Mike Coker and son Troy work on golf courses ... - Backed By Bayer

The first hole at
ArborLinks, which is
entering its fourth
sea<strong>son</strong>. The native
grasses shown here
are now established.
Harvest Links in Sugar Grove, Ill., says wildlife
ranging from raccoon <strong>and</strong> foxes to whitetail
deer have made the property their home.
“Perhaps the biggest byproduct — <strong>and</strong>,
for some, the key rea<strong>son</strong> to embrace native
grasses in the first place — is savings in cultural
practices, chemical applications, irrigation
<strong>and</strong>, most of all, labor,” he says.
Krings’ colleagues have approached him
with questions about establishing <strong>and</strong> managing
native areas.“Their budgets are getting cut
<strong>and</strong> they’re looking for ways to save,” he says.
“Everybody’s looking into it, mostly
because of budget concerns as well as
from the environmental st<strong>and</strong>point,” says
Funderburg. “Water issues are becoming
more prominent. And the biggest thing is
labor costs.”
“It’s 100% savings,” echoed Gourlay.
“We’ve had some overlap with watering, but
the maintenance <strong>and</strong> fertilizer is nothing. It’s
dramatic. We have continued to add native
areas every year.”
At ArborLinks, which is a cooperative venture
among Arnold Palmer Golf Course Design,
golf course builder L<strong>and</strong>scapes Unlimited
<strong>and</strong> the neighboring National Arbor Day
Foundation, Krings says 100 acres of native
grasses were seeded, including 15 acres of tall
grass prairie mix that grows 5 to 6 ft. high, 80
acres of short prairie mix which grows 2 to 3
ft. high, <strong>and</strong> 5 acres of wildflowers.
The tall grasses include Indian grass, big
bluestem, little bluestem, sideoats grama,
Virginia wild rye, switchgrass <strong>and</strong> Western
wheat grass. They were seeded where they
function as a shield, blocking out the road
in one spot, for instance.
The short mix includes hard fescue, buffalograss,
blue grama, sideoats grama <strong>and</strong> little
Dave Gourlay, Jr., CGCS,
says the environmental
benefits of native grasses
on his course are “huge.”
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