Wildlife on golf courses is one of those things that sparks very different reactions among golfers, and sometimes even golf club managers, excluding, of course, the enlightened readers of The Golf Club Secretary!
By the end of this year Cold Ashby Golf Centre will have planted about 650 new native trees. Our aim was to increase biodiversity, create wildlife habitats, strengthen the playing strategy required for some holes and reinforce its attractive landscape.
UPDATED JANUARY 2023: There’s a new Head Greenkeeper at Glen Gorse Golf Club: James Burberry, a passionate wildlife enthusiast, is working with the help of key members like Alan Herbert, on initiatives to benefit nature. The first, and the more unusual, is a project to restore and expand habitats for a local newt population.
The Woodland Trust is based here in Grantham and they have 2 schemes called MOREwoods and MOREhedges. You can apply to them for advice, funding and supply of saplings. At SGC we did this and received over 2,500 saplings, together with guards and stakes.
At Market Harborough Golf Club we recognised the need to raise members’ awareness of our activities, especially when so much of what we are trying to do is, by definition, low profile or has a lengthy lead-in or incubation time. One way of doing this, and at the same time raising some funding, was to organise a new club competition.
12 months ago the main season equipment at The Leicestershire was on its last legs to say the least. With one fairway mower sent to the graveyard and the remaining over 20 years old… things had to change.
MAPPING AND IDENTIFYING TREES FOR REMOVAL
Long before the “green agenda” became a popular cause Longcliffe Golf Club was thinking “environmentally”. However, this was not entirely altruistic because “going green” can sometimes make financial sense as well as being good for the environment.
The world is changing around us and we are expected to become more sustainable and greener. But what does that mean for golf courses? Are they not all ready green?
As part of a larger project for Sleaford Golf Club, we obtained planning permission on an old barn on the course that served no purpose. This will give the club much needed funds to take it forward. However, the barn itself had resident barn owls and as part of the planning conditions we had to make provision for a replacement home.