Published: September 19, 2009 07:53 pm      

Golf pro forms one-stop forest protection company

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