Premier Pacific Seeds Turf Day at UBC Sept 10, 2015

by Nik Wall

It was a perfect day out at the UBC Rugby Centre for the Premier Pacific Seeds 2015 Turf Day with blue skies and mid-20 temperatures. The venue was incredible with sliding glass doors showcasing the new UBC rugby field and additional fields under construction with a backdrop of the forests surrounding UBC.

Well over 65 turf managers and suppliers were in attendance including speakers Dr. Leah Brilman, a seed breeder from Oregon, climatologist Dr. Tim Ball from Victoria, and comedian/magician Wes Barker. Recently back from T.V. shows America’s Got Talent and Penn and Teller’s: Fool Us, Wes kicked the day off with some trickery and comedy to liven up the crowd.

Next up was Dr. Tim Ball who engaged the turf managers regarding the notion of ‘normal’ weather and what we can expect in the future. The major points were that as much as heavy rains, earthquakes, and volcanoes, are natural, so are droughts like the one we experienced this year. Dr. Ball acknowledged that the climate is indeed changing however, proposed the idea that higher CO2 levels will actually improve plant growth making plants more efficient at using water and nutrients. In addition, Dr. Ball added that as carbon capture credits are being bought and sold by oil companies and environmental groups, every city or sports-field should be receiving or simply lobbying for similar carbon credits as grass captures large amounts of CO2 that would otherwise be release into the atmosphere.

Dr. Leah Brilman, who is responsible for breeding new varieties of grass seed took the stage for the next 2 sessions. Dr. Brilman spoke about how the trend for grass seed breeding is focusing on lowering the input requirements for grasses such as decreased nitrogen and water especially during summer months then coming back in the fall. A new standard is being created called the “A-list” which stands for the Alliance of low input sustainable turf and being formed in cooperation with Rutgers University, UC Riverside in California, and North Carolina State University as well as major grass seed companies. Dr. Brilman spoke about some of the new varieties coming out, which species to use in our climate scenarios, as well as took various questions from the audience. A final point she wanted to make, which was a theme throughout the meeting, was a call to turf managers to know the benefits of turfgrass and make colleagues, bosses, and friends aware of them. This summer in Vancouver there was a large focus on water usage, yet a lack of information about turfgrass benefits including water filtration, dust/ glare reduction, natural air cooling, etc.

Damon Sump from Profile Products, Darcy Lepine from Earthfort Environmental, and Fred Chen from Nilex also presented at various points and Gary Bartley of UBC provided a field tour to wrap up the event. A special thanks to UBC, and other sponsors including Prairiecoast Equipment, AR Mower, and Farmtek Turf services for making the event possible.