Millions of acres in the United States are devoted to the sport of golf. Part of what makes the sport so popular is the unique, manicured landscape surrounding the participants and spectators.

"Golf course superintendents are keenly aware of the importance of having pleasing scenes and vistas occupied by healthy plants as part of the courses they maintain," said Monte Johnson, National program leader of environmental toxicology for the USDA. "Turfgrasses are the primary concern of maintenance efforts, however other plants are essential to a successful golf course atmosphere."

Trees and shrubs are important to a golf course landscape. A new video produced by the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service examines the major problems woody ornamental plants on golf courses may encounter and how to handle many of them with Integrated Pest Management techniques.

IPM for Trees and Shrubs on Golf Courses will show how IPM solves pest problems with the safest approach. IPM has been called the common sense way to control pests.

The video will be especially helpful to all personnel who help maintain care-intensive landscapes. Helpful graphics and interviews with professionals highlight different controls such as cultural, biological, genetic, mechanical or physical, chemical, and regulatory controls for plant pest and diseases.

Once the tools to control the pests are identified, the video details some of more common disease problems encountered in golf course landscape plants. Some of these include scab disease, cedar-rust diseases, powdery mildews, and pine diseases. Effects of insect pests like the eastern tent caterpillar, borers, Japanese beetles, scale insects and mites also are shown and described.

If golf course managers employ the commonsense techniques described in IPM for Trees and Shrubs on Golf Courses, they will be able to impress the public while maintaining beautiful landscapes for everyone to enjoy.

"Anytime we use a pesticide, that's an expense for us," said Mark Wilson, superintendent at Louisville's Valhalla Country Club. "It's an expense that's gone. So anytime I can use that money in a different way to improve this property, that's better money spent."

IPM for Trees and Shrubs on Golf Courses is available from the University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service for $20. Send a check payable to the University of Kentucky to: Agricultural Communications Services, Instructional Video Library, 131 Scovell Hall, Lexington, KY 40546-0064.