John Mascaro's Photo Quiz Answers from page 17
These brown areas on sidelines of the New England Patriots practice facility are not a problem; they are a solution to a prob- lem. Since the Patriots made it into the playoffs and Super Bowl XLVI, the practice fields needed to be maintained into the end of January 2012 and had to be protected from freezing. Since the sand-based practice fields have no underground heating sys- tem, they devised a plan to cover the fields at night with an im- permeable tarp and blow hot air under the tarp with several large volume diesel fuel/electric indirect fired heaters. These heaters were connected to two large, 12-inch flexible hoses and placed under the tarp. They units worked very well and kept the soil temperatures warm, which provided better foot- ing for the players. The brown lines are the bottoms of the heating tubes and the brown spots are from the heat being dispersed. What's interesting was how hard the ground was within a half foot of the tarp edge. Photo submitted by Ryan McGillivray, a junior in Turfgrass Man- agement at UMass Amherst and part-time grounds crew worker for the New England Patriots under the direction of Jon Bengtson.
If you would like to submit a photograph for John Mascaro's Photo Quiz please send it to John Mascaro, 1471 Capital Circle NW, Ste # 13, Talla- hassee, FL 32303 call (850) 580-4026 or email to john@turf-tec.com. If your photograph is selected, you will receive full credit. All photos submitted will become property of SportsTurf magazine and the Sports Turf Managers Association.
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