Presidents Message for 2018

2017, a year to remember, or forget if you happened to be on the wrong end of our seasonably unseasonable weather; snow covering most of the province for the start of the year, a wet spring that didn’t give anyone a break after the snow left, and a hot dry summer with fires all over the province creating enough haze that at times you could not tell what time of day it was.

However, in all of that, there is always a silver lining; the haze kept the heat away and the snow pack provided great skiing conditions (I put that in for our Executive Director), it also provided enough water right thru the summer so that there were no watering restrictions, created opportunities for us to talk about our problems and come together to find solutions, and it reminded us how important good research is for creating best management practices. 

Thankfully a better than normal fall and a decent start to the New Year gives us hope that this year will be better than last. Also, I believe we always learn from difficult events and adverse conditions that help us get better at what we do. Speaking of getting better at what we do, the annual WCTA conference is in Richmond this year at the River Rock Casino and we have an opportunity to learn from some of the brightest minds in our turf industry business. Starting with Micah Woods, who the BCGSA and WCTA are partnering on to bring as our headliner for the pre-conference seminar, who is best known for his innovative MLSN approach to nutrient guidelines, to Bradley Smith former Dean of Huxley College who stated, “golf courses are the lungs of our cities”. 

But if you would allow me to be so bold, I would take that a step further and say that turf is the lungs of our city. At this conference we are asking all who participate to consider the important question “What is the value of turf?” We all have a role in educating those around us on the value of turf, so that is why we are all proud of our conference education committee who worked hard at bringing you a lineup of educators and managers that can share their knowledge to make us all better at what we do and influence the people around us. Not only do we have PhD’s but we also have an athlete (Travis Lulay of the BC Lions) who plays at the highest level of sport on turf fields who will give us his perspective of why turf is so important. We also have Bill Deacon who manages the field for the New York Mets and Dan Dinelli of North Shore Country Club in Chicago who received the GCSAA’s Presidential Award for environmental stewardship. 

I hope you think that 2018 is going to be a good year for you to learn more, educate those around you, support your local associations, and donate your time and talents to the benefit of our great industry. 

Peter Sorokovsky
WCTA President