Oregon Superintendent’s Environmental Update

Dear Fellow Superintendents,

No longer a member of the Board of Director but still Chair of the Environmental Committee, I feel compelled to communicate a message to all of your regarding Oregon’s environmental reputation. Over the last 10 years Oregon superintendents have been recognized for their stewardship many ways. In 2005 we were selected as the recipient of the Presidents Award for Environmental Stewardship and have won many ELGA awards including the National winners, John Anderson at Pronghorn, Troy Russel at Bandon Dunes Golf Resort, Ryan Bancroft, Salishan Spa and Golf Resort and myself at Stone Creek Golf Club. In 2004 OGCSA superintendents received five ELGA awards in different categories which was quite a feat. Over the last few years Oregon’s presents at the awards has diminished.

 I would like to encourage all of you that have not yet received a National ELGA award to continue to apply for the award. If you have not applied and would like to get more information I am confident that many of those that have done so in the past would be more than happy to share their past applications with you to help you get started. A list of previous winners can be seen on our website .

 On a national level the awards have been dominated by PGA owned courses. Their superintendents are actually “strongly” encouraged to apply for the award each year as part of their job. I feel that is a little heavy but the fact is they are doing it and are getting recognized for it. As an association we can be equally represented at the ELGA’s from all the great programs that I have seen across our state.

 In the past years that I have applied for the award I have found it to be beneficial in reviewing my environmental efforts and documenting the new things that I have done. By applying for the award I have essentially created a document that can be shared with my constituents and stakeholders as well as the press if I am ever asked on what I am doing to enhance and protect the environment.

 We are all extremely busy people and yes this takes some time to complete but it is well worth it. I recommend writing the application in Word and then cut and past it to the ELGA Application Site. The deadline to submit is October 18th.

 The Oregon Environmental Committee has been working hard this summer in reviewing the comments on the Revised Stewardship Guidelines from the outside agencies. Recently we finished our review and EnviroLogic Resources Inc. is putting together the final document. Shortly we will be sending out a list of potential photos that we will need to enhance the document. We would like submissions for as many golf courses as possible to get a good cross-section of the different courses within our association. Feel free to submit as many photos as you see fit.

 Now that we are reaching the end of this long and arduous task of the revision we need to reflect on why we wrote these guidelines in the first place. The Board in 1999 and 2000 with the help of Dr. Michael Hindahl saw the importance of being proactive as an industry to avoid regulatory action by state and local authorities. Out of that concern, the Guidelines were developed to communicate our environmental stewardship to those watching us. Since then we have earned the respect of our peers across the county and have been praised by state and local agencies. Now we need to continue our efforts even on a stronger pace. It is important that we communicate the necessity of implementing the Oregon Environmental Stewardship Guideline program to our stakeholders and help them understand why we need to have this program in place. The meat of the program lies with the water quality testing portion of the program. Currently there are only a handful of golf courses testing at this time.  In today’s economic climate budgets are getting slim and it is easy to overlook or even drop out the water testing line item. If there is one thing that we keep in our budget it should be to at least continue testing for nitrates and orthophosphates. Testing for pesticides would be ideal but as we all know it can be expensive. If you work through EnviroLogic Recourses Inc. they can help you develop a program that will keep your costs affordable while continuing to document your water quality. Remember as an industry the results of your tests are important and when your test comes back without a detection that is the strongest tool you can posses. It verifies that as an industry we are managing our turf in a manner that can actually provide a means to filter water and have it leave your property cleaner that when it entered your property.

 Once you have tested for a few years and have developed a good baseline you can cut back on the frequency of the testing. Again, EnviroLogic Resources Inc. can assist you in determining a plan that will work for you.

 There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes to prepare for the revised guidelines. Pacific Agricultural Laboratory has spent much time in developing cost efficient means of water testing to help keep the cost down for all of us. EnviroLogic Resources Inc. has created a website called GreenGolfUSA which will provide you with a free tool to develop your own custom IPM plan online as well as BMP’s. The complete revised version of the Guidelines will be available for download from the OGCSA websites Environmental Page.

 I hope all has been going well for all of you this season and hope you have had time to enjoy your families and get in a few rounds as well. Thank you for your time and look forward to seeing all the great environmental work across our great state.

 Sincerely,

David Phipps
OGCSA Environmental Committee Chair
Stone Creek Golf Club