{"id":21773,"date":"2014-04-28T11:10:59","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T15:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21773"},"modified":"2014-04-28T10:18:57","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T14:18:57","slug":"kennett-golf-and-country-club-earns-conservation-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=21773","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Golf and Country Club earns conservation award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Red Clay Valley Association\u2019s work affects 50,000 residents \u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

By Rick Marts, <\/b>Staff Writer, The Times<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"KGCCAward\"<\/a>

Joe Viscuso, president of the Board of Governors of Kennett Square Golf and Country Club accepts the Red Clay Valley Association\u2019s award of Outstanding Conservationist at the Association’s annual dinner on April 23, 2014. The club, with financial assistance from PADEP and administrative help from the Association, completed a restoration of 2,000 feet of the Red Clay Creek on club property<\/p><\/div>\n

The Red Clay Valley Association (RCVA) named Kennett Golf and Country Club its \u201cOutstanding Conservationist\u201d at the Association\u2019s annual dinner last Wednesday. The award recognized work done by the Kennett Golf and Country Club from November 2011 to May 2012 to restore 2,000 feet of the East Branch of the Red Clay Creek.<\/p>\n

The work done on the stream that flows through the middle of golf club\u2019s property was not trivial. Its total cost was over $800,000, three-quarters of it borne by the club and one-quarter by a \u201cGrowing Greener\u201d grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection and administered by RCVA.<\/p>\n

The project involved reshaping the stream-bed into a main channel flanked by a mini-flood plain, strategically placing nearly one hundred 1,000- to 2,000-pound boulders along the stream walls. After reshaping, the stream\u2019s environs were planted with nearly 1000 native and ornamental plants and grasses to create not only beauty but extensive wildlife habitat.<\/p>\n

In addition to costly, the project was jurisdictionally complex, with approvals needed from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chester County, and three townships directly involved in the stream\u2019s winding path to the Delaware Bay.<\/p>\n

During this spring and summer, as motorists travel in southern East Marlborough Township near the intersection of East Locust Drive and North Walnut Street, they will be treated to a view of the restored stream — its banks stacked with thousands of iconic \u201cAvondale Blend\u201d boulders — and multicolored foliage from red-twig dogwoods to purple cone flowers.<\/p>\n

More impressive than its looks, however, is its new ability to conserve itself and its environment through a scientific and well-thought-out design.<\/p>\n

When Joe Viscuso, the Kennett Golf Club\u2019s Board of Governors president, accepted the award, he said, \u201cI have high praise for our club\u2019s grounds superintendent, Paul Stead, for his diligent efforts to work effectively with all governmental and private entities involved in the project.\u201d<\/p>\n

In accepting the award with Viscuso, Stead said the work was not entirely for conservation purposes. \u201cOur hole number 13 on the corner of Walnut and East Locust, a par 3 with lots of visibility from the street, was losing its green to the creek. Same thing for the tee-box on the other side of the creek. Something had to be done to stop the erosion at the site and the silt from flowing downstream.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to coordinating with multiple layers of local and state government, Stead\u2019s stream restoration project needed to be sensitive to wildlife concerns. A rare and very small Pennsylvania bog turtle (Clemmys mulenbergii) was known to spend its winters in the stream\u2019s bed. Because it emerges early in the spring and lays its eggs streamside a month later, environmental authorities required a May 2012 deadline for completing work in the stream. As project manager, complying with this deadline was Stead\u2019s responsibility. In the end, everyone was happy, including the 4-inch turtle.<\/p>\n

The RCVA, the second oldest small watershed organization in America, was founded in 1952 by a group of Delaware and Pennsylvania residents for the purpose of protecting and conserving the natural resources in the Red Clay Watershed.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Red Clay Valley has been improved by projects such as the Red Clay Creek Cleanup, trout rodeos, spray irrigation systems, a stream corridor and greenway program, the Red Clay Trail, and now reclamation of a major portion of the creek itself. These projects affect 50,000 residents in the townships that border the creek.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Red Clay Valley Association\u2019s work affects 50,000 residents \u00a0 By Rick Marts, Staff Writer, The Times The Red Clay Valley Association (RCVA) named Kennett Golf and Country Club its \u201cOutstanding Conservationist\u201d at the Association\u2019s annual dinner last Wednesday. The award recognized work done by the Kennett Golf and Country Club from November 2011 to May […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,7],"tags":[5435,5434,4274,152,4819],"class_list":["post-21773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-featured","tag-growing-greener","tag-kennett-golf-and-country-club","tag-pennsylvania-department-of-environmental-protection","tag-red-clay-creek","tag-red-clay-valley-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}