A couple of major studies done in the last decade have helped Colorado golf industry officials gain valuable information about conservation and environmental efforts at golf facilities throughout the state, and now another project is gearing up that should also be of great assistance.
The Colorado Golf Carbon Project, considered one of the first of its kind, aims to quantify the amount of carbon emissions that come from sources at the state’s golf facilities, then publish the findings in a peer-reviewed journal, probably in 2011. Another goal of the project is to create marketable carbon offsets — from carbon stored within plant life at courses — which would help fund initiatives related to conservation and eco-friendly practices at golf facilities.
“No matter what view you have about global warming, it makes sense to look at what resources we’re using,” said Saddle Rock Golf Course superintendent Joe McCleary, one of the driving forces behind the Colorado Golf Carbon Project. “This will quantify the activities at golf courses. You want to have information when people ask for it. And we’d like to show that a carbon footprint of a course is maybe not neutral, but it’s not what people might think.”
McCleary, one of Colorado’s leaders in promoting eco-friendly practices at golf courses, recently received the inaugural Distinguished Service Award given out by the Rocky Mountain Golf Course Superintendents Association. In addition, the Saddle Rock course McCleary works on was presented the Blue Grama Award from the Colorado Open Space Alliance, given for environmental education efforts regarding the native prairie areas at the Aurora course.
A large array of golf organizations is backing the Colorado Golf Carbon Project, which will involve Colorado State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agriculture Research Service as research partners. The project is a joint effort between Golfpreserves and the allied golf associations of Colorado, which include the CGA, CWGA, Colorado PGA, Rocky Mountain Superintendents, Colorado Club Managers and the Colorado chapter of the Golf Course Owners Association.
Among the national groups supporting the Colorado Golf Carbon Project are the USGA Green Section and Audubon International.
Said the National Turfgrass Federation in a letter backing the initiative: “Resources from a diverse group of stakeholders make the Colorado Golf Carbon Project an undertaking that will provide valuable environmental information. There is no doubt that the information generated by this project will have a lasting impact on the management of energy, water and other environmental issues encountered by the users of turfgrass and other businesses in Colorado, and throughout the United States.”
Previous initiatives undertaken in Colorado over the last decade have shed light on water usage by golf facilities. A CSU study, commissioned by the allied golf associations and conducted in 2002, revealed that even in a drought year, Colorado golf courses accounted for just one-third of 1 percent of the state’s total water consumption.
Then in 2005, a U.S. Geological Survey of water use by Colorado golf courses showed, when compared with other data, that the state uses almost 22 percent less water annually per irrigated acre than comparable facilities in the Upper West/Mountain agronomic region of the U.S.
