Golf Course Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2016 04 18

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Rockland Country Club promotes the value of natural areas The golf course implements an education and outreach program to gain members' acceptance. Matthew J. Ceplo, CGCS Rockland Golf Club, Sparkill, N.Y. Rockland Golf Club (RCC) is a private 18 -hole golf facility that was established in 1906. Environmental stewardship is an important element of golf course maintenance at RCC, an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary since 2000. Natural areas are part of RCC's environmental stewardship efforts. They have a positive impact on the course's bottom line as well. Converting areas into natural areas helped to reduce labor, fuel, fertilizer, and other inputs. The natural areas presented challenges with golfers, but RCC successfully implemented an education and outreach program to gain the members' acceptance. In the beginning... We initially developed natural areas within the out of play areas located in the rough. These areas never received irrigation and only received one annual application of fertilizer and pre- emergent. During the transition, drought tolerant grasses had dominated these areas and developed an appearance of a Scottish type links course. Other than a few lost ball comments from the membership, the areas were well received and viewed as a huge success. As the years went by more and more different plants began colonizing sections within these areas. We started getting complaints that the areas looked scruffy and lacked maintenance. I didn't want to start spraying or spending extra time and money to maintain these areas. That would be defeating our main purpose, so I investigated the plants that were invading our native areas. A plant invasion Milkweed was the first plant I identified because it was one of the ugliest plants and stuck out the most. We discovered that milkweed is the main food source for the Monarch butterfly caterpillar. I let this plant grow. We used the milkweed as an example of good environmental stewardship and communicated its value to our members. An aquarium with caterpillars and milkweed was set up as an educational display. The aquarium was placed within the ladies locker room as a test before announcing and sharing the display with the entire membership. Our ladies locker room attendant kept me posted on what members were saying. The ladies immediately started asking what was inside the aquarium. The aquarium display included a brief description of the caterpillar's life cycle, which helped capture the readers' attention. When the ladies found out that they came from the native area on hole number seven, I knew that milkweed was here to stay. Since then the aquarium has been moved out to the main foyer where everyone can watch the Monarch's different life stages. Members' can see the life stages from egg to caterpillar (eating the milkweed) to pupa to butterfly. Almost everyone is amazed when they find out that our butterflies migrate to Mexico for the winter. 9