In Minnesota and other states,
new environmental protection laws impose strict new limits on phosphorus
use in fertilizers. Golf course superintendents, who have always tried
to be good stewards of the environment, now face even more rigorous
requirements in the use of fertilizers on the links. Moreover, the stakes
for golf club investors have been raised, for in some instances environmental
tests can dictate whether a golf course can use fertilizer at all.
The case of The Preserve
Golf Club near Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, illustrates just how important
meeting the requirement of the new law can be. Operating under a conditional
use permit, the course was under close scrutiny. It would not be able
to fertilize at all, had it been unable to prove that its fertilizer
programs were not increasing the level of nutrients beyond the naturally
occurring levels in the soil, and therefore, were not contributing to
chemical effluent in water run-off into adjacent wetlands and lakes.
Had these levels been elevated, the fertility practices of the golf
course would have been in jeopardy.
The superintendent's job
was made more difficult because there is no easy way to determine how
much phosphorus or nitrogen in the runoff is coming from fertilizer
applications, and how much may be naturally occurring.So innovative
testing and thorough analysis were called for.
In order to monitor the leachate
levels in the different areas, several collection jars, called lysimeters,
were buried in the greens, fairways, and woods. Their purpose was to
collect water flowing through the soil to be analyzed for phosphorus,
nitrogen, pH, conductivity, and ortho-phosphorus levels.
For the first several years,
a local firm analyzed the results. Their analyses, however, shed no
light on how much phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen occurred naturally
and how much resulted from the fertilization program. In 2000-1, the
course called in Craig Paskvan.
Craig broke down the data
into their elemental forms, then submitted the data to Dr. Lam Ho, formerly
the Director of the Environmental and Industrial Division at Brookside
Labs, Inc., and now the owner of his own environmental consulting business.
After looking at all the
data and work that was done at The Preserve for the 2001 growing year,
Dr. Ho concluded that the fertility program in place at the golf course
did not increase the levels of nutrients in the lysimeters beyond the
baseline concentration ranges.
Why is the story of The Preserve
important to golf course superintendents?
- First, it shows that there
is more to the phosphorus issue than just not applying fertilizer.
Organic matter and a soil's ability to give up nutrients need to be
looked at before coming to any kind of conclusion that affects meeting
the requirements of the new law or your ability to make judgments
for your course.
- Second, better analysis
of data showed that The Preserve was the not the "bad guy" with a
poorly thought out fertilizer policy, but was in fact a good steward
of the soil.
- And third, better analysis
gives the superintendent much more precise information to manage the
course's fertility program.
To see Dr. Ho's complete
report, including tables and graphs, click here.
The report is in PDF format, so Adobe's
Acrobat Reader is required.
An article on our innovative
testing and analysis at The Preserve Golf Club was published in the
March 2004 Hole Notes, a publication of the Minnesota Golf Course
Superintendents' Association. You may see that by clicking here.
