Turfgrass Science
|
| C-5 Newsletter Following in the tradition established by Drs. Krans and Hull, this newsletter is offered as a means of keeping you informed on Division activities, alerting you to what is being planned for the fall meetings, and to urge you to attend those meetings. Come meet with your C-5 colleagues in Baltimore. George Snyder The 1998 C-5 Program Will Be Bigger Than Ever One hundred fifty-one volunteered papers were submitted for presentation in the C-5 Division this year, surpassing the previous record of 129 presentations in St. Louis. Of this total, 56 poster papers will be presented in 4 sessions, and 95 oral presentations will be given in 9 sessions. The meeting will start early with a National Turfgrass Evaluation Program Workshop on Saturday, October 17th. A Turfgrass Tour will be held on Sunday, starting at 10AM, and an Extension Roundtable, highlighting successful extension programs, will follow in the evening. On the afternoon of Monday, October 19th, a symposium on the theme "Changing the Public Perception of Turfgrass" will be held. This will be |
followed by a social hour with complimentary hors d’oeuvre, which will transition into an evening program titled Building an Interdisciplinary Turfgrass Research and Extension Program. On Tuesday afternoon, we will have a second symposium, this time on the subject of "Innovations in Turfgrass Education". Following the symposium will be the Annual C-5 Business Meeting, which is always lively and well attended. Excellent oral and poster sessions will continue through Thursday afternoon. In addition, there is much to see and do in the historic Baltimore area. The Inner Harbor and Aquarium will be nearby. There are fine restaurants featuring all sorts of seafood, including local delicacies such as blue crabs and Maryland crab cakes, and nearby Little Italy is known for its Italian cuisine. Check out www.baltconvstr.com for other attractions. The fall foliage may be at its peak, making side-trips to Chesapeake Bay and the Shenandoah Mountains that much more inviting. Your Chair and his wife are themselves going to the meetings a few days early to enjoy the colorful change of season that they do not get to see in south Florida. All in all, the 1998 ASA meetings promise to be a great event. |
| NTEP Workshop on Saturday, October 17th An NTEP workshop covering criteria for evaluating turfgrass will be held at the USDA-ARS Beltsville Agricultural Research Center. Participants will spend time in the classroom and on turfgrass research plots. Basic procedures for evaluating turfgrass quality, color, density, establishment, and pest problems will be discussed. Attendees will receive a handbook and will take part in pre- and post-training turfgrass evaluations. Turf Tour to Feature Athletic Fields A tour organized by Dr. Mark Carroll, University of Maryland, will visit baseball’s Oriole Park at Camden Yards, and the newly-completed Baltimore Ravens football stadium. The difficulties with maintaining cool-season turfgrass on a PAT field during the summer in Maryland will be discussed at Camden Yards. At the Ravens football stadium, the removal, transport, and installation of a SportGrass bermudagrass field from Memorial Stadium during the summer of 1998 will be featured. Then the group will cross the Chesapeake Bay Bridge to Queenstown Harbor Golf Links, which is located in one of the environmentally sensitive "Critical Areas" of Maryland’s tidewater region. Over seven years were required to obtain all the necessary permits for the project, which includes an extensive groundwater monitoring program. Environmental issues relating to golf course construction and maintenance will be discussed. Lunch will be served at the golf course. |
Successful Programs to be Highlighted at the Extension
Roundtable On the evening of Sunday, October 17th, at 6:20 PM, the Extension Committee will present a roundtable discussion featuring four case studies of successful turfgrass extension programs. Dr. P. J. Landschoot will preside over the program, which will adjourn at 8:00 PM Symposia to be Held on Monday and Tuesday Afternoons The Special Symposia Committee, with Dr. Bridget Ruemmele serving as Chair, will present a symposium Monday afternoon on the subject of Changing The Public Perception of Turfgrass. Five speakers from public agencies and private industry will discuss the problems, approaches, and successes they have had with improving the public perception of turfgrass. The symposium will conclude with a lively roundtable discussion in which audience participation will be encouraged. Dr. Al Turgeon, of Pennsylvania State University, has organized a Tuesday afternoon symposium on Innovations In Turfgrass Education. The use of computers and the World Wide Web for modern turfgrass teaching programs, and other techniques for distance education, will be discussed and demonstrated. |
