By By JAN GRIFFEY / Niles Daily Star
NILES - Niles' Plym Park Golf Course was honored Monday night for the work its superintendent has done to make it environment friendly.
Plym Park Golf Course has received certification as an environmental steward through a program administered through the Michigan Department of Agriculture. The program's director, Debra Swartz, was at the Niles City Council meeting Monday night to present the certification and to praise the work of Bruce Dustin, Plym Park's superintendent.
The program aims to make certain golf courses increase compliance with state environmental regulations, prevent pollution and establish course-specific environmental action plans.
About 227 courses in the state participate in the stewardship program and Plym Park is one of only 57 in the Michigan to be certified. Michigan has more golf courses per capita than any other state in the nation.
"Plym Park Golf Course was the first course in the seven-year history of the (stewardship program) to be certified immediately when stewardship staff members made their initial visit," Swartz said. "There never before had been a course in total compliance of all regulations."
As part of its stewardship certification, Plym Park staff must work to make certain there are no direct discharges of chemicals that would impact the area's streams or rivers, that it has a wellhead protection program and that it is in compliance with state regulations.