Resource Management

Rainmakers is a recognized member of Audubon International's Signature Program. As a member of the Program, Rainmakers is charged with ensuring that every aspect of its community, including building sites, the golf course and water management systems are held to the highest standards of environmental and ecological responsibility. It also means that our residents enjoy the full beauty of the Southern Rockies and its natural wildlife.

• Audubon International Signature Golf Course. Nature lovers and golfers of all levels will enjoy our Championship Robert Trent Jones II course, the first Audubon International Signature Golf Course in New Mexico. Audubon International created the Audubon Signature Programs in 1992 to help encourage, educate, and assist developers, landowners, and managers to follow sustainable resource management principles in a comprehensive manner when developing and then managing properties.

  Audubon International is a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3), environmental education organization dedicated to educating, assisting, and inspiring millions of people from all walks of life to protect and sustain the land, water, wildlife, and natural resources around them.

• Wildlife Habitat. Rainmakers has set aside 135 acres as a wildlife habitat and conservation area. Golfers and residents enjoy the opportunity to view sedentary and migratory fowl, plus elk, deer and other native species.

Protection and conservation of natural resources at a residential golf community in New Mexico is quite challenging. Ruidoso is semi-arid and receives less than 2 inches of rain per month throughout most of the year.

To address this challenge, Rainmakers employs many water management techniques:

• Smart Sprinkler Heads. Unlike traditional sprinkler systems, which turn themselves on at a specified time and deliver a pre-specified amount of water, each of the sprinkler heads on the golf course is digitally tied to an on-site weather station that monitors rainfall, humidity, etc. and reduces or suspends sprinkler activity based on locally-falling precipitation.

  The arc and angle of each head is also independently controlled, placing the right amount of water exactly where it needs to go.

• Pioneering Polymers. Rainmakers is perhaps the only golf courses in the U.S. to have implemented an exciting new technology using polymers to keep the course green while reducing water usage by as much as 30 percent or more.

  The polymers, which lay 3 inches below the soil, swell with moisture, reducing the soil temperature at the roots of the grass by ten to twelve degrees. By keeping the soil cool, the plants consume less water, and stay green — even in the heat of summer. The polymers are 100 percent environmentally, human and animal safe.

In addition to our water management activities, our residential areas conserve water using a variety of techniques:

• Rootwater irrigation. All plants will use a highly-efficient, slow-drip rootwater watering system. By delivering water directly to the roots there is essentially no evaporative loss, and the plants themselves stay healthier and greener.

• Water harvesting. Rainmakers requires that all homes include a rain catchment system. At The Pueblos Townhomes, the rainwater harvesting program is designed to supplement at least 75% of the water used for irrigation. The catchment system is a Best Management Practice (BMP) product and contributes to LEEDS, a program established by the United States Green Building Council.

Our landscape architecture includes a wide variety of indigenous vegetation that complements the natural environment. By our use of native plants, flowers and grasses, we provide the Community at Rainmakers with a golf course playing surface and other areas that support the Southwestern ecosystem.

Additionally, the golf course at Rainmakers has been painstakingly designed to address topographical and environmental issues. In order to provide a true championship golf experience, agronomic experts have carefully selected turf grasses that further enhance the creative design of our Robert Trent Jones II championship course.

From New Mexico State-approved blends of fescue and native grasses around the border of each hole to the blue/rye grass mixture on the tees, fairways, roughs and fringes of the golf course, the turf selections provide the consistent manicured playing surface you expect with extremely water-conscious values.

This championship course would not be complete without the pure putting surfaces provided by PennCross bent grass. Our plant and tree materials consist of pinion, juniper and ponderosa pines, along with varieties of softwoods that thrive in the lower areas of the property.

Rainmakers takes its commitment to the environment seriously. To ensure that water resources are continuously monitored, we maintain a sophisticated weather station on our golf course. At any given minute, we are able to measure:

• Recent precipitation
• Air temperature
• Wind velocity
• Relative humidity
• Solar radiation levels
• Evap-transportation rate

These measurements are digitally processed, and are used to ensure that our plants and grasses are watered based on need, rather than guesswork.

In keeping with our commitment to preserving the environment, Rainmakers is currently reviewing several wastewater management systems and will select the one that is the most eco-friendly.

In addition to the pioneering efforts employed in the construction of our golf course, Rainmakers strongly encourages that all new construction meet high energy-efficient standards.

Rainmakers belongs to the United States Green Building Council striving to bring our residential product in line with LEEDS certification.