Going natural

For superintendents, it can appear to be a complete no-brainer, an easy fix.

Take problematic areas of maintained turf and convert them to naturalized areas. Pick your spot, stop mowing, stop watering, stop any chemical applications, throw down some fescue or bluestem seed and -- voila! -- all your problems are solved. You're saving on labor (less mowing), your saving on water (less irrigation), your saving on chemicals (little or not applications) and you're banking a fair amount of goodwill for being so environmentally friendly.

But before you run out and begin making your hit list of problem fringe rough areas, a word of caution from the four presenters at an educational session on naturalized areas that wrapped up the New England Regional Turfgrass Conference and Show in Providence, R.I., on Thursday -- yes, all those benefits are there for the taking, but superintendents who think the whole thing will be "easy" have another thing coming.

"There are a lot of positives in creating naturalized areas, but you have to make sure expectations are in order," said Don Woodall with The Scotts Co. "You can't just take areas you don't want to maintain anymore, throw some stuff out there and let it go. It's much more involved than that."

Jim Skorulski, a Northeast regional agronomist with the USGA Green Section, concurred. "You have to start small, do the no-brainer areas and then build up. It all takes planning."

The benefits of conversion, Skorulski explained, were many. In addition to the ones mentioned above, he spoke of the added design appeal it can bring to a golf course, where naturalized areas can add definition and texture to the look and feel of a layout, the environmental benefits, which extend to creating additional cover and breeding sites for wildlife, and the protection to water sources and erosion-control benefits that naturalized areas can offer.

"Work with what you have," he said. "Don't be in a rush to convert everything in sight to native grasses. If you have wetland areas, woodlands, forests ... figure out how you can best work with them."

Skorulski and Woodall were joined in the panel discussion by Mike Stachowicz, the grounds manager at Dedham (Mass.) CC and Randy Prostack with the University of Massachusetts. Prior to their presentation, Bruce Clarke, Ph.D., from Rutgers played to an almost packed house for his presentation on anthracnose management.

And with that, and a half-day of trade show activity, the conference has come to a close. I spoke briefly with Gary Sykes, the executive director of the New England Regional Turfgrass Foundation, as we packed up the GCSAA booth, and he expected final attendance figures to come in around 2,400. "That's pretty good for us," he said. "Depending on the weather, we can be a little higher or a little lower, but we're pretty happy."

So am I. My trek to Providence netted a "Reflections" column for down the line, a couple of good leads on story topics for some of our Insider columns and stack of business cards for superintendents in the Northeast I met for the first time. Not a bad day's work.

Comments

[Joe Vela]

On the subject of natural areas, it would be interesting to consider the option of "Organic Areas" on golf courses. At first, it probably wouldn't seem practical in the interest of the game because to transition a green to total organic material would be costly and would take some time and serious attention to address all the different effects associated with the change. Doubtful that the paying members would tolerate it. But what about a fairway or rough area? To consider the amount of $$ you could save on irrigation costs with a more tolerant organic turf, is itself a fairly good reason to at least take a longer look into this overlooked option. And what about the rising costs of synthetic fertilizers? Or the environmental issues? It would be a great attention-grabber for any superintendant to bring to his course. And there is a stronger public interest in this subject lately. People want to protect their children and pets on home lawns. It would be a nice plug for a Golf Course to attract the environmentally conscious as well as those who really don't know (or care) the difference. But the more we learn, the better it sounds. If organic material is given a chance, the soil itself can effectively give the turfgrass what it needs to resist diseases and increase tolerance to heat and draught. Not to mention run-off and EPA issues. And to apply organics, you don't even really need a pesticide license. It seems like a no-brainer.