As a golf course superintendent, Jim Ferrin is accustomed to wearing many different hats. He just never realized that one day one of them might be a fireman's helmet.Wildfires might be an annual occurrence in California, but three years of drought have sparked concern as homeowners in severely affected areas watch their dreams go up in smoke. For example, a fire that is believed to have started on a San Diego-area golf course has resulted in a class-action lawsuit with homeowners and attorneys lining up against the Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad.
The cause of the fire has yet to be determined, but what investigators do know is that it wiped out 600 acres and damaged or destroyed more than 50 homes and businesses. A statewide powder keg of dried and brittle turf just waiting for something to ignite it has resulted in superintendents at many courses taking measures to reduce water usage and make sure they're not the next sacrifice served up on the evening news.
In Southern California, golf courses are ripping out turf and replacing it with a desert landscape that is transforming links-style courses into target golf almost overnight.
The drought is not limited to Southern California.
In Roseville, a Sacramento suburb where Ferrin manages 36 holes at a Del Webb adult community, working to minimize the threat of fire and the spread of one should it occur, has become part of his daily responsibility.
"Superintendents can handle things like this. I don't know if other groups could change what they're doing and handle this," Ferrin said. "In this business, you have to be a can-do person.
"You have to do what people need you to do."
At Sierra Pines and Timber Creek golf courses, Ferrin takes seriously his responsibility to help protect the hundreds of homes that surround the two courses and the thousands of other properties located nearby. He has to during times of severe drought.
The Sacramento/Roseville area historically receives up to 18 inches of rain per year. Last year, only 6 inches fell in that area, resulting in a tinderbox of dry turf everywhere.
"I used to think that this is just how the grass is every summer," Ferrin said. "But there has to be a component that as drought continues for one year, then two years, then three years that it has to be like a firecracker ready to explode.
"If you look at the fires in California, they're powder kegs. They burn acre after acre, and there is hardly anything that fire agencies can do except bomb them from the sky and hope (the fires) run out of fuel."
The property has established a no-smoking policy during the summer that extends to employees as well as cigar-chomping golfers, maintains a firebreak between the golf courses and the homes that surround them and even utilizes goats to manage turf in open spaces along the golf courses and preserve areas in other parts of the community.
While marshals on the golf course are expected to help enforce that policy, it is one that requires constant monitoring should a rule-breaker slip through the cracks. In fact, a cigarette here and a cigar there have resulted in a few minor flare-ups, but course personnel have been on top of those and have been able to extinguish them without the fire department intervening.State fire officials have asked for 100-foot-wide barriers between common areas and private property to prevent the spread of fire. Ferrin, through a proactive relationship with local fire department, is allowed a 30-foot barrier that he mows off three to four times a year. Still, homeowners who read about fires elsewhere, like the one in San Diego, are concerned and engaged enough that they too ask whether 30 feet is enough.
Ferrin said he plans to expand the firebreak next year should the drought extend into a fourth year, which virtually all experts are predicting.
"Residents have been concerned," he said.
"Next year, if we get into another year of water scarcity, and it looks like we will, I will do more, especially under trees, to keep people more secure. I think that is the wise thing to do."
A little farther south in Pacific Grove along the Monterey Peninsula, Daniel Gho says the responsibility to guard against wildfire flare-ups doesn't end with golf course or park officials, but extends to homeowners as well.
Gho spent six years as superintendent of city-owned Pacific Grove Golf Links. As superintendent of the city's public works department, he still interacts with the golf course but also is responsible for maintaining all public parks and common areas, so the threat of fires starting and spreading to homes is a constant concern.
The golf course is irrigated wall-to-wall, so the threat of fire starting on and spreading from the golf course is minimal. Other areas around the town are not as much of a lead-pipe cinch.
Each year, he takes part in an effort to communicate with local residents about the need to maintain their own private landscaping so that it too doesn't become the source of a fire or feed one that starts elsewhere.
"We send out notifications and fliers with the building department prior to the summer months," said Gho. "We really ramp up our public outreach so people know to maintain landscaping around their houses. It's up to them.
In areas, like Pacific Grove, where golf courses and residential real estate coexist in close proximity, the message for superintendents in drought-stricken areas is clear, Gho said.
"I think golf course need to reach out to people to and let them know they need to manage their landscape," he added of the outreach effort. "It's private property. We can't do that for them, but it needs to be done."
Like Ferrin, Gho also mows down and maintains borders between public and private property and keeps an eye cast skyward for dead or dying trees that could fuel a fire.
Golf courses in other drought-plagued areas have instituted controlled burns, with the help of local fire officials, to clear out areas that could turn into a larger problem should a wildfire ignite.
Back in Roseville, officials have adopted organic approaches to help Ferrin in his quest to minimize the threat of wildfires. The city requires him to keep thatch to manageable levels in open spaces because fire apparently loves thatch. Fortunately,
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Using goats to clear thick brush and undergrowth at other California tracks like The Presidio in San Francisco and Pasatiempo in Santa Cruz are well chronicled. Using them to clear organic matter is less common, but equally effective.
"It's beneficial. It's expensive, but it is beneficial," Ferrin said. "I know if I use goats, everybody is happy.
"I don't know how else we're going to control thatch unless you eat it."
He'd rather leave that to the goats.