works Bistro are the first hotel and first restaurant in the United States to attain the LEED Platinum certification (October 2008). The building's design and construction followed guidelines of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System,™ the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of high performance green buildings. North Carolina is home to many beautiful golf courses where some PGA competitions take place. Golf enthusiasts enjoy the close by Sedgefield Country Club where the Wyndham Championship has been played.

A Lowe moment!

Now we've covered golfers hitting birds before, some on purpose and some by mistake, check out our coverage of Tripp "idiot" Isenhour here. This latest story is a little different.

From Ecorazzi:

Rob Lowe has given up the game of golf after he accidentally hit a goldfinch in mid-air and killed the bird during a celebrity golf tournament. Lowe says: “My luck continued to decline. It turns out it was the state bird, and killing the state bird is punishable by prison. By the time that the state police had found out, they (golf officials) had sequestered me away into the clubhouse, and I sort of made my escape. I was completely traumatized so I’ve given up the game.”

Certainly Lowe won’t be imprisoned for the accident, but it’s nice to see that he felt genuinely sorry for the mistake. Incidentally, a group of mathematics geniuses playing in the same tournament figured that, ‘the odds of hitting this bird in flight is one in 247 million, and the odds of a hole-in-one - one in 700,000.” Perhaps Lowe wanted to score a birdie so badly for charity that he just got carried away.

Timberlake still going fore the green

From Justin Timberlake in a recent interview:
"I asked questions about what we could possibly do, and we found out we could actually make it a "green course." So when it's finished this summer it will be a Platinum LEED certified green course. The first in the United States of America, so that's pretty exciting that you could take all that land and make it eco-friendly".
Find out more here, here, and here.
Note: We've spoken about his efforts before here

Dixon Eco Balls get picked up by Pete and Carlson's

Just announced - Pete Carlsons Golf and Tennis , of Palm Desert California, will be carrying the new Dixon Golf Eco Ball.

Obama vs. Mcain - Who is best for golf and environment?

Being a Canadian citizen I am not overly familiar with either of the presidential candidates. So I've decided to attend the following webinar hosted by Golfdom and Landscape Management magazine.

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2008
Time: 11:00 a.m. Pacific / 2:00 p.m. Eastern
Duration: 30 minutes

David T. Crow will present to lawn care services company owners, landscape contractors, golf course superintendents and owners and managers can expect reform in the area of environmental policy no matter which candidate is elected president. The webinar will discuss potential scenarios.
Find the sign up link here.

A Tired Solution?

Laying old car tire crumbs underneath a golf green doesn't sound like a great idea, until you speak to University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers. They've been able to demonstrate how "ground-up tires placed beneath golf course greens absorb excess chemicals from fertilizers and help prevent groundwater contamination". Check out the article here.

But I am a little concerned about the rubber leaching, this study suggests there is reason to worry - "components of crumb rubber produced from tires, volatilize into the vapor phase and are leached into water in contact with the crumbs".

We'll see where this goes in the future, nevertheless I am intrigued by its potential recycling/re-use capacity and pollution prevention characteristics.

"Is Tiger Woods bad for the environment"

A great discussion if you get the chance, find it here.

Ryder Cup to be "environmentally sustainable" for 2010

I've looked all over the Ryder Cup 2010 website and cant find any mention of the effort, however everyone else is reporting on how the 2010 Ryder Cup in Newport Wales will be "environmentally sustainable". I'll dig deeper and find more for you soon!

World Golf Article here

GCSAA Article here

Europeantour.com Article here

Green Cups, Green Shirts - Its a really good start.