“With about 900 acres of floating wetlands, we could undo all of the legacy damage [in Lake Okeechobee] and have enough systems in place to deal with the ongoing flow of nutrient runoff.”

- Steve Beeman

As a follow-up to my previous article on seven water solutions for golf, I recently had the chance to speak with Forest and Steve Beeman of Beeman’s Nursery, Inc. and Beemats, LLC. 

“Beemats” – also referred to as “floating wetlands” – are a bio-mimicking technology that cleans polluted bodies of water. In some cases, they can even take the excess nutrients that seep into ponds and lakes from a golf course or other surrounding land, and turn them into harvestable crops or biomass. In a form of sustainable alchemy, these floating hydroponic beds can turn nutrient runoff into grasses, flowers, or other crops and biomass (when they might have caused algae blooms or other nuisance plants instead)!

Beemats, LLC works primarily with municipalities and local governments that are tasked with meeting water quality mandates. Relatively few of their projects have been with golf courses, but I had the chance to meet the Beeman’s at the Golf Industry Show in January 2020. We spoke then about how Beemats could use excess nutrients for crop production (such as lettuces, or even hemp).

Excerpts from our catchup conversation (below) include:

• How this idea came to fruition

• Main benefits of the technology

• What it takes to implement Beemats (including cost)

• What future possibilities Beemats might open up for golf courses

If you could, tell the story of how this idea materialized. What sparked the concept of Beemats and then how did you get them from theory to practice?

We were planting vegetation in littoral zones [shoreline of ponds and lakes] and realized a need for flexibility with fluctuating water levels. If the water level lowered, then the littoral plantings would die and no longer be useful, so that sparked the idea for a floating hydroponic bed that could gather excess nutrients regardless of water level [the floating hydroponic bed would adjust automatically].

How did it get into practice? In short summary, a long process of trial and error. We tried everything that could float. We tried hundreds of plant species and probably a dozen or so flotation methods. We soon realized from one of our mentors that the pod had to be harvestable. If we couldn’t remove the plant matter at senescence or maturity, then it would just die and the absorbed nutrients would be returned back into the pond. 

So that’s how the idea for a floating, harvestable hydroponic bed came to be.

Could you elaborate on how you select the right plant type for a given project? Is it a matter of environmental variables, or do clients’ needs and goals dictate what kind of planting is the best fit?

It’s mainly the type of water that we look at rather than nutrient loading. If you focus on nutrient levels, those can fluctuate on an almost daily basis, so that wouldn’t be the most important long-term factor. One example could be the salinity levels of coastal waterways. Water with higher salinity calls for halophytes or plants that thrive in salty conditions.

The value proposition seems pretty clear – reducing nutrient runoff, eutrophication*, and other environmental damages through the use of natural systems, but to risk sounding critical, could that be viewed as somewhat reactive? Is there a way for your products to be integrated more proactively into regenerative systems that create “more good” for the planet as opposed to “less bad” or merely reducing harms?

The application of Beemats is really only limited to the imagination of our clients. As it happens to be, our current business model fits into treating issues that have already happened. Our products work best in water systems with excess nutrients. The plants need those nutrients to grow. That doesn’t mean we can’t integrate into more robust systems, but in the short term, we have a lot of catching up to do in terms of remediating harms already done.

Funding is always a factor of course. People also want passive systems, not active systems – they want to have as little maintenance as possible. We’d love to see people wanting Beemats for the right reasons, but of course we live in a for-profit world and golf courses are no exception. A cultural change and education is still needed to communicate the total value this technology adds.

*Eutrophication is an imbalance of an aquatic ecosystem caused by excess nutrients. Symptoms include excessive plant growth such as algae, and can lead to chain reactions that cause other species to die off.

I’m still curious about the many possibilities for not just reducing harms here, but even gaining some productivity from out-of-play areas on a golf course. Could you talk more about the agricultural implications of Beemats?

There are some regulatory challenges with producing food allowed for human consumption. There can’t be any presence of coliform bacteria. Feeding biomass or crops to animals could be a one-step removed solution to returning nutrients to the food system. However, what we typically do is compost our biomass off-site and then return nutrients to the soil as an amendment.

And to be clear, are you actively maintaining these systems in most cases, or relatively few?

We have a maintenance contract with almost all of our clients, typically annual. We show up 2-3 times per year or so to harvest and replant. Maintenance cost depends on what value customers see. They might want to pay for additional maintenance if they see the agricultural value, for example. We worked with lake management companies early on, but they weren’t so excited about Beemats and didn’t see the same value.

To summarize a bit of what I’ve already asked, what are the main problems that this technology aims to solve? What are the main advantages of Beemats? What value might they add, and what other possibilities might they open up?

Beemats can open up square footage to possible agricultural uses, which then opens the area up to other people and partners. Keep in mind though, oftentimes a project is about developing habitat in the environment more so than the harvesting.

In essence, nutrient uptake, competing with nuisance plants, and preventing runoff are the main objectives or advantages.

One of our biggest goals is to get into Lake Okeechobee since it’s polluted with several metric tons of excess nutrients every year that make their way into streams, canals, and estuaries, which no one seems to have a solution for so far. With about 900 acres of floating wetlands, we could undo all of the legacy damage and have enough systems in place to deal with the ongoing flow of nutrient runoff.

This has all been great info! Our audience includes a variety of people working in the golf industry, some of whom might ask the typical questions like “is this really feasible?” or “what does this cost”? Could you share some detail on what it takes to bring these into a golf course? What’s a rough cost estimate or range?

As a rule of thumb, with 5% coverage of a pond or lake you can deal with most nuisance plants. Typical cost is $10 per square foot, and a typical pond comprises about 2,000 square feet total.

We build islands anywhere from 100-3,000 square feet. We can also start small and scale from there, or even do some early trial and error with plant selection.

Maintenance cost depends on what value customers see – they might want to pay for maintenance if they see the agricultural value.

And what stakeholders are usually involved?

Usually, it’s the superintendent, since they have the scientific background and their goals are more aligned with ours. Typically, a general manager is most concerned about reducing costs, so the goals of conserving cost and conserving the environment have to be balanced, but it’s often the superintendent that sees the environmental value.

My last question is about this concept of “eco-art” I read about on your website… what potential do beemats hold for enhancing the character of a golf course? For example, could you make Beemats into a course’s logo to act as a tool for visibility as well as sustainability?

We’ve made logos for two universities actually – Clemson (the tiger paw) and then Stetson University. I think what you’re referring to is the work we’ve done with Stacy Levy [spiral beemats art in Fayetteville, Arkansas]. We can make these into basically any shape.

Some clients, especially at golf courses, want to see ornamentals and flowers to maintain a certain look, but that approach doesn’t always work. We’re finding that some flowers may actually work well functionally, but keep in mind that Beemats aren’t for fluff. They’re for cleaning the water!