Naturalistic Golf Courses: Stepping Stones for Nature

Max Terman

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Published: March 13, 2000

I agree with Daily (1999) that preserving patches of habitat wherever possible is important to saving our present capital of biodiversity. I have been encouraging golf courses to be more naturalistic in their design and management (Terman 2000) and have found a receptive and enthusiastic audience. Last week I spoke to over 1000 golf course superintendents in a New Orleans meeting of the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America (GCSAA) that had more than 20,000 attendees. Even though I was fairly critical of golf course development in undisturbed areas, I got a positive response to the idea of saving and restoring remnant habitats in sites that have already been developed or disturbed . I would recommend that we ecologists look for similar opportunities to inform the public about habitat preservation.

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Daily, G. C. 1999. Developing a scientific basis for managing Earth's life support systems. Conservation Ecology 3(2): 14. [online] URL: http://www.consecol.org/Journal/vol3/iss2/art14

Terman, M. R. 2000. Prairie Dunes Country Club: a golf course for birdies. McGraw-Hill. [online] URL: http://www.mhhe.com/biosci/pae/environmentalscience/casestudies/case3.mhtml