Robert Nielsen, CGCS, has a long history of working with government agencies on behalf of superintendents in New York. Now, the longtime greenkeeper at Bedford Golf and Tennis Club in Westchester County is ready to bring the same dedication to golf courses and superintendents nationwide.
Nielsen (right), who has been at Bedford for 42 years, including the past 33 as head superintendent, recently was named as the GCSAA representative to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pesticide Program Dialogue Committee.
The committee was established in 1995 to provide policy advice, information and recommendations to the EPA. The PPDC, which includes dozens of representatives from a wide range of backgrounds, provides a public forum to discuss a variety of pesticide regulatory developments and reform initiatives, evolving public policy and program implementation issues associated with evaluating and risks from pesticide use.
Nielsen was approached by Chava McKeel, the GCSAA's director of governmental affairs, to succeed association director of environmental programs Mark Johnson when his four-year term expired. Terms are for one year and are renewable for a maximum of four years.
"There are a lot of people they could have asked to do this," Nielsen said. "I am honored and humbled that they thought of me."
Working in the country's strictest pesticide environment, Nielsen is well suited for the EPA committee role. He is the president of the New York Golf Course Environmental Foundation and vice president of the New York State Turfgrass Association. He also played a key role in establishing best management practices in New York and was the recipient of the GCSAA Excellence in Government Affairs award in 2019. Last year, Nielsen and Bedford won the Met Golf Association's Environmental Leaders in Golf award.
"Bob has been a long-standing advocate for environmental stewardship at Bedford Golf and Tennis Club receiving the MGA Arthur P. Weber Environmental Leaders in Golf Award, an award given to an MGA member club that has demonstrated environmental stewardship through golf course maintenance, construction, education and research," McKeel said. "Bob helped spearhead the development of the New York State Best Management Practices for Golf Courses and has worked hard to develop relationships with county, local, state and federal policymakers and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation."
This is a diverse group. . . . Everyone works together, but we all have different goals. I hope to show them that golf courses are not the polluters that everyone thinks we are.
The PPDC comprises 43 members from government, environmental and public interest groups, including the American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, CDC National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Tribal Pesticide Program Council, USDA Office of Pest Management Policy, Pollinator Partnership and Weed Science Society of America.
Before saying yes to the invitation to join the committee, Nielsen attended a meeting (that occurs via Zoom) last November to decide whether the EPA work was something he would be interested in doing. He liked enough of what he saw, and his appointment was finalized in January. The group meets online each April and November, with various subcommittees meeting more regularly.
Nielsen's hope is to become more active at the subcommittee or working group level where he believes he can have a greater influence by educating others about what superintendents do, and just as importantly, what they don't do.
"This is a diverse group," Nielsen said.
"Everyone works together, but we all have different goals. I hope to show them that golf courses are not the polluters that everyone thinks we are."
While there are many who believe golf courses and environmental stewardship are mutually exclusive, Nielsen points to how naturalized and out-of-play areas provide a thriving habitat for many species of wildlife and pollinating insects.
"No one talks about how much habitat we provide on golf courses that is not affected by pesticides," he said. "We are 138.6 acres (at Bedford), but 35 of those acres are woods or wetlands where there is no impact whatsoever of pesticides. A lot of people don't get that.
"Anyone who knows anything about wildlife knows they live on the edge of the forest, and golf courses provide that all over the property."
