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: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/543149
50 SportsTurf | August 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com Q&A with Pamela Sherratt I visited park and rec soccer fields recently to evaluate the condition of the fields. When I enquired about the percent of generated funds used to maintain the fields I was told that 0% of field income was earmarked for maintenance and that the parks division mowed weekly, with no other cultural practices carried out. The opinion of the facility administration is that it is impos- sible to grow grass in a high-use park and rec situation, and so there really wasn't anything they could do. My immediate response to this was that it isn't impossible to grow grass on high traffic fields, if you have someone who knows how to do it. I have come across this scenario many times, where budget and ren- ovation timing isn't actually the issue. The issue is that no one knows what to do, or how to get started, and so it becomes easier to ignore in the hope that no one notices. The good news is that they are open to sug- gestion and have asked for a maintenance plan so that they can earmark the funds needed to fix the fields. So how do they get started? The fields are in bad shape, with holes everywhere and very little grass cover. Most of the playing surface is composed of prostrate knotweed, clover and crabgrass and the soil is hard as a rock. The fields are not irrigated and never fertilized and the mowing quality is poor. If I try to tackle all of these problems straight away I'm probably going to overwhelm everybody and alienate them, so it has to be done gingerly. Using terminology like aeration, thatch, topdressing, late season fertilization, and overseeding are common- place words in the sports turf industry but mean nothing to those outside of it. So with this in mind, the approach will be to take "baby steps," since doing something is better than doing nothing. As a priority, they need to address the safety issue on the field by filling in holes and undulations. An inconsistent surface, full of holes, is going to create a scenario for breaks, sprains and other athlete injuries, as well as negatively impacting ball roll and bounce. According to the National Institutes of Health, "it is imperative to provide a safe environment for sports. A poor playing field can cause serious injury to children. Use the softest exercise surface available, and avoid running on hard surfaces … run on flat surfaces." Simply put, the NIH is recommending a flat surface, but in turf management the terms "surface evenness" and "consistency" are commonly used because we are not dealing with flat fields, but instead are dealing with grades, slopes and crowns. The Sports Turf Research Institute (STRI) and ASTM International originally determined surface evenness standards for athletic fields. The standard called for a maximum surface evenness deviation of 20mm, measured with a profile gauge (there is no minimum, since a field cannot be too flat). An easy way of evaluat- ing surface evenness is to lay a straight edge or string line across high-wear areas and measure deviations (holes, raised areas etc.) across the length of the line. This mea- surement is helpful as it is a quantitative assessment that generates numbers. It is also a good idea to make a visual, qualitative assessment. This type of assessment also is described in STMA's Playing Conditions Index. Having numbers and written docu- mentation can be a helpful tool for planning surface renovation work and tracking improvements over time. In this particular scenario, holes on the soccer fields need to be filled with good quality, sandy loam topsoil or a soil and compost blend, since the fields are com- prised of native soil. For sand based fields the topdressing material should match the existing rootzone. At the same time that holes are filled and the field topdressed, bare soil or thin spots on the field should ideally be seeded, since the soil material will help to conserve moisture. After the holes have been filled (probably by hand) and the fields have been topdressed and dragged to establish at least a certain level of evenness, then it will be time to talk about other cultural prac- tices. Filling the holes may seem like an easy task but it will involve justification for funds, approval of internal order forms, then orga- nizing manpower, equipment and timing of application. This first important task on the fields will show immediate results, not just in making the fields safer and helping to get some grass established, but also showing field users that the people who care for these fields also care about the community that uses them. This is turn will hopefully moti- vate everybody involved to invest in further improvements. ■ ST Don't make a change too complicated, just begin Questions? Send them to 202 Kottman Hall, 2001 Coffey Road, Columbus, OH 43210 or sherratt.1@osu.edu Or, send them to Grady Miller at North Carolina State University, Box 7620, Raleigh, NC 27695-7620, or email grady_miller@ncsu.edu