Golf Industry Best Management Practices: A Tool for Success.

Water is often considered a major limitation to the green industry, particularly, the golf course industry. Population growth is responsible for increasing concern about availability of potable water, as consumption often exceeds nature’s ability to filter and replenish the water supply. Concerns about water quantity are matched by those about water quality, which has been decreased by point and nonpoint source (NPS) pollution. NPS pollution comes from many different sources including land runoff, precipitation, atmospheric deposition, drainage, seepage or modifications to natural waterways. NPS pollution occurs as rainfall or snowmelt moves over the surface and through the ground picking up natural and man-made pollutants and then depositing them into lakes, rivers, wetlands, coastal waters and ground waters. In most states, NPS pollution is the leading cause of water-quality problems that adversely affect drinking water supplies, recreation, and marine life and wildlife. Section 303(d) of the US Clean Water Act requires states to establish Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL) for impaired waters. A TMDL is a pollution budget, a scientific calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that can be present in a body of water and still meet water-quality standards. A common theme to water improvement strategies is the development and implementation of urban and agricultural best management practices (BMP) programs. BMPs are the shared language recognized by regulators, conservationists, engineers and others as the means to driving improvements. Because BMPs are recognized in federal and state TMDL policy as a major component of water-quality improvement plans and because golf courses are commonly perceived to be significant sources of pollution and bad for the environment, it is incumbent that the golf course management industry be proactive in developing and implementing state-specific golf course management BMPs. With this in mind, the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) set a goal of having BMPs established for all 50 states by the year 2020. However, the development of a comprehensive BMP manual can be a time- and labor-intensive effort. Therefore, to facilitate meeting the stated goal, GCSAA contracted with faculty from the University of Florida to develop the GCSAA Best Management Practices Planning Guide & Template. The planning guide and template provide an easy-to-use roadmap for golf-centric organizations at the state level to develop and implement BMP programs with greatly reduced effort and time. To date, 40 US states are working towards developing state-centric BMPs.