Ecological Values of Golf Courses

There’s a golf resort called Sand Valley in central Wisconsin that is also a nature reserve - the golf is there so that they can make money to restore the land, basically. There’s few small lawns, but the courses were carefully planned to have as little impact as possible on the beautiful and rare dry prairie habitat. The presence of species such as Kirtland’s Warbler and Slender Glass Lizard (both state Endangered species) on the property shows how effective the situation is.

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Thank you

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I am not particularly in favor of land use as golf courses, although more are using reclaimed water and greener maintenance practices these days.

In San Francisco Bay Area, golf courses would, otherwise, ~quickly~ be densely developed as housing and commercial sites. Indeed, many golf courses here have been turned into condos and malls over the years.

So, golf courses end up becoming refuge green spaces that harbor many animals, especially the courses that abut open space or have streams left (relatively) wild instead of being confined into cemented waterways. Lots of birds (flocks of turkeys!), deer, squirrels, fox, coyotes, etc. take advantage of the water and fodder.

Of course, real open space would be much better, but the pressure to build, build, build over every acre of land here makes any space with trees and greenery somewhat useful to wildlife.

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They are an excellent habitat for the Hadeda Ibis, Egyptian Goose, Blacksmith Lapwing, Helmeted Guineafowl, European Starling, and Cape Wagtail here.

Although I dislike the idea of large areas of land in arid regions being devoted to manicured lawns that require frequent watering (even if it’s treated wastewater), golf courses do provide habitat for many birds and mammals. I often visit a golf course water-storage pond near my workplace and it’s drawn in many uncommon birds. Unfortunately the maintenance crew recently cut down many small trees and shrubs that had grown near the pond, maybe as a water-saving measure. A reminder that the habitat is first and foremost for golfers, not wildlife or naturalists.

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I’d echo most of the answers here (that they’re generally not a net positive, but can serve as patchy parks and refuge some interesting biodiversity if managed well.) We recently touched on this in the churchyards thread:

https://forum.inaturalist.org/t/biodiversity-of-old-churchyards-in-england/36903/16?u=tristanmcknight

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this. Several nice golf courses along the Pacific coast in the USA have preserved bits of the original dune complexes for sandy rough and scenery, and I’ve had better luck finding (and getting permission to collect) some fly species there than in the narrow coastline parks.

(Edit: I’m not sure how to insert a blockquote with author linked in from another thread. Are people just doing that manually?)

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I just quote like normal and cut/paste the code into the new topic instead of a reply to that old topic.

image

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I have read or been told that as golf originated in Scotland, golf courses were meant to have similar features to the Scottish terrain. Greens resemble closely grazed pastures, roughs resemble “rough grazing” meadows, and so on.

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The only ecologically friendly (or maybe just neutral?) golf course I’ve ever seen was in Afghanistan just outside Kabul. There was no grass because there was no irrigation. It was just rock, sand, a few goats, and lots of arthropods. You could even hire a caddy to guide you past the sand traps and remnants of war.

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pesticides man…

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Nice,

I have seen an high altitude golf course in ladakh - the greens are called browns, and so on – not sure about grazing animals but it seemed a bit better than what we associate with golf, (water, pesticides, and so on)

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Yes,

and @tristanrush welcome to the forum.


Also your two worder makes me think of a new supervillain -

introducing the fearsome and deadly pesticide man

generated from here https://freeimagegenerator.com/

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There was a study done some years ago urban spatial dynamics of Lepidoptera and the effect of land subdivision and development on their ability to spread out and recruit successfully. What they found was that even in the presence of some properties that had flattened, manicured lawns with just 1 or 2 bushes on the sides, many species could recruit successfully and have ample means of travelling to and from lek sites and foraging grounds provided that the full blown “lawn” properties were randomly and consistently interspersed with properties where there was a clear trend of copying the landscaping of the surrounding environment with many indigenous or even exotic green patches and corridors

I imagine the same would be true for a land use such as a golf course, but one has to have an understanding that with drastic habitat change for facilities like golf courses, sports fields, and BIG gardens, it really is only a subset of organisms, mostly certain orders or families, that stand to be able to endure and maybe thrive in such conditions

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was it this study
Thomas, C. D., & Harrison, S. (1992). Spatial Dynamics of a Patchily Distributed Butterfly Species. Journal of Animal Ecology , 61 (2), 437–446. https://doi.org/10.2307/5334

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It could be, but I think the one I’m referring to was published in the early 2010’s, can’t remember if it was done in the US or UK but it would have been a continuation of this study with perhaps a greater emphasis on observation in declared and established urban and peri-urban areas

I recall this study done some years ago: Avian species assemblages on New Mexico golf courses: surrogate riparian habitat for birds?

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At least 2 golf courses have been built on or close to highly protected areas (SSSIs) and in one case with disastrous consequences, resulting in destruction of the unique habitats.

On the other hand many other links courses do keep decent patches of habitat, although there are probably always risks from pesticides and fertiliser spreading from greens & fairways. Parkland courses in S. England usually have replaced intensively farmed agricultural land, and are almost certainly an improvement ecologically. At least in the UK & Ireland there’s a good chance that most plants, including grasses, on a golf course will be native (or long introduced species). This isn’t true elsewhere.

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I will try and find that.

Thanks

I’m no player, but on the odd rare occasion, I have been dragged along to complete a foursome with friends who are regulars. I can confidently say that there never were any birdies involved (at least, not on my cards).

Bogies, on the other hand…

And we played on the closest and cheapest course in town which was run by our municipality and built right on top of a former landfill. (Some interesting aromas if you were downwind on the seventh, if I recall.)

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ha ha , this is good one


why are landfills such a common area for golf courses ?