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.