Rain Bird's Dave Johnson talks about conserving fresh water
28 Aug, 2007 By: Larry Aylward LM Direct!
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More than 2.7 billion people will face severe water shortages by the year 2025 if the world continues consuming water at the same rate. That’s not some extreme environmental group talking. It’s the United Nations.
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Larry Aylward, Editor in Chief of sister publication Golfdom magazine, recently spent time with Dave Johnson, Rain Bird’s director of corporate marketing, and asked him questions about the water crisis and the role of turfgrass management pros in watering wisely.
Aylward. Is the fresh water crisis as serious as some people say or are these just doomsayers predicting this resource’s demise?
Johnson: I think you’ve got things at both ends of the spectrum. Certainly, there are people out there who are overreacting. But there is a crisis and maybe sometimes you need a little overreaction to move the needle one way or another. You look out at different parts of the country like the South, Southwest and West and some of the reservoirs like Lake Powell and Lake Meade are at record lows. The truth of the matter is there isn’t as much fresh water out there.
Aylward: Are people, including superintendents and other professional turf managers, taking the crisis seriously?
Johnson: I think it helps all of us for everyone to think about the water issues and think about ways we can use less. Several areas of the country experienced drought this summer. What did superintendents do to combat this drought? You’ll get all sorts of answers to that question, from some who didn’t do anything to some who took it very serious. But every superintendent out there can benefit from what some who were more affected by drought were doing. They measured their water use. They looked at their irrigation systems and looked at their distribution uniformity. Some golf courses increased the number of sprinkler heads they put out on the turf because that actually leads to increased precision of their watering. Some golf courses also looked to technology — smart pump systems and smart weather control systems and things like that. In terms of turf care, some courses went as far as to stop watering the rough area and letting it go natural. We’ve also seen more courses using reclaimed water than before, sometimes by legislation and other times by choice. Also, golf courses are paying more attention to spaces that do not need irrigation, maybe having more native materials or areas of desert landscape with drip irrigation. I’ve even seen some places where cities are paying golf courses to take out areas of turf and replace them with something else.
Aylward: What are irrigation manufacturers doing technology-wise to save water?
Johnson: There’s a lot of new technology out there from simple things like rotors that are wind tolerant so your water goes where you want it to go and not as much evaporates to smart pump technology that adapts to weather conditions coupled with smart controller technology that is evapotranspiration (ET)-based, where it measures the precise amount of water being used by the environment and replaces just that amount of water. Golf courses are bringing in advanced weather stations to help measure that ET data.
Aylward: Where will the Green Industry stand in 10 to 20 years in regard to fresh-water use?
Johnson: Almost without exception, people are taking more responsibility for it and looking for ways to solve the problem and be part of the solution. I think you’ll see the golf industry in general figuring out ways where we can still enjoy a round of golf on a Sunday morning on beautiful green turf but still use water intelligently and not waste it.
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