Editor's note: The following post is a part of the My GCSAA campaign, an effort by the association to focus on GCSAA members, their paths into careers in golf course management and how they utilized association products and services to support and enhance their careers and their golf facilities.
Peter McDonough, a 21-year member of GCSAA, helped make history in Virginia.
Now, more than ever, golf's commitment to environmental stewardship in the state has McDonough's fingerprints on it. The governor signed legislation earlier this year that was designed by McDonough and others, featuring nine fertilizer-oriented, golf industry-related bills, to address the Chesapeake Bay restoration project. House Bill 1831 and Senate Bill 1055 are proactive initiatives aimed at providing solutions to clean up the waterways.
One part of the bill states golf courses are exempt from local ordinances governing fertilizer use and application. Other key initiatives in the bills include all golf courses in Virginia must develop Nutrient Management Plans by July 1, 2017; the plan has to be approved by the Department of Conservation and Recreation within 30 days of submission. Also, information collected by the Department of Conservation and Recreation is exempt from the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.
"This was a huge step," said McDonough, the superintendent at the Keswick (Va.) Club. "This is a commitment from Virginia golf, from the government in Virginia, to everybody in Virginia, that we're going to do our part."
McDonough, 49, rattled off names of those who played a key role besides him in making all of this a reality, folks who have worked tirelessly for years to make it happen. Virginia Agribusiness Council president Donna Pugh Johnson and vice president Katie Frazier were among them, as was the Virginia GCSA.
So was GCSAA.
The GCSAA staff was invaluable, McDonough said. You get the feeling McDonough saw it as the command center, a go-to entity, for those in Virginia who were supporting the cause on the front line.
"There was a constant flow of information to us from GCSAA headquarters, things like information they would get from the EPA to pass on to us," McDonough said. "We had meetings, conference calls ... we were in tune."
That collaboration was crucial because the Chesapeake Bay restoration includes other states besides Virginia. It impacts Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and part of New York. GCSAA ensured its members from those affected regions had a handle on the process.
"GCSAA took the information we were gathering and getting it to the other states, which is crucial," McDonough said. "GCSAA kept us abreast so we weren't tripping over each other, duplicating things, and ensuring we were sending out the same message come crunch time."
McDonough and others aren't finished getting the word out beyond their region of the country. Currently, they are compiling a best practices manual to deliver to state regulatory agencies, hopefully by the end of August. The goal is to help others learn and perhaps make breakthroughs, such as they did in Virginia and the surrounding area.
"This is the exact fight that everybody is facing," he said.
McDonough appreciates it that he can encounter any obstacle, knowing GCSAA is there to lend support if needed.
"I can't get information from anywhere else, day in and day out, like I can from them," he said.
It was that type of support that buoyed McDonough and others who took a major step to create he best Chesapeake Bay possible.
"This experience enhances the reason why we're members," McDonough said.
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