THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 11, 1996 TAG: 9611110031
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 126 lines
When a bald eagle circled round and round the 16th tee at Bayville Golf Club one morning recently, the big bird seemed a symbol for all the things the course's developers have done right on the shores of pristine Pleasure House Creek.
From the lake drainage system that keeps creek marshes healthy to native trees and shrubs and colorful wildflower meadows planted along the course, Bayville Golf Club has kept both golfers and nature in mind.
Pleasure House Creek always has been a favorite spot of local bird watchers and environmentalists. If they feared a golf course would spoil their creek with fertilizer and other chemical runoff, their fears, so far, appear needless.
In fact, the Bayville Golf Club is considered such an environmental success that the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay included the course in its recent Lynnhaven River BayScapes tour. The alliance, a Bay watchdog group with offices in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, has worked for 25 years to educate folks who live and work in the Bay watershed about preventing pollution.
The alliance tour was designed to showcase BayScaping (as opposed to landscaping), which promotes ways of keeping fertilizers and other chemicals from running off into the Chesapeake Bay. The golf course was cited for its ``innovative and exemplary planning and design,'' said Billy Mills of Richmond, BayScapes project director for the Alliance.
``Most people don't think of golf courses as being an environmental showcase,'' Mills said, ``because all of us know that successful golf course management includes extensive use of fertilizers and pesticides.
``At Bayville, this is radically different,'' he said. ``From the beginning, concerns with nutrient runoff were addressed, including the planting of warm-season grasses and native grasses to reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides.''
Built on the former Bayville Farm, a historic dairy operation off Shore Drive, the $7 million course opened in July. It was designed by world-renowned architect Tom Fazio, who among other honors was named by his peers as the best modern-day architect in 1991, '93 and '95 in Golf Digest.
The rolling links, interspersed with lakes, stretch along Shore Drive and scenic Pleasure House Creek. Three of the picture-perfect greens provide bucolic views of the creek, one of the last relatively unscathed tributaries of the Lynnhaven River. The creek is home to wintering waterfowl, as well as many species of shorebirds, from black skimmers and oyster catchers, to the occasional glossy ibis.
Throughout Bayville Golf Club's development, organizers had the environment in mind, Mills said. That included contracting with environmental consultant Mary Heinricht to be in on the project from the start. For more than two decades, Heinricht has been a regional environmental planner. Recently, she co-authored the North Landing River Public Access study of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
Care was taken to protect the land and water and the creatures that live there in ways both large and small, Heinricht said. Much to the contractor's dismay, Heinricht said, she insisted that workers clear by hand a natural buffer of trees along the creek. The buffer is important in absorbing runoff, she explained. When one of the old farm ponds was filled in, resident turtles also were moved by hand to a nearby pond.
As another example, course superintendent Cutler Robinson produced early aerial photos that show the course with acres of dirt piled up as lakes were being excavated and mounds being built. However, as a result of strict maintenance of silt fences, the photos also show no cloudy plume of runoff into Pleasure House Creek marshes.
``Look at all that exposed soil and this beautiful ecosystem,'' Robinson said of the photos.
Many safeguards continue in place to prevent runoff into the creek. A weather station on the course adds data to a zoned and computerized irrigation system that waters only when and where necessary. Underneath the sculpted green mounds is a network of pipes, drains and catch basins that eventually drain into the lakes.
``It's very extensive,'' Heinricht said. ``You look at this and you'd never believe what's underneath the ground.''
By the time runoff water reaches a natural low-lying area leading to the creek, the lakes, drains and pipes have done their job, cleansing the water of fertilizers that could cause algal blooms in the creek or pesticides that could harm wildlife.
Even after all this season's rain, runoff from the course has had no effect on the creek's marsh grasses, Mills said. There's been no overgrowth of grasses or algal blooms in the creek or on the lakes.
A bonus of the lakes, Robinson said, has been an increase in habitat for migrating waterfowl. Last winter, ducks and geese used the lakes to rest and to feed on already emerging aquatic grasses.
To further protect the water quality, efforts are made to ensure that no more fertilizer than is absolutely necessary is applied. The golf course tests the soil and grass tissue regularly. The fertilization system is capable of sending out minute amounts of fertilizer only as needed so the grass will absorb it right away.
``It is so much more effective,'' Heinricht noted, ``than a groundskeeper walking around with a fertilizer spreader.''
With the system, Robinson said, the course is saving 50 percent on its fertilizer budget. ``That's not only good for the environment,'' he added, ``but cost-effective, too.''
More visible are the roughs, many planted with native grasses. The grasses lend motion and color to the course, and because they are native plants, they require no fertilization or irrigation. The same goes for the many native trees that have and will continue to be planted.
The course uses a Bermuda grass variety with a tight, fine-bladed growth that reduces the possibility of invasive weeds and the use of herbicides as well. The warm season grass will turn brown in the winter, which means no extra fertilizer and water will be used to maintain a green turf as it gets cold.
``It plays well,'' Robinson said. ``It's drought-resistant and insect- and disease-resistant.''
The greens will be green year round, however, because of Bent grass, a tiny, fine grass that also is drought-resistant. Bent grass is so fragile that Bayville Golf Club has a soft-spike policy. Hard spikes can mar the fragile grass; healthy, unbroken grass requires less fertilizer and water to maintain, Robinson pointed out.
With each nod to the environment, Heinricht and Robinson are finding that there is a reward in time saved or money not spent.
``What we are really proving is it's cheaper this way,'' Heinricht said.
``And easier,'' added Robinson. ILLUSTRATION: GOLF COURSE DESIGNED WITH ENVIRONMENT IN MIND
[Color Photo]
STEVE EARLEY photos
The Virginian-Pilot
James Matton grooms one of Bayville Golf Club's greens, which are
planted with drought-resistant Bent grass. The club has a soft-spike
policy for players because Bent is fragile and because healthy,
unbroken grass requires less fertilizer and water to maintain.
Course superintendent Cutler Robinson says the use of native grasses
also helps reduce the use of fertilizers and pesticides. by CNB