The Whiteboard

Serving at Home

Superintendent Mark Claburn may not own a landscape service, but he uses his turf-building skills from the golf course to help families with a member serving in the military abroad.

Texas is not a state known for naturally-open, lush green spaces, so a superintendent in the Lone Star State has plenty of work on his hands already working on the environment. But Mark Claburn, superintendent at Terra Verde Golf Club in Arlington, Texas, is one volunteer trying to help some local military families with that work as well.

Claburn volunteers with GreenCare for Troops, a nationwide outreach program coordinated by Project Evergreen that connects families with a member serving overseas with turf professionals. While the program has many lawn and landscape pros involved, Claburn is one golf course superintendent bringing his turf expertise from the 21-hole course to a local lawn.

“What really got me started on it was my wife,” he says. Originally, Claburn wanted to help his wife in her efforts to support troops by going to the airport and providing care packages for those overseas, but his work kept him too busy to help.

But then, he learned about GreenCare for Troops and decided he could help others keep their turf green just as well as his 419 bluegrass or TifEagle. While he wasn’t going to be using his knowledge of irrigation to redesign a lawn, he could still lend a hand.

“I contacted GreenCare and told them I was interested in helping out,” he says. “If someone was close by, I could do their mowing.”

In the first year, Claburn mowed a few local lawns and did some pre-emerge work for families he knew had a member serving overseas.

“When you’re left here and you have a loved one overseas, the last thing you want to think about is the lawn,” he says. “This gives me the opportunity to take care of something they shouldn’t have to worry about.”

Though he doesn’t get any pay for the work, he gets a return of a different kind, he says.

“It feels great. It’s extremely satisfying to be able to help out,” he says. “People have been just super appreciative.

“You can volunteer to do a big project or just regular mowing. You can do as little or as much as you have time for. It’s just such a great project to be involved in.”

Check out GreenCare for Troops online at www.projectevergreen.com.

Not a fan

Things have heated up at the University of Georgia’s golf course practice turf, and not just because of the recent oppressive heat. To manage turf temperatures, Dave Cousart, director of golf, had fans installed in late May to early June. There are 24 fans through the course, but the group on the practice turf picked up some notice from neighbors.

In the nearby Woodside Golf Villas, students and residents started complaining about the noise caused by the fans, taking the crew to task over the buzz through the homeowners association.

“The dispute is over the golf team fans,” says Cousart. “There are some trees, but there’s not a total buffer. They’re complaining that they run 24 hours.”

Though it might sound like a problem with the neighbors, Cousart did his homework in advance before the fans were installed. They checked local regulation on noise restrictions and tried to stay within considerate boundaries. Though the restrictions do stop audible machines at 11 p.m., Cousart had found that the university course was not bound by that ordinance.

Even if the rules are on his side, being a good neighbor means more than running the fans all day and night.

“It’ll work out,” he says. “I’ll put timers on them. I’m going to do what’s right in the situation.”

Come hell or high water bills

Desert Greens Golf Course in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is seeing a lot less green after a severe drought drained the course of its blue. Parched for water, they had to use even more to manage to keep turf alive on the course. But making that move cost them.

Rates from the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority went up this year, so much so that the future of the golf course could be in danger of evaporating. Even with a small change, the course uses more than 185 million gallons of water each year to support the turf. After those drought conditions choked the course, they’re facing a $500,000 water bill, about double last year’s bill.

In the short term, Desert Greens planned to remove about 1 million square feet of turf in exchange for $1 million in credit from the water authority, a move that could keep the course operating for another two years. In longer-range plans, it may mean even less green: both in turf and cash.