Audubon International – Cooperative Sanctuary Program

A presentation by Travis Ekelund, Assistant Superintendent of Earl Grey Golf Club

On Monday March 21, Travis Ekelund, the Assistant Superintendent of Earl Grey Golf Club, came to speak to the Turfgrass students at Olds College. The topic was on Audubon International’s Cooperative Sanctuary Program and how the golf course became certified. He was joined by Valerie Hammond, who was employed to aid the golf course in this certification.

Ekelund’s talk focused on the steps a course must go through for this certification. A golf course must meet criteria in the following areas: Environmental planning, outreach and education, wildlife and habitat management, water conservation, chemical use reduction and safety, and water quality. Finally, they must complete a case study project in one of the six criteria.

While sharing his experiences, Ekelund focused on a few points. The first was that the overall process was not as difficult as he first imagined. Many of the management practices golf courses already employ are a part of the certification process. Audubon International mainly wants to make sure that managers are aware and moving forward in these areas and are documenting there progress. Another point was that the whole process is possible, practical, and enjoyable. Because of this program many improvements have been made to the course, improving the beauty and wildlife diversity of the property. Some of the highlights were an outreach program to a local school. The students of the Grade 4 class helped to color bird and bat houses for the course. For the case study project, the maintenance staff built a natural area called “Barron’s Bluff”. This beautiful and scenic area, formerly a waste area, is now dedicated to a former member who was an important champion for environmental awareness at the golf course.

The talk was educational and informative. Many courses are looking to become Audubon certified as pressure mounts from an increasingly environmentally savvy public. Ekelund’s experiences taught the students that Audubon certification is a reachable goal and can be beneficial to any golf course.

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Dave Smith

Bunker and Tee Construction

In our 2^nd year Design and Construction class we have been designing and building bunkers and tees in the landscape pavilion. Our class worked on them the 10^th, 15^th and 17^th of March. The tees were shaped to 6 meters by 7 meters. We installed 4” drain tile which sloped 3% from front to back draining out the back of the tee. The finish grade was sloped 1% front to back. The bunkers were constructed on the irrigation side of the landscape pavilion. This was a great feature seeing that the drainage of the bunkers could actually be tested and the water returned to the wet well for reuse. 3 bunkers were constructed varying in sizes. They were all shaped by hand by the students in the class. Drainage was installed using 4” drain tile. Liner was laid and stapled down and bunker board was installed then staked in to hold it in place. Once that was done the drainage was tested. The work of the class had been done correctly and the bunkers drained promptly to the wet well. A lot was learned by our entire class and jobs well done.

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Andrew Leggett

Welcome

Hi all and welcome to the turf club blog. The purpose of this blog is to keep all Olds College Turfgrass alumni in touch with the current students, and the activities of the program. Feel free to share this link with anyone from your class that is still in the industry, as well as anyone that is interested in turfgrass.

Sincerely, Cam Champion