600 million reasons to use compost tea on your greens

Continued use of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides do nothing but destroy the naturally ocurring beneficial biological agents that support healthy turf and plants. When these biologicals are killed, it takes more and more expensive chemicals to do what they do for free.  The more chems you use, the more microbes you kill, and your soil food web falls into an unsustainable death spiral.

How healthy is your soil? Perhaps you would consider adding beneficial biology as a sustainable alternative to chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. Kick the chemical habit! Compost and compost tea contains all the biology you need to start your turf on a path towards chemical independence.

How many creatures naturally exist in a single GRAM of healthy soil?

600 million bacterial individuals; 15,000 to

20,000 bacterial species

150 to 300 meters of fungal biomass; 5,000 to

10,000 fungal species

10,000 protozoa

20.30 beneficial nematodes: bacterial-feeding,

fungal-feeding, predatory

200,000 arthropods per square meter

That's a lot of valuable life forms in one gram of soil. Don't kill them. they are your friends.

It's called wastewater, but it shouldn't be wasted

The city of Morro Bay CA is under state mandate to replace their "antique" wastewater treatment plant. The construction is scheduled to begin in 2012 and be completed in 2014.

The Morro Bay wastewater treatment plant at 160 Atascadero Road is operated jointly by the city and the Cayucos Sanitary District. It is one of the few plants in California that is still permitted to discharge partially treated water into the ocean. Discharging the waste water into the ocean instead of returning it to the ground water supply or recycling the water for agricultural use is a huge waste of one of the area's most valuable valuable resources. Green Golfer Foundation will advocate for the treated wastewater to be piped to Morro Bay Golf Course for it's irrigation use.

The new plant would treat 1.5 million gallons per day to tertiary level with any amount over that treated to secondary levels. Plans call for eventually trucking away 400,000 gallons a day of treated water for agricultural and landscaping uses.

Read more: http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2011/03/18/1527457/morro-bay-sewer-upgrade-runs-into.html#ixzz1QgAMAWeQ

Are golf course chemicals shrinking your balls?

A new study suggests that there is widespread decline in male reproductive health and endocrine disrupting pesticides are believed to play a significant role. Thirty out of 37 pesticides tested by the researchers altered male hormones, including 16 that had no known hormonal activity until now.

The study, "Widely Used Pesticides with Previously Unknown Endocrine Activity Revealed as in Vitro Anti-Androgens," was published February 2011 in the online edition of the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

"This study indicates that, not surprisingly, there are many other endicrine disruptors that we have not yet identified or know very little about," said Emily Barrett, PhD, a University of Rochester assistant professor in obstretics and gynecology. 'This underlines the glaring problem that many of the chemicals that are most widely used today, including pesticides and fungicides, are not adequately tested and may have serious long term impacts on health and development."

Green Golfer Foundation advocates the reduction or elimination of chemical fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides commonly used on golf courses. We know that these products are used for a reason, but we also know that there are organic products such as compost and compost tea that do the same jobs. We also know that these organic products are easy and inexpensive to make onsite.

There is no reason to risk the health of golfers or the surrounding communities just to keep the grass one shade greener. The fact is, when it comes to being environmentally responsible, the "greenest" golf course is probably one shade browner.

Green Golfer Mission Statement - for your approval

Whether you are a golfer or not, you should be concerned about how your local golf courses affect the surrounding community and global environment. By joining or supporting Green Golfer Foundation, you will indicate your support for environmental awareness and global sustainability.

Today I'm going to propose a mission statement for our organization. I hope that you will consider it carefully, suggest changes or additions, or make comments. If you approve of it as-is, then vote yes or no. If we get more yes votes than no votes, we'll consider it adopted. otherwise, we'll keep working on it.

I propose the following Green Golfer Foundation mission statement:

"The mission of Green Golfer Foundation is to provide environmental leadership on the course and in the community through demonstration, participation and education of the benefits of zero waste, the reduced use of water and potentially harmful chemicals."

