FEATURES
Is Wildlife Welcome on Your Course?

by Marcia Passos Duffy

Out-of-play areas as wildlife habitat

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRICK COMPANIES. PHOTOS AT LEFT COURTESY OF STOCK.XCHNG, WWW.SXC.HU. Protected wildlife habitat areas are found throughout the course at Queenstown Harbor on Maryland’s eastern shore.

Mark Twain may have called golf a “good walk spoiled,” but for players walking the course at The Golf Club at Newcastle (www.newcastlegolf.com) in Washington state, players enjoy an unspoiled nature walk, despite their game.

One hundred acres of uncut native grasses, 7.25 acres of freshwater wetlands and a rich diversity of plant life, including low-lying blackberry shrubs and mature deciduous and conifer forests, surround the perimeter of the two 18-hole courses. The Golf Club at Newcastle’s out-of-play areas are also home to 60 species of birds, black-tailed deer, raccoons, red foxes, coyotes, rabbits, garter snakes, frogs, black bears and even the occasional cougar.

“We have many areas built to attract and provide habitat for wildlife,” says Scott Phelps, CGCS, superintendent at The Golf Club at Newcastle.

Across the country on Maryland’s eastern shore, golfers also enjoy an intense connection with nature at Queenstown Harbor, (www.qhgolf.com). Certified last year as an Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary for Golf Courses, Queenstown Harbor features 36 holes on two unique layouts where golfers can spot blue heron, wildlife rustling through the woods and bald eagles. “We like to say it’s part golf course, part nature walk,” says John R. Anderes III, CGCS, director of golf and grounds for Queenstown Harbor.

Creating a wildlife habitat in out-of-play areas of a golf course not only makes for a good experience for golfers, it also makes good ecological and economical sense.

More golf courses are catching on to the benefits of mixing golf with wildlife areas, according to a report by The Ohio State University’s School of Environment & Natural Resources.

According to two recent studies at the University of Illinois, naturalized landscape with native grasses not only benefits biodiversity, but has the potential to save the golf course money on pesticides and landscaping labor costs (with less water consumption, mowing and other labor needed to maintain the naturalized area).

Benefits to creating a wildlife area

Out-of-play wildlife areas also benefit golf course superintendents, says J. Russell Bodie, chief technical officer at Audubon Environmental, Inc. (www.audubonenv.com), based in Pawley’s Island, S.C., which, among its many consulting capacities, also helps golf courses go green.

By converting out-of-play portions to native or low-maintenance plants, superintendents can focus their maintenance efforts and dollars where they will be most effective for golf, says Bodie.

Plus, there are savings to be had. “We have worked with nearly 200 golf projects around the world, and the superintendents we’ve worked with report that maintenance costs for native out-of-play areas are 15 percent the cost per acre of turfgrass playing surfaces,” says Bodie.

Once the area is establistitle (after two or three years), the out-of-play area will require little to no maintenance. The first year does require some tending to get the plants establistitle, and might include irrigation, an integrated pest management plan based on local conditions and control of any invasive plants that may compete with the native plants.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE BRICK COMPANIES. Markers alert golfers to environmental areas at Queenstown Harbor, a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary.

Some easy, low-cost ways to begin establishing an out-of-play wildlife habitat would be to leave brush piles, add birdhouses,
increase the height of cut on grasses, create wildlife travel corridors and leave tree snags.

For Queenstown Harbor golf course, most of the wildlife areas were created by locating and establishing corridors, and then letting them go native, which significantly reduced all maintenance practices, says Anderes.

“You can go more aggressive and expensive and hire a consulting company that specializes in ecology or wetland management,” says Phelps. The consultants can custom design areas that incorporate plant and animal species, erosion control practices, testing procedures and construction methods.

Map out the wildlife area

A typical 200-acre golf course can have 100 acres or more of out-of-play areas suitable for native plants and wildlife.

“It is common to have more land and water acreage available on a golf course for wildlife habitat than for golf,” says Bodie.

According to a report by The Ohio State University, about 70 percent of a golf course area is considered rough or out of play, and has the potential for creating significant wildlife benefits.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE GOLF CLUB AT NEWCASTLE UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. The Golf Club at Newcastle is surrounded by mature deciduous and conifer forests.

Once you outline the out-of-play areas on the course that are suitable for wildlife, the next step is to look at transitional areas just outside of play. These areas may need relatively short grasses, rather than tall native grass or wildflowers, but areas where balls rarely land can be planted with grasses, short shrubs and maybe a few trees.

Bodie notes that many out-of-play areas may be sloped and sodded for stabilization. It may be possible to overseed these areas with a native grass or wildflower mix, but in most cases, it is best to remove turfgrass from small areas and re-establish with a native seed mix or direct planting. Depending on local climate, some courses may get good results from hydroseeding, but the all-around best method for establishing native plants on slopes is by first applying a layer of compost, either pneumatically or by hand.

Shallow edges of ponds should be planted with vegetative layers, which have a secondary benefit of preventing Canada geese from hanging out on the course, since they prefer short grass that goes right up to the water.

“Our experience, backed up by recent research, has shown that mature compost has excellent physical, biological and nutrient qualities for both stabilizing slopes and growing native plants, including grasses and wildflowers,” says Bodie. These wildlife habitats also perform the task of acting as buffers and stormwater filters when the golf course abuts sensitive water bodies, such as wetlands, streams and ponds.

An out-of-play area next to an existing patch of forest is best suited for native grasses, wildflowers, herbs, shrubs or trees. The shallow edge of ponds should also be planted with vegetative layers, which have the secondary benefit of inhibiting Canada geese from landing on the water, since geese prefer short grass that goes right up to the water’s edge.

“The goal is to establish diverse native plants that will attract diverse native wildlife,” says Bodie.

There are four basic elements that are needed to establish a permanent wildlife habitat on a golf course: space, food, water and cover. In order to attract wildlife to a golf course habitat, the wildlife will need space to live and breed, adequate food, clean water and places to hide.

The downside

If it is not planned correctly, a wildlife area may encroach on in-play areas, which can be cured by scaling back the naturalized area.

“There aren’t a whole lot of drawbacks, and most can be remedied if planned properly,” said Phelps, who added that some issues might include a perception of unkempt areas, which could be solved by adding more wildflowers to the area to make it look more acceptable.

The Golf Club at Newcastle’s out-of-play areas are home to a variety of wildlife and native plant species.

“Think of the issues from a golfer, general manager, homeowner and maintenance perspective,” says Phelps. “Try to answer the concerns before you build.”

The occasional footprint left on the green by deer or other wildlife is sometimes an issue for Queenstown Harbor’s Anderes. “Although this is a problem I’m willing to take,” he says.

The deer footprints are tolerable because the wildlife habitat is only the beginning for the environmental practices that have evolved at Queenstown. Today, the golf course captures 80 percent of rainwater for irrigation; it also maintains wide buffers of no-mow zones around ponds and streams, restricts golfers from entering sensitive areas, uses fertilizer manufactured from chicken manure and participates in