Director’s Corner
WORKING TOGETHER T
hanks to the hard and consistent work by our members, the VTC is taking the greenindustry lead on environmental issues. Across the commonwealth, turfgrass professionals are consistently and properly managing the entire landscape. You keep tree leaves from entering stormwater systems. You ensure
that fertilizers and pesticides are applied properly — the right product, in the right amount, at the right time and in the right place. Because of the proper turfgrass management applied on golf courses, university research consistently shows that streams are cleaner when they leave a course than when they entered.
8 | VIRGINIA TURFGRASS JOURNAL January/February 2018 www.vaturf.org
Tom Tracy, Ph.D. VTC Executive Director
Sports field managers apply proper practices to provide safe and environmentally friendly playing surfaces. These accomplishments have not been done in a vacuum. They are possible because of alliances forged between turfgrass professionals and similar professionals with other industries. We have fantastic relationships with Virginia Tech, many turfgrass associations and government agencies, but we also seek to work with non-turfgrass entities. As we work with an extremely diverse set of groups, we find that none of us agree all the time. That disagreement is okay. Answers to issues faced by our members are often not found in black-and-white extremes but in the multi-faceted gray areas. Exploring the gray takes us out of our comfort zones and inserts the moderating influences of diversity. Here is a partial list of the nonturfgrass groups we are working with: • Virginia Recreation and Park Society • Norfolk Botanical Garden • Groundworks RVA • Mid Atlantic Chapter of the International Society of Arboriculture • Elizabeth River Project •The Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay Alliances succeed when all parties adhere to basic tenets. One of those tenets is a commitment to work to accomplish a greater good. Virginia’s turfgrass industry is strong, and its growth is possible only because of your hard work and your willingness to work together.