Everyone expects Phoenix, Las Vegas and L.A. to be constantly worried about water supply, but what about Atlanta, Corpus Christi, Texas, and Lakeville, Minn.? More communities across the nation are feeling the pinch of water restrictions and there is never any shortage of people pointing fingers at their local golf courses. Even though superintendents are on the cutting edge of water management, it’s public perception that golf courses waste water. As unfair and untrue as that perception may be, it forces us to devote more resources towards water conservation than farmers, industry or other big users normally do.
One option for golf courses is converting acreages of turf to native grasses or near-native landscaping. With this direct and somewhat radical project you will save a huge amount of water, but not without a significant investment.
Gathering site data
Before undergoing this project the turf professional needs to know how many acres are under irrigation. One of the best ways is to GPS map the entire area and superimpose the map over a digital aerial photograph. With Google Earth available free of charge, this procedure has never been more economical. While it’s possible to figure turf acreage without the GPS survey, the aerial photograph alone will not record location, type and quantities of sprinkler heads, which is a key component of this work. A GPS survey needs to record the following at a minimum:
• Entire perimeter, property lines, irrigated area of the property.
• Tees, greens, bunkers, lakes, rivers, pumps, buildings, points of reference.
• All sprinkler heads, nozzle types, valves, and other irrigation components.
At the most basic level this project is about reducing irrigation. The more complete information you have about the existing system the better.
A scaled blueprint that depicts the entire facility with your existing irrigation system is the output of the survey. The next step is to roll out the plans in front of your green committee or owners and decide which areas are candidates for turf conversion. Within minutes you will be pointing and scribbling on the plans, determining which areas are obvious to save water and other areas that are untouchable. Expect arguments to arise. After all, you are permanently changing the look of your facility. If the group can decide how much water you need or want to save that’s a good starting point. In my experience as an irrigation designer most facilities can easily take 10 percent of their turf out of play with no real effect to your golfers or residents.
During this planning process you also must decide what takes the place of turfgrass. The lowest water use will be native grasses or desert landscape, followed by near-native landscaping which uses some ornamental plants and trees in addition to native species. Native species in general are those that naturally occur in your area. These plants need little or no water other than regular rainfall. With a little research at your local library, extension service or nursery it should not be difficult to pick out an acceptable plant palette. Even though these species are supposed to require no extra water, you will probably want to plan for some manual quick couplers or to leave some irrigation heads intact for establishment and maintenance. A really high-end job will selectively leave behind some wires and pipe to install new spray heads on risers specifically tailored to tall native grasses or a permanent drip irrigation system for landscaping.
The turf conversion process
Once you have a marked-up plan with all your conversion areas clearly defined, it’s now possible to put this project out to bid. If you’re doing this project in-house make sure you have a very good bulldozer operator and irrigation technicians on hand because this project cannot be done with boxblades, rakes and regular laborers. The equipment required includes a small dozer such as a John Deere 650 equipped with rippers on the back or even a small motor grader if the course is relatively flat. Also plan on a 75hp or larger tractor with rippers, boxblades and loaders, plus a couple smaller utility tractors unless you have a long time to complete the job. Dump trucks and a large wheel loader will be needed to haul off the old spent turf to a substantial bury area or somewhere that can use unclean “organic” fill.
The construction process is as follows:
• Remove sprinkler heads in conversion area, re-route essential wires.
• All lines 6-inches or less depth will be damaged; cap and abandon in place.
• Mark location of all valves, mainlines, wire runs, trees to be saved, etc.
• Dozer and large tractor rip entire area to depth of 8-inches minimum.
• Use rippers, rakes, harrows but no discs; we don’t want to plow-in sprigs.
• Collect and export all spent turf to bury pit or fill area, new mounds, etc.
• Add back drip irrigation or spray heads for establishment if necessary.
• Regrade entire area and prep for replanting.
• Apply preemergent herbicide to bare earth; spray-out remaining turf
• Revegetate with native grasses or near-native landscaping.
• Use gravel, mulch or other groundcovers to cover all bare earth.
This is a major operation that will cost somewhere between $5,000 and $20,000 per acre depending on the type of landscape that goes back in. The piles of dirt mixed with old turf will be huge and not easy to deal with. Irrigation must be handled very carefully or the whole system may be compromised. Mainline rerouting, moving controllers, reinstalling large amounts of wire are common. A professionally drawn landscape or revegetation plan should be used to guide the replanting effort. Even though you will be saving plenty of water, fertilizers, maintenance labor, pumping costs and electricity, most people are going to judge the success of this project on how it looks.
The results
The main point is to save lots of water but there are other tangible benefits to this project. Pump stations will be running less hours per night, so you will see electricity bills drop right away. Maintenance staff will not have to mow these areas any more so there will be labor hours saved, less wear on machinery and lower fertilizer costs. All of this is great news, but it will be tempered by some new tasks such as spraying the landscape areas for several years to eliminate turfgrass that wants to come back. Depending on the quality of the replacement landscaping this task could be either a complete nightmare or just a few seasons’ worth of extra spraying. Depending on the type of landscape that goes back in, there will be new kinds of maintenance required. Many people will love the changes; others will hate it just like any renovation project. As mentioned, this is a radical means of saving water so expect some backlash from people who don’t like change. Figuring out how much money is being saved each year could be an effective comeback to all the naysayers, plus you will certainly make some new friends in the surrounding community.
Gary Kaye is an irrigation designer and contractor based in Phoenix, Ariz., providing a variety of services for golf courses, athletic fields and landscape clients. Since 1995 he has been involved with more than 100 new golf construction and renovation projects across the U.S., Mexico and Asia. He can be reached at garykaye@cox.net.