Every one of you reading this, anywhere in the world, is considered a voting member of our forming group. For the sake of parlimentary protocol, will one of you second the proposal?

Please vote with your comments. On Facebook, vote yes=Like. If you vote no, you'll need to post a comment or suggestion for revision.

Understanding the golf superintendent's job

The modern golf superintendent has his hands full managing his property amid a gauntlet of regulation, economic constraints, competition for water, pressure to maintain pristine course conditions and public perception. If you're a golf superintendent, it's not easy being you.

 A big percentage of golfers golfers take their superintendent and greens keeping staff for granted. They get pissed off at staff if the second cut is too high, if the greens aren't rolling exactly as they want them to. But really, they're most likely just making shitty shots and transfering the blame. Golf is a game played on a constantly changing environment. That's what keeps it fun and challenging, even when you play the same course time after time. For golfers, it's a game, and it should be fun regardless of the current course conditions. If you don't like how the ball is rolling today, come back tommorrow and it'll be completely different. And if you're the type that gets pissed off at the course conditions, get over it.. you probably aren't good enough to justify getting angry anyway.

To really appreciate your favorite golf courses, try to put yourself in the superintendent's shoes. When you go to different courses, imagine how you would handle the differing environmental conditions and challenges that pose themselves according to site, location and microclimates. But hey, forget your overalls and rubber boots...today's golf superintendent is more scientist than farmer. If you're going to understand the superintendent's job, you're going to leave the farm and to go back to school.

At Green Golfer Foundation, we want to make our home courses the best they can be. We want excellent playability and we want environmental sustainability. We want to protect the course environment and the surrounding community from any adverse impacts. The best way to insure that our course is the best it can be is to understand what can be done, and what can't. It won't do any good to bust the superintendent's chops over an issue that he can't control. On the other hand, if it's possible to make a change for the better, than we want to figure out how to help superintendent and staff make those changes.

The best thing a Green Golfer can do is study up on the golf industry. All the information you need is easily and quickly available on the internet. There's so much information, in fact, that it's likely that no one person could possibly see it all. If you find something interesting, why not send the link to your superintendent.

If you and your golf partner are both interested in the environmental profile of your home course, consider asking other's in your golf club to start an environmental advisory group (Hello...Green Golfer Foundation format). Get to know your superintendent and greens staff. Get to know more about their jobs...and help them.

 Here are a few links to learning more about golf and the environment and what you and your superintent should be paying attention to:

1. Water sourcing availability, course demand and water costs are a huge part maintaining your course. If it's not the number one problem facing your superintendent, it soon will be. Here are some interesting water facts. www.waterinfo.org/resources/water-facts

2. How much water does your course consume for irrigation and domestic use? Is it more or less than comparable properties? Here is handy calculator for comparing water usage at your course to a seasonal baseline estimate for different California zones. www.ncga.org/turfgrass/golf-course-water-usage/

3. A comprehensive source of water and environmental related links from the Environmental Institute for golf. You could spend hours here... www.eifg.org/water/default.asp

4. There are many published studies on the best management practices for course management. if you want to know what your superintendent should know. this is a good example. www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/water_inland/diversions/golfcoursewaterusebmp.pdf

This stuff doesn't even break the surface of all the information about sustainable golf course management that's available. If you like this stuff, good news...There's a lot of it out there. Now get busy and learn.

ZerO Waste are two words that only leaders use

If you could see me right now, you'd see me pumping my fist into the air. I'm actually shouting "ZerO Waste!" right now. I must admit that I have seen a few followers using the words...but they don't do the fist pump, so what good is it?

One thing I like about the words ZerO Waste (I like it when we use a big O at the end of zero) is that everybody likes the sound of it. But ask them to define zero waste, and you see that few can articulate the topic very well. The other day, a couple of us were planning the script for a video presentation in which we were wondering who could describe zero waste golf more clearly...a middle aged golfer or a fifth grader? It was unamimous.

I shouldn't have to define the word "zero" for you. Everyone knows what zero means. It means no, nothing, nada. Mick Jagger could have substituted the word zero in his iconic song...Remember "I can't get zero satisfaction"?

