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62 - CAPE GAZETTE, Friday, June 9 - June 15, 2000
Rehoboth Country Club going for the green
By Michael Short
Golf courses have become a bit
of an environmental whipping
boy recently.
With Delaware taking a hard
look at pollution from a host of
sources, golf courses have been
heavily criticized with most of the
comments focusing on the heavy
load of fertilizer and chemicals
used to create those lush greens.
Rehoboth Beach Country Club
is going for the green in a very
different Way. The course has
joined the Audubon Cooperative
Sanctuary System, a program that
involves conserving water, allow-
ing unused course areas to return
to nature, planting native species,
building nesting boxes and other
environmental good deeds.
The point, according to Re-
hoboth Course Superintendent Ed
Brown and consultant Helen
Waite, is that golf courses don't
have to be bad.
They can do a lot of good by
changing practices and becoming
more environmentally aware. Re-
hoboth has plenty of company.
Some 42 percent of the golf cours-
es in Delaware participate in the
program, a statistic compiled by
the Delaware Department of Nat-
ural Resources and Environmen-
tal Control's (DNREC) Whole
Basin Team.
Waite notes that for all the criti-
cal comments, Delaware golf
courses make up a fraction of a
percent 'of the land area, totalling
only 0.3 percent of all Delaware
land surfaces.
"I work in the environment,"
said Brown, a Cape Henlopen
High School graduate who has
worked at Rehoboth Beach Coun-
try Club since 1991, becoming su-
perintendent in 1995. "Why
would I want to destroy it?"
Brown said that being more en-
vironmentally aware is becoming
standard procedure for him.
"Every decision I make has a di-
rect effect on the environment."
Rehoboth Beach Country
Club's course is still a long way
from completing the Audubon
Sanctuary's program. The course
has had its environmental plan
certified. That is a first step and
will be followed by having the
course apply for certification in
wildlife and habitat management,
outreach and education, water
quality management, water con-
servation and integrated pest man-
agement.
So, what is the country club do-
ing to protect the environment?
They have erected more than 100
nesting boxes for bats and birds,
planted a pair of butterfly gardens,
allowed some areas of the course
not used by golfers to return to a
natural state with tall grasses and
planted buffers along waterways.
There are plans to install a new
computerized watering system de-
signed to reduce water usage and
native species have been planted
to reduce the need to use chemi-
cals and cut the amount of water
required to keep the course lush.
Plans call for the course to noti-
fy nearby property owners of
ways they can help improve the
environment. In some cases,
wooded understory areas have
been left intact to provide habitat.
Brown is using new chemicals de-
signed to break down quickly and
cause little harm. For example, a
new fungicide called Heritage
breaks down to carbon dioxide
and water in only 30 days.
The course also provides tem-
perature data, serving as the East-
ern Sussex biophenometer site
Continued on page 63
Hurricane
Continued from page 61
plants and even starting the spare
car that sat over the winter all are
duties Hurricane House Watch
will assume.
"Yes, I have taken messages
from the answering machine,"
Leshem acknowledged. "And,
I've answered them.
"Once, watering plants meant a
greenhouse filled with them. If it's
within reason and we can accom-
plish it, we'll do it."
Leshem has 10 years experience
in home security and he is bonded
and insured. Those who are inter-
ested in Hurricane House Watch
can call for references. Since the
duties vary greatly, fees are set ac-
cording to the job. As a general
rule, House Watch costs are ap-
proximately $30 an hour.
For those who think they have a
need that is not presently ad-
dressed, Leshem welcomes in-
quiries. He guarantees that some-
one will respond immediately to
calls made to the 24-hour answer-
ing service.
"I'm never late, I get back to
people," he said. "I just think that
it's the right thing to do." Should
an associate return house watch
calls, it could be because Leshem
is training for a triathlon or work-
ing with Special Olympic athletes.
He has served as a coach for Spe-
cial Olympics competitions and
most of his+ own athletic endeav-
ors, including the Iron Man
Triathlon, are performed as fund-
raisers for the Special Olympics.
For a free consultation on Hurri-
cane House Watch services, call
645-5311.
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i
Michael Short photo
Ed Brown, golf course su-
perintendent for Rehoboth
Beach County Club, stands
beside one of the many nest-
ing boxes for birds on the
course. The country club
course has joined the
Audubon Cooperative Sanc-
tuary System.
Serving the Shore
Since '74
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