The Advocate: Ronald G. Dodson

Interviewed By John Barton
Portrait By Kagan McLeod May 2008

Ronald G. Dodson has been president of Audubon International (auduboninternational.org) since he founded it in 1987. The organization has nothing to do with birds, nor the prestigious National Audubon Society, which Dodson worked for in the 1980s as a regional vice president. (Dodson now has harsh words for his former employer -- as you will see, his criticisms are strenuously denied by National Audubon.) Dodson says that roughly 75 percent of Audubon International's work is golf-related: It's best known for its Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary program, which certifies golf courses for their eco-friendly practices, and its more involved Audubon Signature Program for new developments. Dodson, a former schoolteacher, has worked in the environmental field for more than 30 years. (He has also, according to his website's bio, amassed "a huge number of frequent-flier miles" -- an odd boast for the leader of an environmental organization.) A former scratch golfer who earned a golf scholarship to Oakland City University in Indiana, Dodson now plays to a 10-handicap.

The first meeting with Dodson, at the organization's headquarters in upstate New York, had to be canceled because of a snowstorm. The rescheduled meeting had to be canceled, too, because Dodson, 59, went for a physical and was told he had to have a quadruple-bypass operation. Eventually, six weeks later, the interview was conducted over the phone, with Dodson speaking from his home in Albany, N.Y., where he was recuperating from the operation.

Golf Digest: So how are you feeling?
Ronald Dodson: I'm great. I felt great before the operation, and I feel great now. Everything's fine.

That's good. OK, let's talk about Audubon International. What do clubs have to do to get certified? What is the process?
When a golf course joins our program, if it starts the certification process, it usually takes two to three years for it to go through all the paperwork, get everything in place and get to the final audit. Essentially there are six categories that we try to focus people's attention on. It starts with the course developing an environmental plan, and the first step of that process is doing an inventory -- what kind of golf course is it, how many acres of turf, what kind of turf, water features and so on. The other categories are water conservation; water quality management; wildlife and habitat enhancement; chemical use, reduction and safety; outreach and education. Golf courses can get certificates for each of those six categories, and then they can become a certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary. They have to get recertified every two years.

How much does it cost?
It's $200 per year for a course in the U.S. and $250 for anywhere else in the world to join the program. There's no additional cost for getting certified. We don't want people to use money as an excuse not to do this. [Note: The Audubon Signature Program, where the organization gets heavily involved in the planning and development of new golf-course projects, is more expensive, with fees starting at $9,500.]

Would Augusta National pass the test?
Well, I don't know. I've never been there, and I'd like to go sometime. From what I know about Augusta National, it's really a television studio, not a golf course. It's open only about six months of the year. So I don't know that they're really doing that bad environmentally when you look at the course for a whole year.

How many have signed up to the Sanctuary Program?
We've got more than 2,300 courses in the program, and 755 of those are certified worldwide -- 622 in the U.S. The vast majority of the members that we have join the program and either start the certification process and then stop or just never start. They pay their membership fee and they get our newsletters. Some of them we happen to know are doing really good things, but they just don't fill out all the paperwork and documentation that you need to do to get certified.

Are you disappointed in those numbers?
Well you know, I asked the USGA guys several years ago how they felt we were doing since they've always been a sponsor of our program; they support what we do. And they kind of said, no, you know, we think you're doing pretty well. They thought that we were where we ought to be. Now, of course, we think we ought to have all the courses in America. We're certainly not satisfied. We'd like to have more.

Because part of your funding comes from the USGA and golf companies, there's a perception that you're largely just performing a PR function for the golf industry. How do you respond to that?
The USGA is the governing body of golf, and to have their support, to have them promoting the idea of golf courses getting involved and joining with us, is very important. We know -- at least we believe -- that our program is credible. We know that the EPA thinks it's credible -- they've given us awards and recognition for what we do. We're not ashamed of what we do. And if golf courses practice what we would like them to practice, and they get some good PR out of that, then that's great. We want to motivate other people. The PR part, I'm fine with that.