Radio Interview on WEMU

 This week I was fortunate to represent the City of Ann Arbor on "Issues of the Environment" on WEMU (89.1 FM.) It aired on the morning of Wednesday, June 5th. I was asked to come on the show to talk about some of the environmental initiatives we are undertaking at Leslie Park and Huron Hills golf courses. There is a common misconception that golf courses are not environmentally friendly and I was excited to showcase some of the practices that we are engaging in at the city, as well as informing the listeners about some of the newest trends in the golf course maintenance industry.

I also touched on the, recently completed, Traver Creek Restoration Project and the benefits the project will have for the Huron River as well as Leslie Park Golf Course.


You can listen to the podcast by clicking HERE (Issues of the Environment).

Certifiable

I just heard from Ron Calhoun, the director of the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program.  He was letting me know that Leslie Park has completed all of the work necessary to be re-certified in the MTESP.  This is a great program that is trying to bring the entire golf industry up to a certain standard of environmental awareness and stewardship of the land that golf courses are on.  For more information, click on the links to the right.

Audubon International

I received notification from Audubon International's staff ecologist, Jim Sluiter that Leslie Park have achieved the first and largest category toward certification in Audubon's Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses, Environmental Planning.

"The open space of a golf course is utilized not only by golfers, but is habitat for a variety of species." explains Jim.  "We welcome Leslie Park's commitment to the environment and to managing the golf course with wildlife in mind."

By joining and participating in the ACSP, Leslie Park will be involved in projects that enhance habitat for wildlife and preserve natural resources for the benefit of the Ann Arbor community.

The next steps in this process are finishing the Wildlife and Habitat Management, Chemical Use Reduction and Safety, Water Conservation, Water Quality Management and Outreach and Education.  Once these five categories are completed, Leslie Park will become the 842nd certified property in the world and just the 13th in Michigan.

I hope to complete this before next spring.

Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program

Here is a new video that explains some of the aspects of the Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program.  We are weeks away from becoming re-certified in the program.  Leslie Park has been certified in the program since 2001.

MELT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are waiting for the snow to melt. The snow quantity and quality make it hard to get around the golf course right now, so mostly I have been doing projects in the shop. I have built a couple of wood duck houses, a couple of bat houses as well as some store bought bluebird houses and a butterfly house. I have been working on recertifiying our Michigan Turfgrass Environmental Stewardship Program credentials and begining the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program certification. I have a new weather station that will be going up. It will give me such readings as temperature, humidity, solar radiation, wind speed and direction. This will help me calculate daily evapotranspriation rates (the amount of water a plant uses in a day) as well as posting a daily weather log on sites like weatherunderground.com. This weekend looks like it will be warm and we should be able to get out more and start the spring clean-up.