Par Bee: From Harmful to Helpful. Guidelines for a Sustainable Golf Course Through the Promotion of Biodiversity.

Loading...
Thumbnail Image

Date

2024

Authors

Goldstein, Sarah

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

University of Oregon

Abstract

The ecological reality of a golf course is not quite as beautiful as its intriguing aesthetic. Similarities to note here include turfed green open space marked by the red hexagon pattern. Canopies of trees that appear to lack a progression of ecological communities, marked here by the yellow dots, and patches of bunch grasses - arguably rather uninteresting - can be spotted and marked by the vertical purple stripes. The scenery is often repetitive from course to course and appears to lack biodiversity. All of this is not to disparage golf courses, or a call to swear them off, but rather to open discussion about the opportunities available for enhancing an underutilized landscape to support wildlife. While golf courses are in fact highly engineered landscapes, their lack of built structures combined with acres of open space provides a place for more diverse habitat. By providing more land for pollinators to thrive in a space that does not currently provide much ecological value, the pairing has the potential to create a functional landscape for human and non-human species to cohabitate.

Description

126 pages

Keywords

pollinators, golf courses, landscape architecture, Laurelwood Golf Course

Citation