But the word waste, now there's an enigma. Waste means to use or expend carelessly or needlessly, to squander. It means to fail to use, as an opportunity. It means to be available without being put to use. When I was pumping my fist into the air, what I was really shouting was, "Green Golfer Foundation is available! Put us to use! If you're a golf superintent who has noticed that play has fallen off lately as the economy has taken a nose dive, pump your fist into the air and shout, " (insert name here) golf course is available! Put us to use. Actually this might not be the best slogan, because it sounds self serving, and we all know selfishness makes people feel bad. I suggest you go with the slogan "ZerO Waste!"

A word of caution, though. The words, zero waste, cause a change in the people who use them. First you use the words. Then you start thinking about what they mean. Then you start finding ways to illustrate them. Next thing you know, you're obsessed with eliminating your own wasteful behaviors. I know because it's happened to me since I started promoting them. Yes I'm obsessed about zero waste golf. I even bought the internet domain zerowastegolf.com. Sadly, I'm wasting the opportunity to put up a website, because I wasted the opportunity to learn how to work the internet.

Here's some of the things I obsess about when I think about zero waste golf:

1. There are plenty of golfers who would volunteer to improve their favorite golf course, especially retired folks that don't have enough to do since Oprah is off the air. Don't waste their talents.
2. The average golf course uses 300,000 gallons per irrigation session. Wouldn't 250,000 do just as well? Don't waste water.
3. Energy from the sun and wind is free. get some panels or a wind generator to charge your carts. Don't waste free energy, or the government rebates available for installing energy saving equipment.
4. Compost your course food and green wastes and use the compost or worm castings to fertilize your landscape or course. Don't waste money on fertilizer. And don't waste the atmosphere by landfilling food or green wastes.
5. Back to water savings...Change your urinals to flushless.
6. Back to carts...Encourage golfers to walk the course. tell them not to waste their health, and save the energy needed to constantly recharge the carts.
7. Compost tea has shown to be an effective disease preventative. Use it on your greens. Don't waste your natural soil biology by constantly killing it with pesticides.
8. Get rid of the styrofoam to-go containers in the snack bar. They don't degrade in the landfill and they don't recycle. Oh, and those plastic coated paper to-go cups...ditto. Don't waste room in the landfill.
9. Promoting zero waste at your golf course indicates to you are a community environmental leader. Don't waste the opportunity to lead.
10. And this zero waste advice is for you golfers that like to gamble. Spend some time on the practice green, fer crissakes. Quit missing those 3 foot putts, you're just wasting your hard earned money.

Non profits are a superintendent's best friend

Green Golfer Foundation is a non profit organization with all the bells and whistles that go with that distinction. One of the best known distinctions of a non profit is the tax exempt status. Many of you may know that when you make a charitable donation to a non profit organization, you are entitled to a tax deduction for the value of the donation. It's a win-win situation. When you give something of value to a charitable organization you help out a cause that you believe in and when you write off the gift at tax time, your tax liablility is reduced by the value of the gift. It doesn't hurt your bottom line at all. It's as though the government has actually made the donation.

Green Golfer is dedicated to furthering environmental awareness and specific projects that advance sustainability or reduce environmental impacts fom golf course activities. The funds we raise are reserved for environmental education and outreach or implementation of environmental golf projects. So far in 2011, we have raised over $30,000 in cash or equipment, and provided over 200 hours of volunteer time to help San Luis Obispo County Golf Operations develop a zero waste demonstration park at Dairy Creek Golf Course. It's a good start, but we're not even close to done.

Green Golfer started out as an offshoot of Environmental Protection Associates Inc. (EPA Inc).  EPA Inc is a very small organization. In fact there's only three of us in the club. EPA Inc. is not really structured to be dedicated as a golf organization, since we design zero waste strategies for any number of venues and events other than golf. That's why we decided to start Green Golfer to specialize on golf and the environmental challenges that go along with operating our local golf courses. Whenever we talk to golfers about forming an environmental club for golfers, they respond with great enthusiasm. That's why we're starting to reach out for charter members to help us grow the group.

