LA CUMBRE CC’S SUPERINTENDENT IS HONORED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP

The 2024 Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) President’s Award for Environmental Stewardship couldn’t have gone to a more deserving recipient than Wayne Mills, who received the honor in February.

“From water conservation to wildlife habitat enhancement, Wayne Mills’ dedication to being an environmental steward has undoubtedly contributed to the sustainability of the game of golf,” GCSAA President Kevin P. Breen said in presenting the honor.

For Mills, who is stepping down this spring after 22 years at the helm of La Cumbre CC in Santa Barbara and 40 years in the golf industry, being an environmental steward comes naturally. He’s a golfer, hunter and fisherman. He speaks of nurturing bumblebees and barn owls and hunting quail with a fervor equal to his passion for golf.

“The more I can do outdoors, the happier I am,” he says.

We caught up with Mills shortly after he received the award. What comes across is the sense that implementing a sustainability ethic at a top-notch country club has been less a challenge than a pleasure. His ardent convictions come across as good-natured but dogged common sense. When asked how he justifies golf to skeptical, environmentally inclined nongolfers, he replies, “Hey, our backyard is a wildlife corridor; yours isn’t!”

BORN IN DROUGHT

Mills’ and La Cumbre’s journey toward sustainability began as a response to SoCal’s ongoing drought.

“The 2008 drought convinced us that we had to look at reduction of water input. Other courses were being paid to take turf out, but that wasn’t happening here. Then I happened to start talking to a local biologist, Johanna Kisner, who was doing some habitat restoration work in Arroyo Burro Creek (which skirts the eastern edge of the course). She’s a plant person, and her husband, David Kisner, is a wildlife person. Together we started exploring sustainable landscape alternatives.”

Those conversations led to the removal of 14 acres of sod near hole 14, and incorporating native plants instead. The plants were chosen for their attractiveness to birds, wildlife and bumblebees, and they were strategically selected to display blossoms in succession. Spring means poppies, lupines and goldenrod — “Wayne’s Superbloom,” as club members call it. Naturally, there’s also that favorite of monarch butterflies, narrowleaf milkweed. Then comes the “purple period,” with June’s sage blossoms, buckwheat and fuchsia bursting out red. Fall is a yellow period, with Mexican marigold in bloom. “Then in late winter, we cut everything back and the cycle repeats.”

At the same time, Mills made the decision to start taking out stretches of cart path
(they’ve removed 7,000 feet now) and to leave rough unwatered — instead focusing irrigation on what mattered the most anyway — fairways. Was it a tough sell to members?

“No,” Mills answers emphatically. “The members liked it, especially as it matured.”

Mills is careful to acknowledge the support he’s received from La Cumbre members.

“The club has been extremely supportive. I can’t stress that enough. Their guests like it too, and when guests like it, it’s good. All our funding has come from members. They understand that there’s payback over time, but mainly they like it. And they fund it generously.”

“LET’S DO BIRD BOXES!”

As the native plants took hold, La Cumbre continued decommissioning tracts of turf. One thing led to another, as in, “Let’s do some bird boxes!” And so they did. Consulting with David Kisner, they installed 42 boxes, which draw western bluebirds, barn owls, tree swallows and oak titmice. One box alone was a nursery for five barn owl chicks. “Build it and they will come,” Mills says proudly.

Now pretty much all of La Cumbre is for the birds.

“When I first started, they’d kill the coots. Now we feed them.” Feeding the coots is to control their movements, Mills explains. But it’s not a cakewalk for the coots; it’s an ecosystem. “When the coots are around, so are the peregrine falcons. It’s pretty cool to see them swoop down from the sky and gulp down coots. It’s basically a pantry.”

Now that La Cumbre is a bird mecca, the club makes itself available to the local Audubon Society for bird banding and the annual bird count. Ibis make themselves at home in La Cumbre’s Laguna Blanca, among scores of other waterfowl. California quail are abundant, to Mills’ delight. (He’s a hunter, remember … no, not on the course!) Great horned owls nest in a eucalyptus grove.

Yet for all that, Mills admits a fondness for smaller flying creatures. “I love our bumblebee spots,” he says referring to plantings of native lupine and purple salvia.

As for ground-based fauna, when Mills refers to La Cumbre as a wildlife corridor, he’s referring to such creatures as red foxes — whose pups entertain members at tee boxes — as well as raccoons, skunks and “quite a few other animals.”

CERTIFIED AND RECLAIMED

It should come as no surprise that La Cumbre CC has received certification from Audubon International for its sustainability efforts. Certification requires proven performance in such areas as chemical use reduction, water conservation and wildlife habitat management, among other criteria.

Naturally, the course participates in the Monarchs in the Rough program by planting native milkweed. Mills notes that La Cumbre was on its way toward certification even before applying.

“BMP (best management practices) is a buzzword in course management. Well, I’d been impressed with the Audubon standards. I started using them as our BMP.”

As Wayne Mills prepares to sorta-kinda retire, he’s also celebrating one of his most recent accomplishments: a 13-year effort to bring reclaimed water to La Cumbre. Water otherwise destined to flow into the sea now accounts for about 80 percent of the course’s usage. And he’s not exactly riding off into the sunset — he’s taking on the task of converting another five acres of La Cumbre turf to native plantings. Another Wayne’s Superbloom in the making.