Can The Green Be Greened?
The "Wetlands Golf Course" in Aberdeen, Maryland, is always good for a chuckle when I pass it just off the I-95, on my frequent route between New York and DC. How much more ironic can you get? Golf courses destroy natural wetlands, or sometimes create new ones that are poor imitations of the real thing.
So I immediately was drawn to an article in The New York Times yesterday about the nation's only "organic" golf course, the exclusive Vineyard Golf Club, where President Obama will play a few holes during his Martha's Vineyard vacation this month. Though it was pretty much mocked with skepticism when it opened eight years ago, the course has since operated successfully without using a single synthetic pesticide, fertilizer, herbicide or other artificial chemical treatment, according to the article. All that, and aside from the occasional weed, its rich members and neighbors (especially the tree-hugging type) are cool with it too. These days, golf clubs around the country are looking to it as a model.
Now, golf courses tend to be anathema to environmentalists, given that the vast majority go hand-in-club with the kind of sprawled condo development that flies in the face of most sustainability goals, not to mention their water and pesticide needs. So the proposition of any eco-friendly course is a bit of a jab in the craw.
That said, if you have to build a golf course instead of a natural area, park or more inclusive open space, there are certainly ways to do it right and do it wrong, as this course proves. For example, Audubon International and the U.S. Golf Association have a long-running partnership to green the green (you can check out their list of eco-friendly golf courses around the country here.) So even conservationists acknowledge that a golf course done right can indeed be a better option for wildlife habitat and water quality than a paved parking lot (though golf courses have those too.)
These are important issues. Golf is the world's leading sport, in terms of economic expenditure, but not so much has been done to chart its overall environmental impact. And, I hate to generalize, but people who belong to golf course likely have pretty large lawns of their own, so hopefully a visit to their local eco-friendly club might inspire some better practices at home. After all, a less-manicured lawn look could be catching on, as this one local columnist -- who fears she is losing her husband to his obsession with lawn care -- dearly hopes.
Photo credit: Oddsock, Flickr
Jess Leber
is a Change.org editor. She most recently covered climate and energy issues as a reporter in Washington, D.C
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