As a non profit group, Green Golfer can do so many things that county golf operations simply can't. As an example, the county can't solicit or recieve gifts or donations from individuals or businesses. We can. The county can't recieve endowments from the estates of golf lovers, we can. What the county can do, however, is accept resources from a non profit organization.

After the compost tea test was sucessful, Josh Heptig, superintendent of county golf operations invited EPA Inc. to make a written proposal for the creation of a zero waste demonstration park at Dairy Creek. We knew that if we couldn't find a way to divert food wastes from the landfill, we couldn't accomplish our zero waste goal. But dealing with food wastes is strictly regulated by the state and county regulations. That's why we went for help and advice to Bill Worrell, manager of SLO County Integrated Waste Management Authority. So happens that IWMA had two vessel composters, valued $10,000 each, sitting around being unused and that are approved for food waste composting. So we asked them to give us the composters for our project with county golf. And they did, just like that. I'm not bragging about it, I'm just saying...It's not the kind of request that county golf operations could make, but Green Golfer could.

I'll tell you a funny story that superintendent Josh Heptig told me. When he and I first met to discuss creating the first zero waste golf course in the world, he told his supervisors....and they just laughed. After the success of the free compost tea test, he told his supervisors....and they were starting to get curious. After IWMA gave us the $20,000 worth of composters, he told his supervisors....and they suddenly became very interested. After we applied for and were awarded $10,000 in grant cash money from Morro Bay National Estuary Program....his supervisors wanted to take credit for the whole idea. (just kidding) but for sure they were 100% behind the project.

I'll tell you more about the MBNEP grant in my next session.

A tea party, but not the political one...

When I met with Josh Heptig, Superintendent of San Luis Obispo County Golf Operations, I told him that I thought he had an opportunity to create "the first zero waste golf course in the world", and he was intrigued. But then he told me that what he really had been wanting to do was test compost tea on the practice greens. "Ok", I said, "that's easy to do because my daughter and her husband just happen to be in the business of brewing certified organic compost tea". They agreed to provide the tea for a test, and I agreed to do the labor, all with no cost to the county.

In the next few weeks, I started spraying compost tea on one half of practice and nursery greens at Dairy Creek GC in San Luis Obispo, and on Morro Bay GC, both of which are operated by the county. We sprayed tea on the greens about every three weeks for about six months. At the end of the summer, everybody was happy, the greens stayed green, and there had been no significant disease outbreaks where we used the tea instead of pesticides.

We started studying up on compost tea. We learned that compost tea is not fertilizer, it's a solution of microscopic creatures that, when added to the soil or leaves, make it easier for all plants to thrive, including turfgrass.  We learned that the tea can help reduce water usage by 30-50 percent in the first year of use. We concluded that with compost tea, we could reduce or eliminate the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Put all this together, and we're talking about saving the golf operations a bunch of money.

I want get back to Green Golfer Foundation, here. Green Golfer Foundation is a local non profit organization dedicated to promoting environmental advancement on our local golf courses. But environmental advancement can cost money that course management just doesn't have in their budget. What to do? Well, the first thing a non profit can do is volunteer to help. The second thing a non profit can do is encourage donations, endowments and participation from other interested local environmental groups. And when we volunteer to help or raise funds it's easier to convince course management to take chances on new techniques. The fact is that a non profit can do a lot of things that a county golf, private clubs, or or other for profit public golf operations just can't. Green Golfer Foundation, as a non profit,  is uniquely positioned to help change the environmental practices and public profile of all our local golf operations. And that's a good thing.

In the next installment, I'm going to tell you how we convinced Integrated Waste Management Authority to donate $20,000 worth of equipment to our zero waste golf ideas. And than I'll tell you how we got the Morro Bay National Estuary Program to donate $10,000 to the effort. This is the work of Green Golfer Foundation...It's working.

take a side trip to see how our zero waste golf project is progressing. http://slocountygolfcourses.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html