| Everyone is Welcomed to the Monday Social Come meet your friends and turfgrass colleagues at the 5 PM social hour that will transition between the Monday afternoon symposium and the evening program. Complimentary hors d’oeuvres will be served so dinner can be delayed until after the evening program. Check the ASA program guide for location. Annual Business Meeting Scheduled Tuesday Afternoon The annual C-5 business meeting will be held following the Tuesday afternoon symposium. The activities of the C-5 committees will be reported at this time. The membership will be asked to consider elevating several Ad hoc committees to the Standing Committee status. In line for such discussion are the Extension and Web Page committees. Watch for Turfgrass Posters in Joint Sessions The subject matter of some poster presentations submitted to C-5 fit in better with sessions sponsored by other divisions than with our own, and therefore will be displayed in sessions sponsored jointly with those divisions and C-5. In particular, one or more turfgrass papers will be presented jointly with Divisions A1 and A5. These joint sessions will be listed in the ASA Program Summary pages of the ASA Program guide. Watch for them. |
Awards & Professional Advancement Committee had a Busy Year The Awards & Professional Advancement committee worked aggressively on behalf of C-5 members during the past year. The committee, composed of Drs. Karnok (Chair), Hull, Riordan, and Throssell, identified 16 individuals for CSSA Fellow, 17 for ASA Fellow, 2 for the Agronomic Service Award, 9 for the Fred Grau Award, 6 for the Crop Science Teaching Award, 6 for the Agronomic Education Award, and 3 for the Agronomic Extension Award, for a total of 59 nominations. This must be some kind of a record! We will learn at the ASA meetings about the success of these nominations. C-5 members are fortunate to have this committee working to bring forth the names of deserving individuals. New Slide Monograph Sets Available Drs. Karnok and Morgan announce that the Slide Monograph Series Committee has released two new slide sets. Common Turfgrass Weeds, by Drs. McCarty, T. Murphy, and Yelverton can be purchased from ASA for $ 45.00, and Sports Field Construction, by Drs. McCarty, Landry, and L. Miller is available at $ 40.00. Coordinator Karnok is surveying all authors and coauthors of slide sets, and urges that these surveys be returned before the ASA meeting. |
| Turfgrass Management Information Directory Sales Up Sales of the Turfgrass Management Information Directory have improved with time. News about this important directory of turfgrass resources will be given at the C-5 Annual Business Meeting. Historian's Report Needs Your Help C-5 Historian Dr. Jim Beard provides an outstanding service by maintaining a running record of the personalities and events relating to our Division. To do this, he needs us all to help with logging significant happenings in the careers of C-5 members. Please help him by sending notices of awards, advancements, retirements, and deaths. His FAX number is 409-693-4878. Nuss Elected to Chair C-5 Division Dr. Jeff Nus was elected by the membership to Chair the C-5 Division in 1999-2000, following Dr. Leah Brilman’s 1998-1999 term of office. Dr. Nus is Director of Research at the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America, in Lawrence, Kansas. He is well known in the turfgrass industry, and has been an active member of the C-5 division. |
C-5 Divisional Poster Board For the second year, ASA will allot space for Divisional poster boards. The C-5 board will be Number 801 in the exhibit hall, in a high-traffic area in front of the overall poster complex. Dr. Leah Brilman is in charge of the board for the C-5 Division. Since division boards are a rather new feature of the ASA meetings, there is no prescribed use for the board. It may be used to provide addresses of officers, for a schedule of C-5 activities in Baltimore, to request symposia topics at future meetings, and/or to solicit volunteers for committees, or for none of these things. It is up to the C-5 members to decide how the division board can be best used. Dr. Brilman would appreciate your suggestions. She can be reached at (Tel) 541-758-9115, (FAX) 541-752-2065, E-Mail srofarm@ibm.net. Let’s help her with this task. Many Thanks! I want to express my gratitude for being allowed to serve as your C-5 Chair for the past year. C-5 is an extremely active division. It is blessed with members who work selfishly on committees that are the heart of the division activity and move the division forward. As I sat with the other Tri-Society division chairs in Milwaukee this spring planning the Baltimore meeting, I was impressed by the fact that, while I felt overwhelmed by the deluge of volunteer paper submissions I had, some division chairs were having trouble putting together a credible program at all. This, combined with the many calls I have received about division activities that are occurring around the country, makes me realize just how special the C-5 division is. George Snyder |