Operation Pollinator

I've always thought of my job as part grass grower, part artist, and part environmental steward.  So when an opportunity came up to get involved in a project to help the native environment I stepped right up.  The project I am referring to is to help native wild pollinators....yep, bees.  Many are unaware that the numbers of pollinating insects have declined significantly in recent years. The decline has been linked to habitat loss, diseases and viruses, changes in agriculture practices and urban sprawl among other factors. While farm landscapes often lack the diversity and abundance of flowers that pollinators require, recent research has shown this trend can be reversed.
Requirements for supporting a pollinator community include a range of foraging habitats, with diverse, rich nectar and pollen nutrition, as well as adequate nesting areas. This is where Operation Pollinator provides a multifunctional landscape solution and golf courses are perfect for this.

The Club's role in Operation Pollinator is really just one of public awareness.  The golf course already has all of the multitudes of habitats, and with all of the flowers all over the place there is an abundance of food for the pollinators.  If you have ever stopped to admire the flowers around the property you've seen all the bees flying around.  The one things that the golf course provides that is essential form any public awareness campaign to be successful is a great audience.  So like many of the things that are done around the golf course, there are secondary benefits to having the beautiful flowers other than the obvious. 

In the next couple of days my staff will put out some signs like the one above. The signs will help give awareness to one of the many great environmental things that are being done on the golf course that probably would go unnoticed.