Editor's note: The following post was actually crafted last Friday during a flight from Las Vegas to Kansas City following my attendance at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference. I fully intended to post this that night, but because of circumstances beyond (and, to tell you the truth, also within) my control, that did not happen. So I post it now. Nothing has been changed to protect the innocent.
Joellen Lampman looked out from behind the podium at the front of a half-empty conference room and lamented the low turnout for her presentation on late Thursday morning at the WaterSmart Innovations Conference.
“It’s a really good presentation, too,” she said with a smile, getting a few laughs from the 20 or so folks who were in attendance to hear Audubon International’s program manager for it’s Cooperative Sanctuary Programs talk about water quality and conservation programs for golf courses.
And she wasn’t blowing smoke. The program was good, comprehensive in its explanation of AI’s Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Course and the benefits that many golf courses receive from participating, and thorough in highlighting a few facilities that have spread the good word about their environmental work far beyond the boundaries of their golf course.
Unfortunately, Lampman’s message was delivered largely to members of the choir. Those in the room either worked in golf or worked with golf and already knew of the leadership roles that superintendents have taken in areas of water conservation, efficiency and quality. Those who would most benefit from those lessons largely stayed away from this session, as well as the handful of other sessions that put golf in the forefront.
Why they stayed away was one of the burning questions I tried to answer in my final day at last week’s conference. Among an attendee list packed with officials from municipal water districts and manufacturers of water conservation products for the home, I wanted to find out whether experts in the field recognized just how many good things golf is doing when it comes to water issues (specifically) and environmental issues (in general).
The good news is most of the folks I talked to do view golf as a leader in the world of water. They know about the hundreds of acres of naturalized areas on golf courses that have helped slash water consumption, the high tech equipment employed on modern golf course irrigation systems and the proactive steps superintendents have taken during times of drought to make sure they’re doing the right things for both their communities and their golf courses.
But I walked away from those conversations wondering if golf had become a victim of its own successes, if it had been relegated to a supporting role at this conference and around this topic because leaders in the field knew that superintendents would, by and large, do the right thing regardless of whether they were in the spotlight or not, thus freeing up those leaders to direct attention toward groups that might not do the right thing.
It does make some sense, especially for resource-starved agencies that need results and need them now from business and home owners still coming to grips with a growing water crisis. But at the same time, it also quiets an important voice that could aid those efforts, an educated group of professionals who can speak from a position of experience and help teach those business and home owners how they too can make the best and most efficient use of their water resources.
Patrick Watson is doing that, highlighting golf participants in the Southern Nevada Water Authority’s Water Smart Landscapes Program (you can read all about the program and those successes in this earlier blog post). And Lampman — who until a week ago was actually Joellen Zeh; she got married a week ago Saturday — is doing it to, beginning an effort to spread some of the success stories from the ACSP for Golf Courses to broader audiences.
I’ll leave you with one of those stories that struck me during her presentation, the story of a small 18-hole golf course in rural Alabama that proudly showed off some of the environmental progress they had made through the program to city officials who were touring the course. It must have been a pretty good tour, because soon after, the mayor contacted AI to see if the organization had a program for communities similar to the one the golf course he toured was using. At the time, they didn’t. But now the organization’s Sustainable Communities Program is growing steadily, and that small town in Alabama was one of the first to sign up.
All because of something it learned on a golf course. It would be nice if more could learn that same lesson.
Golf is one of the best sport. This is one good choice to spend your spare time. There are tons of great activities involved on this one aside from playing the sport itself
Posted by: golf components | April 14, 2009 at 11:12 AM