I had the pleasure of speaking at the Earth Day Celebration at Bear Trace Harrison Bay recently. Most people are familiar with the course thanks to the Harrison Bay Eagle Cam that you can watch online. It's fascinating watching Elliot and Eloise care for their two young eagles. In just one day on the property I learned more about eagles than I had in my entire life. The eagles are both impressive and captivating as they soar above the property, but there is much more going on there than nesting birds.
A year ago, the course began using Jacobsen Eclipse 322 triplexes to mow greens and tees. The course also uses a fleet of electric maintenance carts every day. In that year, they saved 9,000 gallons of fossil fuel at the course. To me, that was a staggering number. One other number that may be even more amazing is the 162 days with zero emissions. Think about that for a minute, that's almost half a year with no exhaust! Now that is really changing your carbon footprint! Congratulations to Paul Carter, CGCS, and the entire team at Bear Trace Harrison Bay for pushing the envelope and being leaders in environmental stewardship. Who knows, in ten years maybe this will be normal at most golf courses in the U.S.!
