PGMS Site Visit focuses on water

BALTIMORE – Water is one of the most important and talked about issues in the grounds industry currently. In order to provide grounds professionals with the tools they need to tackle this issue, the Professional Grounds Management Society (PGMS) will focus its 2012 Spring Regional Grounds Management Seminar & Site Visit on water and specifically its sustainability and conservation. The event is set for March 22-23 at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, Ariz.

Several education programs will be offered during this two-day event. The first program, presented by a team member from the ASU Global Institute of Sustainability, will cover the national and regional view of current and future water availability as it relates to global warming and increased population. Following, guest speaker Heather Kinkade will discuss alternative sources of water, such as storm water and condensate water and how to maintain systems using these sources. Marc Bayer will present the third education program and will discuss the importance of an irrigation master plan and how to develop one. The fourth class, also presented by an ASU Global Institute of Sustainability member, will discuss plants in the future landscape, including how our plants react to environmental stress and how to maintain the landscape with a water budget.

Three distinguished places will serve as the locations of the site tours. Attendees will get exclusive insider tours of the grounds management programs at Singh Farms compost facility, The Phoenician, Arizona's AAA Five Diamond Resort and The Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. These tours will provide attendees the hard-to-find opportunity to gain knowledge, ask questions, and see how other professionals in the field are dealing with the same water issues.

“With the critical question ‘How will you be looking at and working with water in the future?’ being asked of every grounds professional in the industry, we wanted to give them resources to tackle this issue,” said Ellen Newell, CGM, associate director of facilities management at ASU and coordinator of the event. “Because of this, we have designed an education schedule to provide attendees with topics devoted to water issues and to show them actual working examples through the tours.”

For more information on the 2012 Spring Seminar and Site Visit, click here.