Grass Growers May Have The Last Laugh Lung Association Fund Raising Includes Ironic Twist
Inland Northwest bluegrass growers and the American Lung Association have clubbed each other for years with harsh words about field burning and clean air.
The lung association has chipped away at the growers’ practice of burning fields and clouding skies with smoke which aggravates breathing disorders.
The growers have swung back, saying burning is the best way to produce high-yielding grass seed and sustain a crop that protects valuable water resources from filthy soil erosion.
Now the foes have found some common turf - the golf course.
In a strange twist that has not gone unnoticed by the grass seed industry, the lung association’s chapters in Idaho and Washington are offering free golf to anyone making at least a $25 donation to the organizations.
The association’s state office in Boise says it expects to raise at least $3,000 through the sale of its 1997 Golf Privilege Club, which gives 2-for-1 and other greens fee discounts at 900 courses in the western United States.
The proceeds, according to an association press release, will “go to benefit the one in 10 Idahoans who suffers from breathing disorders.”
But it’s the farmers who grow seed for the lush turf carpeting those links.
“We hope that when the American Lung Association donors are out golfing, they don’t replace their divots, which means more seed for us to sell,” said Glenn Jacklin, operations manager for Post Falls-based Jacklin Seed Co. “We hope people will remember where the grass comes from.”
Don’t count on it.
Sarah Baker, director of special events for the lung association’s Idaho chapter, said the organization had not considered the irony of promoting golf in a region where the association is lobbying to ban field burning.
“I never even thought of that,” Baker said. “We’re certainly against grass burning because it causes so much smoke. But golf is something you can do to have a healthy experience and be outside, increasing your lung capacity.”
, DataTimes