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Colonial Acres: Naturally Green
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Samantha and Zachary Blum inspect a bluebird house at Colonial Acres Golf Course. |
There is a new Performance Track member unlike any member before. No federal laws govern its environmental performance and there are minimal state reporting requirements for its use of chemicals. It is not a manufacturer, there is no production line. However, on a very busy morning there might be a line to sign in for tee time. Colonial Acres Golf Course of Glenmont, New York is the first golf course to be honored by membership in Performance Track.
Environmental stewardship can help protect the green spaces in our lives, but to keep golf greens in tip-top shape, course superintendents depend on chemicals, gas-fired equipment, and millions of gallons of water during the dry season. Colonial Acres' Superintendent Pat Blum is determined to demonstrate that successful golf course management doesn't require a heavy load of pesticides, and that natural habitats are a fitting way to create out-of-play areas.
Just like an industry facility, the golf course's environmental achievements came with time and experimentation. Colonial Acres took its first step toward understanding pollution prevention by joining Audubon International's Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, which provides environmental education and conservation assistance to golf course superintendents and industry professionals. Audubon certified Colonial Acres as a Cooperative Sanctuary in 1998 based on its environmental achievements. In the year 2000, Colonial Acres received the New York Governor's Award for Pollution Prevention for a small business. “I give a lot of credit to Audubon International, which helped us understand the potential we had to reduce the negative impact we could be making on the environment,” says Blum. “Once we got the hang of it, we just kept raising the bar to get better and better.”
The golf course is maintained using organic-based fertilizers—such as bone and feather meal or composted turkey droppings—rather than synthetic compounds. Natural organisms are used to help reduce stress on the grass, suppress disease, and improve plant performance during drought. The least toxic of synthetic pesticides are used. The course is 100 percent irrigated using ponds that catch run-off. No streams, rivers, or wells are tapped. Still, one of the course's future Performance Track commitments is to reduce total energy use by improving the watering system and wetting agent applications to reduce the amount of time irrigation pumps run.
“We've got a very small maintenance budget, a drop in the bucket compared with the big courses,” Blum says. Environmental improvements reduce expenses further. Colonial Acres recently converted three acres of previously maintained turf into natural habitat, reducing gasoline use and labor. Over the past 10 years, the course reduced its number of annual broad-spectrum pesticide applications from 22 to 12, and there's still more to come. Colonial Acres has committed to further reduce its pesticide use by 23 percent over the next 4 years.