8 SportsTurf | October 2014 www.sportsturfonline.com
Field Science | By Tim VanLoo, CSFM
I
never thought I would be writing an article with
Environmental Conservation in the title, but as I
reflect on how sports field managers do their job
that is exactly what we are trying to accomplish.
We are all trying to create an environment in
which both grass and athlete can have success. When it
comes to athletes we all make safety our priority. While
making the fields safe, we are usually doing something
to the fields to help it thrive in the environment in
which it lives. Conservation for a sports field manager
could include irrigation practices, pesticides, fertilizers,
and cultural practices.
IrrIgatIon
Irrigation across the country means many different
things. Some are being faced with major water restric-
tions while others of us irrigate freely without much
thought given to water shortages. As I have managed
multiple fields and systems in the past years, I like to
think that I am getting better at conserving water. For
me it started by understanding some of the technolo-
gies that are available and not pulling a plug and feeling
the soil every afternoon. Instead I started using two
particular technologies in tandem; ET (evapotranspira-
tion) rates and a TDR (time domain reflectometry) soil
moisture meter.
Using ET can be accomplished a couple different
ways. We have our own weather station next to one of
our practice football fields that reports the data to our
central irrigation system. This allows us to have weather
data very close to the facilities that we are managing.
Obviously there is some cost associated, but the water
we have saved has more than paid for the weather
station. We irrigate with city water, so only watering
with the amounts of water necessary can save money
in hurry.
The other way to use ET is by using your local
weather reports. Many of the common weather web-
sites report ET rates for the day. You should be able
to see the ET for the day and set irrigation run times
Environmental conservation:
one sports turf manager's story
Field capacity is
the amount of water the
soil holds in its micropore
spaces within the soil.
