Little Bennett Golf Course Becomes First Facility in Maryland Designated Groundwater Guardian Green Site

As part of the ongoing celebration of Earth Day 2010, The Montgomery County Revenue Authority (MCRA) continues to build on its commitment to improving the environmental footprint of all MCRA golf courses. By practicing quality groundwater and environmental stewardship, MCRA’s Little Bennett Golf Course was recently designated as a 2010 Groundwater Guardian Green Site by The Groundwater Foundation, the first facility in the State of Maryland to receive this recognition.

Groundwater Guardian Green Sites is a program of The Groundwater Foundation, a nonprofit organization with a mission to educate and motivate the public to care for groundwater. The program honors highly-managed green spaces …such as golf courses, ball fields, educational campuses, and residential, recreational, and office parks… that carry out safe groundwater practices against chemical use and pollution prevention.

MCRA’s Little Bennett Golf Course completed an application to evaluate and document its groundwater-friendly practices to earn this exclusive designation. The site undergoes annual soil testing for precise fertilizer inputs and has “no-application” buffers around all bodies of water. By using drought tolerant turfgrass cultivars and tracking irrigation usage and efficiency, Little Bennett Golf Course helps protect and conserve local water supplies. MCRA is working to certify its 8 other golf courses as a Groundwater Guardian Green Site.

“Little Bennett Golf Course and the entire Montgomery County Golf system is committed to environmental stewardship as one of its core values. The Groundwater Guardian Green Site program, along with our designation as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary, gives us the opportunity to promote our environment-friendly practices,” said Matt Burton, golf course superintendent of Little Bennett Golf Course.

The Groundwater Guardian Green Sites program began in 2007 to recognize good stewards of groundwater by encouraging managers of highly-managed green spaces to implement, measure, and document their groundwater-friendly practices. Other interested sites are encouraged to get involved in the Groundwater Guardian Green Site program by visiting The Groundwater Foundation’s website and downloading the current program application at www.groundwater.org/gg/greensites.html, by emailing guardian@groundwater.org, or by calling (800) 858-4844.

To learn more about Little Bennett Golf Course’s recent designation as a 2010 Groundwater Guardian Site, or other MCRA environmental initiatives, Director of Agronomy, Montgomery County Golf, Jon Lobenstine, is available for interview.

The Groundwater Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Lincoln, Nebraska with a mission to educate and motivate the public to care about and for groundwater. Since its inception in 1985, the Foundation has offered various educational programming for youth and adults. To learn more, visit www.groundwater.org. The Groundwater Guardian Green Site program is supported by Cargill, the Nebraska Environmental Trust, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 7 Pollution Prevention Program, and the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.