Best Management Practices Updates (BMP's)

At last month’s Chapter Delegates meeting, we were given an update on State BMP implementation and Facility Adoption. Mark Johnson, Associate Director, Environmental Programs gave an update on GCSAA’s goal of completed BMP’s in all 50 states by 2020. Mr. Johnson thanked the chapters that have been working diligently within their states to realize this goal. There are currently: 21 states with a BMP in place, 18 states have told GCSAA they will complete BMPs in 2019, with three states announcing since the Chapter Delegates Meeting, and, the remaining 11 states are on track to be complete by 2020. Missouri is part of that group to be completed by the end of 2020. The Missouri BMP Steering Committee has met once already. Members include Ozark Turf Association member Eddie Roach Jr. from Hickory Hills Country Club. Other members are Brent Stephenson and Spencer Roberts from The Heart Chapter, Matt Czamecki and Carter Demay from the Mississippi Valley Chapter, and Dr. Lee Miller from the University of Missouri. Dr. Rachael Owen of Horizon Soil Solutions will assist in developing the BMP guidelines with tools provided by GCSAA. GCSAA has templates that the BMP Committee will use, in turn once the State has implemented these guidelines, GCSAA members from Missouri will be able to use these templates to create BMP facility guidelines for our courses. Each chapter has agreed to contribute to the project, with the Ozark Turf Association Board approving a current payment of $1,020, out of our Scholarship and Research Fund. Future payments could be supplemented by the Ozark Turf Association getting involved with Rounds4Research. A $10,000 grant has also been secured from GCSAA. The PGA of America has graciously donated to help fund these grants. We will certainly keep our members updated as this process moves forward into next year.