Sustainable Community: Natural Resource Management Plan

Water Quality Buffer (Precedent Image)

The Natural Resource Management Plan

The Natural Resource Management Plan (NRMP) prepared for the Silo Ridge Resort Community by Audubon Environmental details a science-based and comprehensive management program. The program employs organic and Integrated Pest Management strategies, and incorporates other Best Management Practices (BMP) that protects both aquatic and terrestrial resources. This synergistic approach affords maximum protection for resources. The focus is on prevention, management and monitoring to protect resources:

1. Prevention: Prevent environmental problems before they occur by educating the staff, designing the course and community from an environmental perspective, implementing source prevention practices, and using ecological risk assessment protocols to identify pesticides for use at the golf course and community.

2. Management: Manage potential problems at the source. Implement a construction management program, implement an integrated pest management plan, and incorporate land use best management practices. The program relies on redundancy of resource protection strategies, an example being the use of "Best Management Practices (BMP) trains". A BMP Train is a protection system in which individual BMPs are linked in sequence like the cars of a train. Therefore, the more BMPs that are incorporated into the system, the better the performance of the treatment train.

3. Monitoring: Conduct an environmental monitoring program that evaluates the effectiveness of the management program. This includes evaluating the golf course and community protocols each year to ensure that prevention and management strategies are ongoing. This management approach has proven effective throughout the US, Asia, Canada, and Europe. Below, are steps that are taken to minimize the potential for environmental degradation.

PREVENTION
As the old adage goes, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." Prevention is the first step in successful resource management.

1. Educating the golf course superintendent and community maintenance team is an important element of the Audubon International Signature Program. Audubon International staff train the management team in the use of the management programs identified in the NRMP. Training of the staff and review of the golf course and community, and the NRMP occurs in an annual re-certification audit and review.
2. Design the property to include protective measures, including management zones and structural and nonstructural BMPs, and design to minimize the amount of maintained turf at the golf course, the community common space, and for home lawns. Even though some of these practices are not implemented until the community has residents or the golf course is operational, they should be identified during the design phase. By getting the design "right," the potential for negative environmental incidents is greatly reduced.
3. Implement source prevention practices in the cultural program for the golf course and community. The following are included in the management program for the Silo Ridge Resort Community:
   Resistant Turf Varieties. Use of plant varieties that are resistant to insects, nematodes, diseases, etc., in order to reduce pesticide use.
   Cultural Management of Pests. Use cultural practices to partially substitute for pesticides. This is possible by making certain the soil and turf conditions are optimal for resisting damage by pest problems.
   Irrigation Water Management. Water is the carrier for pesticide movement. Judicious use of irrigation will preclude excessive soil moisture conditions and prevent downward movement of materials.
   Nutrient Management. Minimize the use of soluble nitrogen sources which could leach into groundwater or run off into surface water.
   Biological Control of Pests. Use of natural enemies as part of an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program which can reduce the use of pesticides. Biological controls which provide effective pest management for turf grasses are limited; however, they will be implemented where practical.
   Restrictions on Spraying. No spray zones are established.
   Rotation of Pesticides. To prevent pest resistance.
   Pesticide Selection. A "least toxic" pesticide selection process has been evaluated and is a component of the NRMP, which is updated annually.
   Correct Application of Pesticides.
   Correct Pesticide Container Disposal.
   Pesticide/Fertilizer Storage Mixing/Loading Areas.
4. Develop a list of pesticides that may be used at the course and community if pest problems exceed thresholds by conducting ecological risk assessments of the pesticides. The models and data analysis process of the US Environmental Protection Agency are used to conduct risk assessments of the pesticides that are included in the program. This risk assessment follows US EPA protocols and identifies pesticides that exhibit potential risk from either exposure or toxicity. The risk assessment is based on chemical characteristics (e.g., solubility, persistence, binding capacity), toxicity (human health and aquatic), application data, and site conditions. Pesticides that exhibit a potential risk to humans or aquatic environments, either by surface water flow or groundwater by leaching, are excluded from use at the golf course and community. The models and the assumptions built into the models make this a conservative (i.e., protective) approach to selecting pesticides. Pesticides are evaluated and updated each year during the annual re-certification audit and review.
5. Once pesticides are selected using the risk assessment, the selected pesticides are then ranked for use by the Environmental Impact Quotient methods developed at Cornell University so that the golf course superintendent and community maintenance team have easy access to this information when making management decisions.
   

