SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: http://read.dmtmag.com/i/77829
problems through education and knowing where to set your thresh- olds are the keys to a good IPM program. We live with a lot of things on our fields and choose to treat only after thresholds are exceeded and field quality as related to safety is in question. We have considered the limited list of low-impact pesti- cides provided in the law. Reading the Rutgers report: "Managing Turf Using Low Impact Pesticides" was very helpful in shaping our decision. Last year the cost and efficacy of these products did not allow us to use them in our turf program. We are currently evaluat- ing this decision for the upcoming year. To help us make this deci- sion, we asked Brad Park, the sports field extension agent for Rutgers, to come to our site and evaluate our pest issues and the products that are available to deal with them. In the future, I hope there will be an expanded list of products to choose from. When the decision is made to apply a pesticide, we give consid- eration to reduced risk products first if they are available. After a product is selected, we look at the field's history to decide what part of the field needs to be sprayed. A spot application may be in order or maybe just the middle of the field is compromised. Sometimes it may be necessary to spray the entire playing surface, but not the buffer areas surrounding the field. The educated field manager is moving away from blanket spray applications and beginning to treat the field within the field. Every field is different with its own needs and requirements. They need to be treated accordingly. Having a field history report for each field is a great help. In fact it is part of the law for schools. Having a hard copy pest sighting log is too. This is a portion of the law where I have fallen short in the past. Having a field's history in my head or in a notebook does not fulfill the requirements of the NJ school IPM Law. Moving forward, I have created field log binders for all of our sports fields. It will allow me to track problems and make decisions with all of the information right in front of me. It has taken a long time to get to this point and it wasn't always easy. IPM is a 12- month process that may take some time to implement. A large part of our turf management plan for this year is based on what took place last year. Sometime you need to look back to move forward. This process may seem like a lot of work to some, but the truth of the matter is Integrated Pest Management is here to stay. For some of us it is the law. As I see it, the most important product or tool in providing quality turf isn't something you can buy. It rides on a mower, monitors pests, checks soil conditions and usually is the first one in and the last one done every day. Sports turf managers are get- ting educated and doing whatever it takes to provide truly safe play- ing fields. ■ Pine Hill, NJ. He says, "Special thanks to my facility manager Tom O'Donnell. His understanding of what needs to be done allows us to do some pretty great things here." Rich Watson is the grounds supervisor for Pine Hill Public Schools, www.stma.org SportsTurf 21