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Golf
Pro Forms One-Stop Forest Protection Company
By Regional
Editor
Pat
Hanna
Register-Herald
RICHWOOD — The words golf and trees
can often be adversarial.
More than one golf club has been launched skyward in frustration after a
ball is sliced or hooked into a wooded section of the course, often
leaving the club in better position than the ball.
But for Richwood native Mark Sims, golf and trees have gone together
quite well. The 41-year-old golf pro, after spending 21 years with the
West Virginia Department of Agriculture, recently formed a new company
designed to detect forest pests, primarily the gypsy moth and the
hemlock woolly adelgid, and protect forested property from insect and
disease damage.
Precision Forestry Protection, based at the Braxton Technology Center in
Flatwoods, is, according to Sims, a one-stop shop when it comes to
forest pest management — a consulting forest business, a geographical
information systems business and an aerial contracting business rolled
into one.
The corporation was formed June 15 and the business was up and running
July 1.
“How this came about was that a couple of contractors that I know
approached me about doing this,” Sims said. “Because of the
expertise we were able to pull together, we’re able to offer something
nobody else offers.
“It’s a risk, sure. Anything you do on your own is a risk. But I
think we have pulled together the best of the best. Every section of the
company — our pilots, our foresters, our GIS computer people, our
contract specialists — we have people with as much experience as
anybody in the world. As far as forestry protection goes, we have a very
committed, very trained and very educated group. So far, it’s gone
better than I had hoped.
“This is not a business where you’re selling something because
people want that product. There is a need for this. Timber is an
investment. If you own timber, it’s like money in the bank. WVU did a
study that said for every dollar you spent on timber there was a $7
return. And it’s a lot cheaper to bring somebody in to see if it needs
treated than to do nothing and lose it. You don’t want to lose your
oak component or your hemlock component. West Virginia has one of the
most diverse forest canopies in the world.”
The company has five pilots on board who are members of the corporation
but work as independent contractors.
“And we can get more,” Sims said. “Our GIS computer people do all
of the digital mapping. We can map the property, do the survey and can
tell the landowner from day one what the treatment is going to cost
them. Once we have the boundaries of your property, we can do the survey
in a day and recommend whether to treat or not. We can survey 500 acres
in a day. But we will also treat 1 acre if that’s what needs to be
treated.
“Everything we do is tied into GIS and is GPS-referenced. It’s very,
very unlikely our pilots will spray where they’re not supposed to.
It’s very precise.
“We’re going to be licensed in West Virginia, Maryland,
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia and Kentucky … and also New Jersey,
Minnesota and Wisconsin.”
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A 1986 graduate of Richwood High School, Sims went to work for the
Agriculture Department in 1988 after earning an associate’s degree at
Glenville State. While working, he took advantage of continuing
education programs to obtain a bachelor’s degree in forestry from West
Virginia University and a master’s in geographical information systems
from Virginia Tech.
Sims worked in gypsy moth suppression, a landowner-county-state
cooperative that also draws cost-sharing dollars from the federal
government, although there reportedly is uncertainty about the future of
funding from Washington.
He spent 18 of his 21 years with the department as a regional supervisor
in Elkins.
“The way the program works, the landowner pays the county sheriff, the
county pays the state, and the property is treated,” he said.
“That’s what we did. The program the state offers is considered
nationally as a prime example.”
Sims said he had thought about privatizing for some time.
“In early March we got together and started talking about it. I have
one investor — Precision Oil and Gas of Fairmont. I took the idea to
them and we were ready to run with it from day one.”
Sims said he gave the state a month’s notice and departed on good
terms with the department’s support.
“They allowed me to raise my kids. What more of a compliment could I
give them?”
Sims said he decided to headquarter the new company in Flatwoods because
of the high-tech infrastructure and support in place at the center.
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Sims played football, wrestled and competed in track in high school. He
didn’t start playing golf until his mid-20s.
“I started playing with some friends of mine up here (at Cherry Hill
Country Club in Richwood),” he said. “I got really interested in it
and played a lot. I won the club championship here a couple of times, at
Elkins (Golf Club) a couple of times.
“I joined Tygart Lake (Golf Club near Grafton). I knew Brad Westfall
(the Tygart Lake pro and a five-time West Virginia Open champion). His
dad Ben was the assistant pro here (at Cherry Hill) in 1953.
“I won the club championship up there (at Tygart Lake) by 12 strokes
and Brad told me I needed to turn pro. I got my teaching certificate
from the U.S. Golf Teachers Federation and went into the PGA
apprenticeship program under Brad.”
Sims has been the pro at Cherry Hill since 2001. He’s also the pro
emeritus at Holly Meadows Golf Club in Parsons.
He gives lessons at Tygart Lake and Bel Meadow near Clarksburg, and
plays in the Mon Valley Pro-Am Series. All while working full-time away
from the golf course.
“People don’t realize that when you turn pro, 90 percent of what you
do doesn’t involve playing golf,” he said. “You help run the golf
course, the maintenance of the course, the greens, and you help run
tournaments. Playing takes a back seat.
“Golf USA of Morgantown is my club sponsor. They’ve been good to me,
good to the club.”
Sims has worked with a number of young players, including Marshall
University golfers Christian Brand, Josh Boswell and Dustin Cutlip, as
well as Josh Arbaugh, Brandon Tinney and Todd Bolyard.
“Especially the younger ones, I’ll send them a text message on the
day of a tournament,” he said. “Golf is 90 percent mental. I remind
them how good they are and to stay out of their own way. I’m big into
the mental side. They have so much natural talent. Your biggest critic
is always yourself. I let them know they can’t do that during a round
of golf. Focus on playing.”
He invites golfers to play Cherry Hill.
“I always tell people, if you’ve never played here, you need to come
up and play,” he said. “The course stays in really good condition.
The food is good. It’s a diamond in the rough.”
Can his two professions overlap? Yes, he says.
“We’re interested in golf course work. Fertilizing, liming, we can
do that in an hour. We can seed. We can do in an hour what it takes days
to do.”
He might even be able to straighten out that slice or hook.
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For more information, visit precisionforestryprotection.com or call
304-641-7373.
— E-mail: phanna@register-herald.com
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