Mother Nature has a friend at Collier's Reserve.

by Rich Skyzinski

COLLIER'S RESERVE was not built with tournament golf in mind. The last thing it would want, in fact, is thousands of fans trampling over the pristine southwest Florida landscape it has fought to protect and vowed to enhance.

The overriding goal of Collier's Reserve, which this month celebrates its first birthday, is unlike that of any other golf course. Even before the first spade of dirt was turned, it promised it would become a leader in environmentally sound operations. It has offered its 448-acre property in Naples, Fla., as a shining example and one of the most persuasive arguments in the increasingly popular golf vs. environment issue.

Collier Enterprises, the owner and developer of the project, doesn't claim to be the brainchild behind the idea. "Very little of what we've done here is new," says Tim Hiers, the superintendent in charge of ensuring the property's positive impact on the environment. "We got a lot of ideas from other places -- a lot of their best ideas, I'd guess -- but I don't think anyone else has endeavored, like we have, to do as many things as we have at the same time. There are probably courses doing even more things than we are."

The cooperation with the New York Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program, however, is a large part of what separates Collier's Reserve from most others who claim to be environmentally sensitive. The course was the first to design and construct a facility according to Audubon's rigorous planning standards and strict environmental standards, thus becoming the first "Signature" course in this country.

When the project first hit the drawing board eight years ago, it vowed to be different. Florida leads the nation in the number of courses enrolled in the Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary Program -- in August 107 were registered -- but in many instances the courses showed an initial interest and then were slow to follow through.

But at Collier's Reserve, there's proof at every turn that it was serious about the commitment.

Water Conservation

One of the great misconceptions among the non-golfing populace is that superintendents have been instilled with a more-is-better philosophy toward watering. Hiers laughs at such a notion.

"Even if water were free, you'd only want to use the right amount because anything else has a negative impact," he says, "disease, fungus, compaction, leaching, wear and tear on your system, wear and tear on your pumps. It just behooves any superintendent to use the right amount of water."

Every head in the irrigation system at Collier's Reserve is site specific. The grass on greens must be managed differently than that on surrounding banks, or fairways, so at Collier's Reserve there's a specific set of irrigation heads throwing water precisely where, and when, it's needed. That's a major advantage over most conventional systems, where 360-degree heads overlap or hit areas that need no water at all.

Even the tees at Collier's Reserve are unique. Three sides of the tees have been planted in native vegetation, which is never watered after the initial growing-in stage. That means trouble for high handicappers who dribble one off the tee or sky one short of the fairway, but accuracy is the key throughout Collier's Reserve.

Habitat Enhancement

Before architect Arthur Hills located one tee, shaped one fairway or routed one hole, assistant golf course manager Matt Taylor wanted him to understand one thing: Every square foot of the golf course that could be planted in native vegetation, instead of traditional turfgrasses, would get it.

Most of the areas of native vegetation are out of play, but they include tee slopes, berms, and expanses that at other courses would be planted with grass types that need watering, fertilization, and maintenance.

"Other things that require you to use pesticides, more fertilizer and water, are because the grass isn't as healthy as it could be," says Hiers. "But if you're able to eliminate higher-maintenance grass where you don't have to have it, that enables you to spend your resources in areas where it counts. Just like on this tee slope right here -- we didn't put any bermudagrass here; that's all cord grass. That's more money up front, but I don't ever fly-mow that. I don't use any fuel or any labor, and if you know the golf maintenance business, the most expensive part of the business is the hand labor."

The philosophy in practice on the golf course will be in force for each of the approximately 200 homeowners in the complex as well. It is not as difficult as one might imagine.

"There are some misunderstandings about native plants," Hiers admits. "Some people haven't had good experiences with native vegetation because they think you just pick any native plant, stick it in the ground and walk away from it. That's not the case. You pick the right native plant, put it in the right location, at the right planting density, water it in to get it established, and keep the weeds away from it. When you do that, the plant doesn't know if you put it there or God put it there."

Because Collier's Reserve has a much smaller acreage to maintain, its pesticide budget for 1994 will run between $19,000 and $24,000. "That's a phenomenal number to me," claims John Foy, the USGA's director of the Green Section for the Florida Region. "I've seen courses in this area of the country spend $30,000 or $40,000 in a year, or more."

Wildlife Conservation

A round at Collier's Reserve doesn't quite equate with a trip to the zoo, but it's as close as one can get. As Hiers boasts, "We've got everything from alligators to butterflies."

