North Carolina Turfgrass Foundation

Center for Turf Grass Research and Education

The North Carolina Turfgrass Research & Education Foundation (NCTF) was begun in 1980 as the NC Turfgrass Research & Extension Fund. It was modified in 1992 and 1995 to better accommodate changing industry needs. Operated by the Turfgrass Council of North Carolina (TCNC) as a service to industry, NCTF is the most significant and flexible tax sheltered repository for industry to support turfgrass research, Extension and academic programs in North Carolina.

Housed within the NC Agricultural Foundation, Inc., NCTF accepts both general and directed donations from associations, companies and individuals who desire to enhance the scholastic capabilities and insure the future of recognized college programs in the turfgrass sciences. Through the Turfgrass Council, NCTF seeks annually to gather and interpret research and education priorities from all industry sectors and to encourage the focusing of donor resources on those priorities.

In order to accomplish that formidable task, TCNC maintains both a Research Review Committee and a Scholarship Committee composed of broad industry representation. The scholarship committee meets and awards academic grants-in-aid each June; and the Research Committee meets in early December to evaluate the progress of currently funded projects and to award grants for deserving new research proposals. The NCTF Research Symposium, an open and interactive industry-faculty forum sponsored by TCNC, precedes the Research Committee meeting.

In addition to accommodating both unrestricted general gifts and donor-directed specific gifts for current uses, NCTF also includes an endowment component. The endowment, when fully funded, will provide a stable and perpetual source of supplementary program funding. The endowment will also give NCTF the ability to respond quickly to critical industry needs or opportunities - independent of fluctuations in current year donations.

The North Carolina Turfgrass Research & Education Foundation represents the most durable, flexible and time proven way yet devised for North Carolina’s entire turfgrass industry to work together - to solve problems and to seize opportunity.

Finding better, more environmentally friendly ways of managing North Carolina’s 22 million acres of turfgrass: That’s the goal of a new N.C. State University research and education center.

Through the Center for Turfgrass Environmental Research and Education, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences hopes to find out more about how water quality is affected by pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals used to make lawns, golf-course greens, athletic fields and other grassy areas healthy. College. scientists also plan b develop new ways to manage insects, weeds and diseases in ways that enhance the environment

The center was established In December, after the N.C. General Assembly passed a bill providing $600,000 for environmental research and educational programs related to turfgrass. The funds will come from taxes on the sale of fertilizer and seed to people who aren’t farmers. Such sales had previously been exempt from the sales tax.

The center directors are Dr. Rick Brandenburg, professor of entomology; Dr. Tom Rufty, professor of and Dr. Fred Yelverton, an associate professor of crop science. Brandenberg and Yelverton also are specialists with the North Carolina Cooperative Extension Service.

They will be working with their colleagues in a number of other disciplines — economics, plant pathology and soil science, among them — to consider the environmental effects of turfgrass in a number of settings.

For additional information, please contact:
Gene Maples
Executive Director
Turfgrass Council of NC
Post Office Box 2163
Cary, NC 27512-2163
(919) 380-9446

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