Monthly Feature Hosted By:
	Matthew J. Ceplo, CGCS, at Rockland Country Club in Sparkill, N.Y

Working in wetlands and within river corridors can be challenging.  Brian Hickey, superintendent at Springfield Country Club, provides us with a good example of how environmental projects can be done.  Perhaps most importantly, it is a good lesson in patience. 

I commend Brian for bringing in the proper people.  It is relatively easy to hire an environmental engineer, who would be working for you.  However, inviting environmental groups to work on projects at the golf facility may seem intimidating for some, but establishing on-going relationships with local conservation groups is beneficial.  In Brian’s case the environmental group was the McKenzie Watershed Council. 

Get to know your local watershed association and any other pertinent environmental organizations.  It is easier to build trust before you tackle certain projects.  The worst thing you can do is try to do any project with out the necessary permits.  Properly securing the necessary permits requires money and time.  It is easy to sit in a board room with the green committee and talk about changes to the golf course.  Expectations may be high, including the belief that a project should begin immediately.  Most of us have been put in that position at one time or another.  After all, we want to improve our properties.  

However, patience is important.  Brian first contacted the watershed council in 2004.  He started the restoration project in September 2009.  Working with government organizations takes time and some of you may even think that five years is fast in that scenario.  We have a situation here at the club that developed when we wanted to dredge our irrigation pond.  We started the permitting process and after about a year and $20,000.00 we were told we could not dredge with out hauling the sediment to a lined land fill because it contained copper.  That made the project cost prohibited.  At that point we decided to cut our losses and abandoned the project. 

In our case, the copper issue is one that falls within more than one government agency’s jurisdiction.  One government agency issues the permits to apply copper products, such as copper sulfate to treat for algae.  Another government agency views it as hazardous waste.  This conflict still remains unresolved.

Brian’s willingness to help with invasive weed control, providing and establishing habitat for endangered species and obtaining funding to help the process is going above and beyond.   Follow Brian’s example and who knows you may even be able to come up with some funding of you own. 

March's Guest:
	Jared Weybright, McKenzie Watershed Council

The McKenzie Watershed Council works with a variety of partners, including private landowners and public agencies, on a cooperative basis in order to enhance the McKenzie River watershed, a major tributary to the Willamette River in western Oregon. These local partnerships are vital to long term watershed restoration. The Council and the Springfield Country Club (SCC) began just such a partnership in 2009 with the goal of restoring 5 acres of riparian habitat on SCC property. This marks the first time the Council has partnered with a local golf course and the initial results have been extremely promising.

The importance of the willingness of the SCC and its staff to undertake restoration cannot be understated. SCC staff first expressed an interest in restoration opportunities with the Council a number of years ago. Since that time the SCC and the Council have maintained an ongoing relationship. When a grant funding opportunity became available we were able to quickly take advantage of it. The ongoing relationship truly made the project happen.

Successful restoration often hinges on long term maintenance. The easy part is putting the trees in the ground; the hard part is keeping them alive. Luckily, the SCC comes ready-made with a built-in maintenance staff. The presence of this staff and the availability of key infrastructure pieces such as irrigation systems and large machinery will provide the cornerstone for successful project maintenance over the next several years.

The project affords the Council and the SCC a unique public outreach opportunity. The majority of SCC golfers are local residents with a vested interest in the water quality and environmental conditions of their local watershed. Through outreach strategies such as project signage, newsletter articles and even local TV news interviews we are aiming to use this project to generate increased interest in watershed restoration and positive public feedback for the SCC.