• Saturday 13th March 2010

 

Australia a world leader in golf course biodiversity

Course Management - 09 Nov, 2009

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Environmentally sustainable management of a golf course can increase habitat variety, enhance biodiversity, and protect delicate and rare habitats such as dune and heathland. In Australia, a growing number of courses are demonstrating how thoughtful and sensitive management can improve the playing experience for golfers while simultaneously contributing positively to wildlife.

“The majority of Australia’s population lives round the coast and its golf courses reflect this with plenty of links-like and cliff-top courses,” explained Steve Isaac, The R&A's Director – Golf Course Management, during his recent trip to Australia. “But there are also heathland layouts, courses with trees and understorey scrub, others with quality water features and a number that bring all of these natural features onto one site. Many of these wildlife havens lie very close to urban sprawl, bringing the countryside into the city landscape.”

A dregon lizard at The Lakes Golf Club.The Lakes Golf Club is one such course. Located near Sydney airport and only a 15 minute drive from the city centre, it has an Environmental Management Plan that ensures positive management and monitoring. The course lies within the Botany Water Reserve, with the back nine bordering the Botany Aquifer. 
 
The Club takes great care to protect its environment and the wildlife that relies on clean water filling the lakes and wetlands on the course. Booms are employed at entry points to the water bodies on the course to trap rubbish and other debris and active soil protection measures prevent siltation of the wetlands. Native bush regeneration is a legal requirement for the Club, and it has to protect remnant native vegetation, some species of which are extremely rare.
 
Kangaroos at Lake Karrinyup.Lake Karrinyup, near Perth in Western Australia, is a parkland course laid out around a large natural lake which meanders through a forest of native trees and plants. Over 75 species of birds have been identified in the wetlands surrounding the lake and the site is a haven for native birds and kangaroos.
 
Next on the itinerary was the Links Kennedy Bay. Kennedy Bay follows in the classic tradition of Scottish links and it sits in a natural dune landscape, its holes lined with native bush vegetation. Care is taken to manage the indigenous kangaroo population to a number that can be sustained by the site.   During his time at Kennedy Bay, Isaac witnessed a relocation exercise to move 75 females safely to a reserve.
 
The Commonwealth Golf Club on Melbourne’s Sandbelt has amongst the finest stands of trees on any golf course in Australia, and they support a vast array of birdlife. A galah at Lake Karrinyup.From land that was home only to scrub vegetation, the course has evolved through decades of planting, aftercare and an extensive tree management programme, which still remains in place today. Such has been the success of the planting programme that some of the trees on the course have been listed on a register of significant trees by the City of Kingston Council.
 
The array of plants, birds and animals to be seen on Australian courses demonstrates the effective impact that sustainable golf can have on biodiversity, both in enabling wildlife to move across the suburbs and in supporting viable populations. The Australian Golf Course Superintendents Association has long recognised golf’s potential in this area. Its Australian Golf Environmental Initiative encourages its members to care for their environment and to become compliant with environmental management systems in order to demonstrate that golf can be a positive contributor to the environment.
 

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