SportsTurf

June 2011

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.

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Facility&Operations Kevin Mercer in place on your property? We are all stewards of the land. Signage is one of the most important tools we can use to educate and teach the general pub- lic about our environmental steward- ship. Today, we have to listen to what the public is saying. For St. Mary’s College of Maryland, it’s the students that mat- ter and how we conduct our day-to-day business, including our Sports Turfgrass Maintenance program. We use a Bermuda hybrid cultivar (Riviera) that can withstand the transition zone pun- ishment and heavy-use field play. We call our sports fields “green spaces” and point out all the beneficial factors they possess. A list below highlights signage oppor- tunities for the environmentally friendly practices you might already have in place, from storm water management to recy- cling. Teaching the public is not only good for your image, but it also serves as a 7-day per week outdoor classroom for the environ- ment. Using signage to educate the public about your environmental stewardship I HAD A CONVERSATION with Dr. Dave Minner and my wife, Sally, over dinner at the STMA Awards Banquet in Austin last winter about how the general public perceives sports turf managers and how at times they seem to misconstrue the work we do. They seem to think we have a blatant disregard for protecting our natural resources, when the truth is, we preserve it every day. I wonder why the general public is so misinformed about the work we do day in and day out. The truth of the matter is simple; when we are spraying pesticides or applying fertilizers we may appear as out- laws to our environment, but what do we do to showcase our environmentally 24 SportsTurf | June 2011 friendly stewardship practices? The answer to the question is a loaded one by far; however, the truth of the matter boils down to this: it might be our own fault. We all have signage to lead the general public to parking areas, restrooms, conces- sions stands, gift shops, etc., but how much thought is given to educating the general public about environmental stew- ardship practices you might already have PARKING LOT AREAS Large common lawn areas around park- ing areas that are not being used or serve as any function for your facility can be con- verted to meadows or naturalized areas. In- stalling blue bird boxes and selective perennial plants can turn this into a wildlife sanctuary. Signage can have wording for wildlife, storm water management and re- ducing carbon footprints. Non-pervious parking lot surfaces equipped with rain gardens are an excellent outreach and education tool for storm water runoff prevention. Signage can have wording for different types of native peren- nial plants that absorb storm water runoff. Based on the square footage of your parking area, you can average how many gallons of storm water runoff you’re filtering from one inch of rainfall. You could document all wildlife that makes the area its home. You do not need multiple signs; one sign can sum your entire environmental program in a bullet-point format. www.sportsturfonline.com By

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