From his 140-acre "office," Wakonda Club golf course superintendent John Temme has kept a watchful eye on the construction of the adjacent Wakonda Living Townhomes.
"I worked closely with the project manager, and he and I made sure when they were doing the grading that the extensive use of silt fences didn't go into the existing waterways or ponds," Temme said.
Eco-friendly measures are particularly important to Temme because Wakonda Club is working to become certified under the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program for Golf Courses. The program's goal is to enhance natural areas and wildlife habitats that golf courses provide, improve efficiency and minimize potentially harmful impacts of golf course operations.
"What that means is we really pay attention to how we use water and how water flows in the property and out of the property," Temme said. "We're trying to put less fertilizers and chemicals into the golf course, and the fertilizers used on the golf course are more environmentally friendly than some of the products we've used in the past. But to be a certified Audubon sanctuary takes a couple years."
There are six golf courses in Iowa that are certified under the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, Temme said.
"We want to be the seventh one," he said.
Since becoming superintendent at Wakonda Club in 1998, Temme has planted more than 300 trees on the property, he said. He's also had to supervise cutting down almost 100 trees - some more than 500 years old.
What many people don't realize, Temme said, is that removing the old trees was an eco-friendly action, too.
"Nobody likes to cut down trees, but we realized that we could not grow quality turf grass with shade," he said. "So we spent a considerable amount of money hiring a company out of Canada - Arborcom - that did shade research on our greens."
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