March 2018: Turf comprises 60+ million acres, is the fourth largest crop in the U.S., and is horticulture’s most omnipresent crop worldwide. Benefits are enormous, ranging from public health, landscaping, and recreation, to environmental sustainability, and impeding contaminant runoff into waterways. We need support to promote turf research and its many benefits, aided by academia, competitive government grants and private industry. Most golf courses provide valuable green space. More than 90% of golf courses are valuable for any watershed. Golf course owners and superintendents are conservationists! It’s in our interest to help preserve habitats surrounding tees, greens and fairways. The golf maintenance industry employs approximately 2 million nationwide, providing $70 billion to our economy.The NGCOA and allied associations of We Are Golf are asking Congress to support the 2018 Farm Bill, which includes more funding to develop turf grasses requiring less inputs and are more drought tolerant. We are also asking Congress, the USDA and private industry to increase their focus on turf’s positive benefits for the environment. Including turfgrass research as one of the listed high priority research and extension initiatives in the Farm Bill encourages the discovery of solutions in areas ranging from drought and water conservation to soil erosion mitigation and enhancing commercial, recreational and residential spaces.