MANAGEMENT
The goals of BMPs are as follows: 1) to reduce the off-site transport of sediment, nutrients and pesticides; 2 ) to control the rate, method and type of chemicals being applied; and 3) to reduce the total chemical load by use of Integrated Pest Management, which is a BMP.

1. A construction management program is implemented. Managing site disturbance during clearing and construction is an important step in minimizing ecological damage to the site. Specific construction management practices are identified (Section 3.0). Site disturbance is minimized, especially along the property boundary and preserve areas.
2. Identify potential pest problems. This was done based on the known incidence of pest pressures at golf courses and community landscapes in the area.
3. Develop a turf cultural program that results in healthy turf. Healthy turf is the most resistant to problems. (See Chapters 5.3 and 6.2 of the NRMP for this program.) In addition to identified course maintenance activities, thresholds are set for pest problems and treatment does not occur unless pest thresholds are exceeded. A scouting program is defined for the course and community to assess conditions and pest concerns.
4. Integrated Pest Management (IPM), a Best Management Practice, is the cornerstone of the day-to-day management of the course and community because management of turf grass pests does not rely on a single control practice. IPM uses information about turf grass pest problems including environmental conditions which may precipitate these problems, and integrates these with turf grass cultural practices and pest control measures not to eradicate pests, but to prevent or control unacceptable levels of pest damage. The IPM program is summarized in Figure 6-1 of the NRMP.
5. Special Management Zones have been established around water resources and natural areas (NRMP, Section 4.1). No spray zones (where no pesticides are used) and limited spray zones (where only spot treatment occurs) are defined.
6. Land use BMPs are designed to remove, filter, detain, or reroute potential contaminants carried in surface water. Land Use Best Management Practices include: subsurface drainage, land absorption areas (vegetated filter strips), regulated runoff impoundment, grassed waterway or outlet, and critical area planting.

ENVIRONMENTAL MONITORING
Environmental monitoring provides a means to measure the success of the design, construction and operations of the golf course and community through an environmental monitoring program that strives to detect environmental problems. The monitoring program also will evaluate the effectiveness of the management program.

1. The monitoring program encompasses sampling groundwater and surface water to determine if any detrimental effects on the environment are detected. The goals of the monitoring program are as follows:
   1) To provide data that assesses environmental conditions, thus providing a basis for measuring compliance with environmental regulations; and
   2) To ensure that IPM and the BMPs are functioning properly.
2. Pesticides are included in the monitoring program based on the results of the Risk Assessment. If the "risk ratio" for any pesticide exceeds 0.5 and they are used at the golf course or community, then the pesticide has been included in the monitoring program. The "risk ratio" is the quotient of the maximum anticipated concentration of the pesticide divided by its effects criteria (see Pesticide Selection in the NRMP, Section 6.4, for a description of the maximum anticipated concentration and effects criteria). A risk ratio of a given pesticide which is greater than 1.0 indicates that the maximum anticipated concentration exceeds the effects criteria; meaning that the use of that pesticide at the Silo Ridge community and golf course represents more than a negligible risk. A risk ratio of less than 1.0 indicates that the use of that pesticide represents only negligible risk. By including as analytes all pesticides whose risk ratio is greater than one-half the point at which risk is presumed to be more than negligible, the monitoring program design ensures that all potentially risky pesticides are monitored for. And, the continued use of a pesticide at the golf course and community is dependent upon the pesticide not being detected at concentrations which are below any chronic or acute levels in the water.
3. Monitoring results are forwarded to Audubon International to help the community and golf course assess Program effectiveness. As detailed above, this process of protecting resources is based on all of the various strategies working synergistically. Based on over a decade of monitoring results at other Signature Projects, the programs outlined in the NRMP are both effective and successful at managing resources.