On April 25, 2014, with California’s driest months ahead of it and feeling the harsh impact of an unremitting drought, Governor Jerry Brown issued an executive order mandating Californians to redouble their efforts to conserve water. A target of reducing overall water consumption by 20 percent was set. Included in his proclamation was:
Recreational facilities, such as city parks and golf courses, and large institutional complexes, such as schools, business parks and campuses, should immediately implement water reduction plans to reduce the use of potable water for outdoor irrigation….
The order also prevents homeowner associations from fining residents that limit their lawn watering and take other conservation measures.
Ironwood Country Club was fully prepared to meet this challenge. And it did.
WATER CONSERVATION METHODS
Ironwood Country Club is one of the social hubs of an active residential community that is comprised of more than 1000 households, and many of those – about 700 – are club members. Located in the Coachella Valley, this large desert area became famous as a golf destination in the 1950s and gained great momentum as developers built a wide range of clubs, courses and communities. Ironwood continues this golf tradition, offering 36 holes of golf. Of course, a basic assumption, upon which this concept of destination desert golf rests, is the availability of water for course irrigation.
Ironwood Country Club has been able to reduce water consumption through the application of its precision irrigation system. With control enabled all the way down to individual sprinkler heads and with course zones appropriately prioritized, a giant step toward the club’s water conservation goal was possible through tightening and rationalizing the watering schedule. Close monitoring of course conditions and a similar watchful eye on climatic conditions such as evapo-transpiration (or ET) is possible through strategically placed weather stations.
Ironwood’s mindset with respect to water conservation extends to other areas and applications. The club is about halfway through a four-year plan to return 40 acres of golf turf to native desert landscape. Joshua Tanner, the general manager at Ironwood, estimates that savings accumulate at the rate of about $5,000 per acre. Community residents are out ahead of this trend, with many having already implemented extensive turf conversion on their own property. So club members are behind these changes to the course, which take time, money and a bit of patience as the plantings mature and fill-in.
The practice area at Ironwood is not immune from consideration when it comes to water savings. The driving range covers more than 14 acres and thus has considerable turf that requires a moderate amount of seed, water, man-hours and other inputs. Now as the desert seasons change, Ironwood no longer reseeds the range with rye grass when the weather turns cooler in the fall and the Bermuda starts to turn brown. Additionally, the target greens on the practice range are treated with turf-dye. The result, sometimes called painted grass, is especially suitable for the practice range, as the targets contrast nicely with the dormant turf. This technique has been around for some time and uses vegetable oil based colorants that reproduce the natural hue of grass, doesn’t rub off and lasts for many months. This painting technique is rapidly finding additional applications on areas other than the range and in regions throughout the country.
There is almost no limit to the number of creative and effective tactics Tanner and his experienced course superintendent, Mark Cupit, have enlisted to save water and control costs. For example, about 1.7 acres of lakes previously dotted the courses. These were studied and determined to have a high evaporation rate of about 6 feet per annum. To save this water, the club decided to include these lakes in its efforts to return non-playable course areas to native desert landscape.
Golf course maintenance equipment requires frequent washing. Rather than merely hosing down the equipment and letting the water drain or otherwise run off, the club has an on-site wash facility that treats water through an on-site, closed loop-recycling unit.
BENEFITS
The cumulative result of this mindset and its dogged pursuit is quite impressive. Ironwood’s water consumption for golf has declined from roughly 2,110-acre-feet to 1,699-acre feet in the last year and it will continue to decrease. Overall water consumption by the club has declined by about 25 percent plus additional savings from other conservation-related reductions, such as those applied to food & beverage operations.
THE FUTURE
More ideas are on the drawing board. Tanner, recently inside a Toro assembly plant in Minnesota, has his eye on a mower that takes soil moisture readings and feeds them back to the computer model that guides the course irrigation. And Cupit, for his part, is bullish on the prospects for aerial drones with sophisticated imaging technology capable of detecting stressed areas well-before the problem is visible on the ground. These bold ideas will continue to help conserve the desert’s precious water supply.