Among the species that roam or reside on the grounds are fox -- at least nine were born on the property last year alone -- panther, deer, rabbits, raccoon, opossum, Florida wood rats, otters, and, as you'd expect in an area adjacent to the Everglades, an extraordinary avian population.

Hiers goes to extreme lengths to ensure an appropriate wildlife habitat is maintained. Dead trees are either stockpiled in remote areas, where they become shelter or home for insects and animals, or they are trimmed and sculpted into snags for birds.

"We don't spray the worms out here," he says, his arms spreading to display a wide expanse of Florida landscape. "If you come out here in the evening you'll see rabbits, gopher tortoises, and birds feeding on this, even Florida wood rats . . . . Those numbers are increasing, and that provides food for the fox that live out here, for the bobcat, owls, eagles, the ospreys, all different kinds of hawks. It's just all part of the natural food chain."

An eight-foot-high chain-link fence surrounds the entire property, but in a few thick, wooded areas, installers purposely left small gaps. No one knows they're there but the animals, who use the breaks to travel the Reserve as part of their natural territorial habitats.

"If you were to have examined the property before we broke ground," Hiers asserts, "and took a wildlife count -- birds, animals, et cetera -- and if you were to come back three years after the project was started and did a similar count, I think everything would have increased -- numbers and species. You have a lot more diversity out here now."

Energy Conservation

If there's an area where Collier's Reserve dazzles the unsuspecting visitor, this is it. Actually, the course had a partner in this effort -- Florida Power & Light -- and together they collaborated to form a sensational partnership.

It was not only the right thing to do for the environment's sake. It also saved a grand canyon of cash. For instance:

• By watering the golf course between 12:30 and 6 a.m., when power rates are at their cheapest, the course saves $11,268 per year solely on the electricity needed to run the pumps for the irrigation system;

• By charging golf carts at off-peak hours, the club is able to trim its annual electric bill by $5,400;

• An apparently insignificant item like changing the light bulbs in the maintenance building saves $929 per year. Collier's Reserve spent $2,613 to facilitate the updated lighting package, but the savings means a payback, followed by net savings, in less than 30 months. By redoing the lighting package in the maintenance building and installing a high-efficiency air conditioning system, FPL paid Collier's Reserve nearly $600 in rebates.

Waste Management

The moment of truth for Collier County is right around the corner. Sometime in the first quarter of the next century, all the available landfill space in Collier County will have been used. That is a principal concern because the average person in Collier County generates nine pounds of solid waste per day, which, although down from 11, is still more than double the national average.

"We live in a throw-away generation," explains Jeremy Cook, the recycling coordinator for Collier County. "There's no denying that. Collier County, sooner or later, is going to run out of available landfill, and when it does, it's going to have to make some big decisions."

Collier's Reserve goes the extra step. Besides collecting and recycling the usual -- glass, paper, aluminum, steel, tin, and cardboard -- grass clippings are either spread back on the course or incorporated into compost for later use as a topdressing on tees and fairways. Debris from trimming limbs and brush is turned into mulch for planting beds.

Hiers is a no-nonsense guy. He has a keen ability to anticipate problems and think ahead, which is clear after one look at the maintenance complex he oversees. Okay, so maybe you don't want to eat off the floor there. But somewhere in the world there are doctors performing surgery in facilities that aren't this sterile.

Is there a maintenance facility anywhere that doesn't have one blade of grass on the floor? The floors of the facility at Collier's Reserve are stripped and waxed every nine weeks. Outside there are covered washing and cleaning bays with recessed stations that drain into 1,000-gallon storage tanks. That water is purified to extract oil and gasoline and then reused. If a machine were to lose every ounce of oil and gasoline, not one square inch of the grounds would ever be contaminated.

"One of the biggest misses in this business today," says Hiers sadly, "is the lack of somebody thinking about and designing a maintenance complex. "I can't tell you the number of times I've seen a major development go in and they have to take two prime lots to put in a maintenance complex because they didn't think about it earlier.

"Here's the bottom line: The better condition that a golf course is in, the better that architect is going to look . . . . There are always exceptions, but you can walk into a maintenance facility, whether it's old or new, and you can tell what the golf course is going to look like. You can tell by the attention to detail."

They built golf courses a hundred years ago without moving any dirt and creating their own lakes, but it's a different story today. And Collier's Reserve wasn't constructed without touching the land as it previously existed.

"Yeah, we're going to cut some trees down," says Hiers, "and that's negative. But for every tree we cut down, we're going to put three somewhere else where it doesn't hurt us . . . . So in eight years we haven't had a negative impact; we've had a positive impact."

And one they'd love to have copied.