The title means we have just been confirmed that we have attained Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary status for the golf course. I really want to thank my staff Mike Otstot, Zach Anderson, Ben Baker and Geofferey Gibson for putting in great effort with this project. Here is a little recap of what we had to accomplish in order to full fill the requirements.
1. Environmental Planning, The concrete foundation
that we will base all of our programs wants and needs before we move forward
for the staff, golfers and wildlife.
2.Wildlife and Habitat Management, Will make us understand the
wildlife that we have on the golf course, increasing the naturalized areas and
creating a wildlife inventory.
3.Integrated Pest management, The
goal here is to reduce our inputs in to the environment through
Cultural Practices, Pest Monitoring and Management and Maintenance Facility and
Pesticide Safety.
4.Water Conservation, This also would include the
amount of water that we use to irrigate with and that our system is
running efficiently with proper distribution and no leaks. It has
always been my number one concern that we do not abuse the water that is given
to us.
5.Water Quality Management, Water has become an ever
so increasing commodity. It is extremely important that we have preventative
and management controls in protecting our water sources. Some example that we
currently employ are no-input zones or buffer zones near our water bodies,
these help minimize run-off, potential drift and erosion with quarterly testing for nitrates and phosphates in the water. This area really
dives deeper into the management of our ponds as well.
6.Outreach and Education, Once completed with the previous
steps its now time to let the public and golfers know how we are doing and what
steps we are taking to manage our environmental impact. We do this by
education, displays of wildlife, kid activities and more.
As you can see there are a lot of steps to take and for us the most cumbersome was the Wildlife and Habitat Management section. Once this was complete the rest fell in line with what we were already doing. We go through these rigorous programs to improve the environment on the golf course but for me personally it is the message that I would like for every one to hear, that we do care and we just proved it.
Now for some project updates, the bunker work is picking up today for the first time in a couple of weeks. The weather for the next week and a half does not look very good but we are hopeful to have #9 prepped with gravel in the next couple of days. So far we have still have a lot of snow on the ground and we shifted to complete some work at the shop. We are improving our wash pad area and adding a water line to fill our mix tank. By permanently having a water source that is piped we can fill faster and not have to worry about a hose laying in the way. Our trees for screening the fence on 18 have arrived and those are planned to go in next week. We have just been given the green light to proceed with our second phase of the storm damage tree plantings, 19 to be exact. Our start date for this is mid February weather permitting.
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| water line trench |
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| Delivered Leyland Cypress trees |
